Phoenix park now open

[ThomasJ]

It looks well very impressed. Great looking station. Also got a travel mug with the phoenix park logo on it my second after docklands and a cup of tea

[Mark Hennessy]

Did the 06:58 ex Maynooth stop there, I really got the feeling we didn't though I wasn't paying too much attention.

Certainly if we did the doors didn't open.

[ThomasJ]

It probably did but the doors wouldn't have been opened because noone has used the station upto 7.40am for the 6.58am . I got the priviledge of being the first passenger at the station at 7.40am. Me and another passenger (somehow managed to) board the 7.44am Phoenix Park it was a struggle the extra carriages are needed.

[eugene]

Could anyone post a few photos, i'll two stops down from this station but would like to see what they build.

[Thomas J Stamp]

Could anyone post a few photos, i'll two stops down from this station but would like to see what they build.

Photo's should be in the members section, because thats infrastruture.

[Derek Wheeler]

Could anyone post a few photos, i'll two stops down from this station but would like to see what they build.

Get a 39 bus or a train up if you really feel that kind of urge. Its just a station.

Personally, if I see a photo of it here, I'll post real ****.:D

[Mark Hennessy]

Could anyone post a few photos, i'll two stops down from this station but would like to see what they build.

Yeah dude, two platforms, not enough services and massively overcrowded trains.

Just imagine anywhere on the commuter network.

[Thomas the Tank]

News Talk did a piece this morning on the new Phoenix Park station particularly focusing on whether there's any point opening up a new station when you can barely squeeze on to the existing trains as it is. The reporter was going to get on one of the peak time trains and report on the horrors that awaited him :D
I only heard it up until I left the house at about 8am. Anyone hear it after that?

Incidentally the 8.17 Coolmine-Bray train has almost always left Drumcondra station and then a minute later is stopped up on the tracks for a few mins waiting for a platform to clear. Yesterday morning this did not happen and I thought that it was due to the extra couple of minutes added to the journey now that we're stopping at the Phoenix Park. This morning however it stopped up twice for a total of five mins with no explanation to customers as always.

[eugene]

Fair enough, dumb question from me. :rolleyes:

[Mark Hennessy]

Fair enough, dumb question from me. :rolleyes:

Sorry Eugene, didn't mean to sound patronising but there isn't much to the place.

The platfroms are way deeper than any other station but other than that it is unremarkable from the other stations on the line.

Its like a bigger Louisa bridge station I guess.

[ThomasJ]

Its like a bigger Louisa bridge station I guess

Is Leixlip Louisa Bridge suffering from subsisdance problems or is it the other Leixlip station [sorry for going O/T]

[Mark Hennessy]

Is Leixlip Louisa Bridge suffering from subsisdance problems or is it the other Leixlip station [sorry for going O/T]

The other Leixlip station, Confey, has been falling into the canal since it was built in 2001.

[ThomasJ]

I have to say Mark that I have fallen in love with the station from the prespective of a passenger and only a passenger. it is very well laid out.

Because of my work location I get a 39A (sort of express bus, escapes Blanchardst'n village and s.c) and traffic was a nightmare 40 minutes to get to the Dual Carrigeway on the Navan Road. Considering the Cabra Road has been hell for the last couple of weeks, I decided to hope off the Bus and head down to get the train. There is a shop part of the petrol station beside it. How many stations outside of the DART network are within touching distance of that facility? Large carpark and free carpark? (i think) Again considering IE's plans is that not a huge benefit?

So I walked into the station, first thing I saw was ticket machines, the way it should be no excuse for not having a ticket. The station is well laid out, spacious, plenty of ticket turnstiles and good signage to point you where to go, and lifts! not many stations on the Maynooth line have this!

Get down to the platform and the information screens on the platforms are actually working! Again outside of Drumcondra where would you see this? There is timetables on each platform and plenty of shelter! what is needed when torrential rain falls.

In all honesty, you could compare the new station to Leixlip Louisa Bridge but the lack of information on the platforms is what makes Phoenix Park stand out over any other station on the Maynooth line (other than Drumcondra and the city centre stations).

What may be this stations downfall is the location. It may have a large carpark but if you are driving from the west you could be in traffic for 40 minutes to get to it. Also the lack of capacity on the trains doesn't help things! I got the 7:44 Phoenix Park Connolly yesterday (one of the services expected to be increased) and it was one of the most uncomfortable journeys (seriously).

But in all honesty I do think the station was designed with the passenger in mind. I like it and I think it could work as a station!

[a question for Navan Junction, should navan bus eireann buses stop at the station? would it benefit passengers?]

