Enterprise fleet refurbishment

[Jamie2k9]

Unfortunately Irish Rail missed the opportunity to create a really useful facility at Clongriffin which would have gone some considerable way towards allieviating the operational disaster that is Malahide.

It appears there are now plans to rip out some of the connections immediately north of Howth Junction and thus further reduce operational flexibilities. Admittedly had a proper layout been installed at Clongriffin in the first instance, the connections north of Howth Junction could have been removed without any loss of operational flexibility.

TBH if it continues then perhaps it's time for the NTA to look at the problem and force adequate operational flexibility on major sections of track into PSO contracts or have a fine for every period services are suspended for train/signal issues.

Are with in a situation the sections been removed are life expired and IE are not spending the money renewing them or is it just operating a simply system where when things go right it's fine but when they don't everything stops.

[Mickey H]

The 0735 ex Dublin has been 40/50 late yesterday and today due to "rail conditions" Also the 0645 ex Belfast has failed somewhere as there is a ?29 on the 0930 ex Dublin

[Mickey H]

The 0735 ex Dublin has been at least 30 minutes late every day this week. Today's train is 40 min late as I write this

[Colm Moore]

Unfortunately, it's leaf season.

[Jamie2k9]

Unfortunately, it's leaf season.

Have the DD a poor braking system in comparison to other fleet even in the worst leaf fall conditions more than 15 minutes would never really bee seen on the network and given a much higher % of N Line receives regular Sandite treatment with more less daily to Howth J and once weekly to Malahide combined with most likely daily runs at Belfast end.

In comparison no runs have taken place on Heuston side....

Something more to this delay one would expect and have inbound been impacted to the same level? There has been little if any major commuter delays caused on the same line so far!

[James Howard]

Isn't leap-slip going to naturally be a lot worse on a loco hauled service than with units? Far fewer driven axles. I can remember the locos having terrible problems years ago leaving Mullingar going down where the 22Ks have no bother whatsoever now. We often used to have to reverse towards Dublin to take a run at it and this could regularly add 20 or 30 minutes to the journey when there would be no problem at all going up.

[Jamie2k9]

Isn't leap-slip going to naturally be a lot worse on a loco hauled service than with units? Far fewer driven axles. I can remember the locos having terrible problems years ago leaving Mullingar going down where the 22Ks have no bother whatsoever now. We often used to have to reverse towards Dublin to take a run at it and this could regularly add 20 or 30 minutes to the journey when there would be no problem at all going up.

Probably do but I don't believe it the total reason behind the delay. Like I said we see no such problems to other DD services or at least the same levels of delays. Could argue it for Mark IV but delays are no where near the 07.35.

[Mickey H]

On Saturday night the 2050 ex Dublin was TWO HOURS late into Belfast, engine trouble after Dundalk

Yesterday 1605 ex Belfast and return was a C3K and this morning there is a 22K on the 0735 ex Dublin

[Jamie2k9]

On the new DD today and whoever designed made your typical mess that you come to expect from NIR.

Chairs are nice however for a man who is only average height my knee's hitting off the table combined with the bar in the middle (why not the end?) and square heating system on the ground. You are squashed in and I have never been on a train where you have to drag yourself across two seats to stand up unless you want sore legs getting stuck between the seat and table. It's the most cramped train so well done for achieving that. Chairs up to high which has the tables to low and to big for the space they are packing you into. The bus and even a Ryanair flight have far superior leg room and for a lot less.

Toilets, buttons work when they like, no lighting to indicate open/close, I mean it's basic design flaws.

Very strong lighting.

On the plus side WIFI was miles ahead of IE and NIR actually use heating on their trains, of the 4 trains today all had good heat. I would barley recall 4 times in the last year when it was cold and IE activated the heating.

The ICR's put them to shame, a small improvement to seating and they would be even better.

[Thomas J Stamp]

AFAIK the seats are the same old seats just new covering and padding on them.

they were once very dark/90's contemportary inside, they must have gone the other way now.

i enjoyed the DD's more than any other train in the fleet back in the day. I find there is a seat lottery on ICR's now, the board bewteen the frame and your backside can move out of position and within 10 mins you can be uncomfortably numb (if you draw the unlucky seat).

[Jamie2k9]

AFAIK the seats are the same old seats just new covering and padding on them.

they were once very dark/90's contemportary inside, they must have gone the other way now.

i enjoyed the DD's more than any other train in the fleet back in the day. I find there is a seat lottery on ICR's now, the board bewteen the frame and your backside can move out of position and within 10 mins you can be uncomfortably numb (if you draw the unlucky seat).

I don't use it often but I make off the new seat material has raised them up significantly since the refub. Lighting is a little bright particularly when it's dark outside.

Overall the ride quality was good however hard to judge considering they only go a max of 80mph.

Best thing is the seat reservation system displaying if seats are free or not. I know the Mark IV also have it but it's switched off. Meanwhile the ICR system has only marginally improved as we enter the 10th year of ICR operations!

[Inniskeen]

Maximum line speed is 90 mph, mind you current schedules could be achieved without much exceeding 60 mph !

It is common for some Enterprise services to linger in Drogheda or Dundalk for up to 13 minutes waiting for time. Other services almost never run on time, notably the 0735 and 1850 from Dublin and the 0645, 1035, 1235 and 2005 from Belfast. This is due primarily to the fantasy Irish Rail timetable introduced last April.