Printed Timetables

[ACustomer]

Not everyone can use the journey planner at any time and a printed timetable is obviously useful thing. But only if it is up to date and accurate.

Irish Rail appear to have ceased publishing small leaflets for individual routes, or so I was informed at Heuston to-day. Instead I was offered quite a large booklet for all "Heuston side" routes which was free of charge. (I could have had a free Connolly one as well).

For an organisation which is supposed to be counting the pennies, this is all very strange. Furthermore, my free booklet was not up to date: recent changes to early Cork departures including the new express service were not given. Also the new Friday/Saturday1600 Waterford-Heuston was absent.

I think Irish Rail have a thing or two to learn about simple and effective marketing.

[Traincustomer]

Thanks for posting about the Heuston side timetable book as I wasn’t aware of it and would find it useful.

I picked up the Connolly side timetable a few months ago. For a moment I thought it was an internal timetable as after IÉ stopped selling the complete timetable books they continued to produce a timetable book for staff reference (from their placing and the fact there were several of them it was obvious they were for customers).

Some years ago the norm when alterations were made was for a card or photocopied sheet to be inserted into the timetable or a sticker to be applied to the cover.

We will publish the complete InterCity, DART and Commuter timetable in a booklet annually. There will be a nominal fee for the booklet to cover our production costs. We will also publish, and provide free of charge, individual route and DART station-specific timetable sheets and leaflets

Source: Passenger’s Charter at:
http://www.irishrail.ie/travel-information/irish-domestic-rail-travel (http://www.irishrail.ie/travel-information/irish-domestic-rail-travel)
(accessed today)

The 2009 timetable book retailed at €3 and in my view a nominal charge is fair enough.

Web information and Apps are all well and good assuming one has a device to hand and the further assumption that there is wifi or an internet signal to access it. It’s just as fast to leaf through a book. Granted all trains and many stations have wifi but away from these there are many internet black/poor coverage spots in the country.

In conclusion it’s pleasing that a timetable book is once again available and would compliment those involved though an insert with alterations is a must and a nominal charge would offset printing costs.

[ACustomer]

Traincustomer: I don't quite know whether the offer of a free timetable was part of official policy. And the timetable I was given was out of date in 2 respects (see my earlier post).

And as your quote makes clear they are not fulfilling their own passenger charter as the promised free individual route tables are not available.

The good thing about the leaflets is that many minor timetable changes can be updated without having to reprint a whole booklet.

[Jamie2k9]

Traincustomer: I don't quite know whether the offer of a free timetable was part of official policy. And the timetable I was given was out of date in 2 respects (see my earlier post).

They updated the PDF's a while back so I expect they are not going to dump already printed versions because of one or two minor changes. I expect no more will be printed until the new timetable which IE website currently indicates 17 January for that to commence or around that date.

Thanks for posting about the Heuston side timetable book as I wasn’t aware of it and would find it useful.

I picked up the Connolly side timetable a few months ago. For a moment I thought it was an internal timetable as after IÉ stopped selling the complete timetable books they continued to produce a timetable book for staff reference (from their placing and the fact there were several of them it was obvious they were for customers).

Some years ago the norm when alterations were made was for a card or photocopied sheet to be inserted into the timetable or a sticker to be applied to the cover.

Quote:
We will publish the complete InterCity, DART and Commuter timetable in a booklet annually. There will be a nominal fee for the booklet to cover our production costs. We will also publish, and provide free of charge, individual route and DART station-specific timetable sheets and leaflets
Source: Passenger’s Charter at:
http://www.irishrail.ie/travel-information/irish-domestic-rail-travel
(accessed today)

The 2009 timetable book retailed at €3 and in my view a nominal charge is fair enough.

Web information and Apps are all well and good assuming one has a device to hand and the further assumption that there is wifi or an internet signal to access it. It’s just as fast to leaf through a book. Granted all trains and many stations have wifi but away from these there are many internet black/poor coverage spots in the country.

In conclusion it’s pleasing that a timetable book is once again available and would compliment those involved though an insert with alterations is a must and a nominal charge would offset printing costs.

I see very little need for such timetables anymore as IE have moved to online booking which more less defeats the purpose for a timetable.

Besides a few OAP's everybody has access to online website/app/station staff/call center voice timetable etc and I'm sure most have a family member who has access also that could print out a pdf version.

They could do with doing a general update to their passenger charter all the same.

[ACustomer]

Jamie2k9: I strongly disagree with your last post. The timetable leaflets were unbeatable in terms on convenience: if you were going to Killarney for a few days you could put a Kerry Road timetable in your pocket and have instant access to relevant information no matter where you were in the wilds of Kerry.

I don't know what percentage of the population have smartphones, but its well short of 100. You say that "Besides a few OAP's everybody has access to online website/app/station staff/call center voice timetable etc.". Not true of everybody and not true at all times and in all places.

And I really object to the OAP reference, as if they were some sort of irrelevant bunch of computer-illiterate old fogeys.

[Thomas J Stamp]

the big connolly timetable was left on the luas bench at heuston the other day, so they're still being published.