[Mark Gleeson]

All recent stations have been designed to a high standard with fairly generous facilities to meet all current safety and accessibilty standards. There have been quite a lot of disagreements between IE and the developers paying for stations over the specification, IE insisting on a higher specification

Bare in mind the majority of station buildings in use date from the 1850-1860 timeframe, front door, booking office and a side gate was more than enough

There is a question over the platform displays they are probably driven off the Maynooth/Consilla SSI thus will be very accurate inbound though outbound they might be a bit patchy

[ThomasJ]

There is a question over the platform displays they are probably driven off the Maynooth/Consilla SSI thus will be very accurate inbound though outbound they might be a bit patchy


Can this be done with the other Maynooth line stations Mark?

[Mark Gleeson]

Every station could be fixed if IE bothered, however it remains to be seen how accurate the displays will be

The inbound one in Drumcondra regularly sits at around 5 minutes until the train actually arrives into Broombridge then it counts down again, it does this since it assumes the train is on time its only when it sees the train does the display show the exact time

[ThomasJ]

The one thing that bugs me is those stations that are closed and have only got a destination outside it.

I arrived at Coolmine station late one night last year. There was a thunderstorm and torrential rain. The station was closed. The only timetable info available is outside the ticket office and thats only useful if everything is ontime.

Waited for 20-30 minutes, nothing happened no announcements etc. so just gave up and went to get a bus. Next day found out a tree has fallen on the line and trains were delayed by upto one hour but I didn't know that. Stations like coolmine need this sort of information more than DART stations that are open at this time

[sorry for getting off topic, just trying to point out if it can work for Phoenix park it can work for the others, who need it]

[ThomasJ]

News Talk did a piece this morning on the new Phoenix Park station particularly focusing on whether there's any point opening up a new station when you can barely squeeze on to the existing trains as it is. The reporter was going to get on one of the peak time trains and report on the horrors that awaited him :D
I only heard it up until I left the house at about 8am. Anyone hear it after that? .

Theres no chance of that being on podcast is there?

[Mark Gleeson]

We gave newstalk details of which trains to avoid getting on, eg the ones they wanted eg the wonder of the 7:22 from Maynooth

The Barry Kenny reality distortion field is in full spin today

They have a podcast will be on line sometime tomorrow

[ThomasJ]

We gave newstalk details of which trains to avoid getting on, eg the ones they wanted

so all of them up until around 9 :D

[ThomasJ]

The Barry Kenny reality distortion field is in full spin today


Is he on any radio programmes this evening. I would like to send a text or two in. :mad:

[Navan Junction]

[a question for Navan Junction, should navan bus eireann buses stop at the station? would it benefit passengers?]
Not really, maybe for some after the M50 junction upgrade. At the moment, getting down the N3 past the M50 is the worst part of it, and once you have that done there wouldn't be much point to changing transport modes

Plus Pace would be more suitable for that in a couple of years as the train really wins where it can skip over the M50 gridlock

I'd say most bus commuters would prefer to be going through the Phoenix Park anyhow rather than continuing down the N3

[Colm Moore]

Bus Éireann using it might make sense for passengers travelling beyond the city centre, but only if the Commuter train is going that far.

[Thomas J Stamp]

This must be one hell of a staion. Or is it simply just another identikit concrete job in surburbia? The problem is that we set our sights way too low and when we are presented with something that actually functions, if only merely adequatly, we tend to get orgasmic.

It's only a station lads, cop on.

Big question is would IE have ever thought of doing this if left to their own account? Would they feck.

[Derek Wheeler]

This must be one hell of a staion. Or is it simply just another identikit concrete job in surburbia? The problem is that we set our sights way too low and when we are presented with something that actually functions, if only merely adequatly, we tend to get orgasmic.

It's only a station lads, cop on.

Big question is would IE have ever thought of doing this if left to their own account? Would they feck.

Not a friggin hope. It was paid for by the developer as a planning stipulation and without any regard to the greater network. If IE had of refused the offer then no doubt some poor sod in Amiens street would be on a similar holiday to the one that Tom Finn is taking.

And yes its just a station. A bit like Adamstown. All fancy and trendy, while the other stations on the line are throwbacks to a much less affluent era. The same thing is happening on the Kildare line. KRP will deliver state of the art stations while Sallins, Newbridge and Kildare will remain as museums from slightly different periods.

Planning stipulations only work when Government investment on the same line is rolled out in tandem. Otherwise its a compromise. Its so sad that we look to Adamstown and this station as "temples" of how it should be. With the property slow down they may resemble actual temples in Nepal.

[Mark]

Any pics of the new station? I noticed from the M50 the other day that the Park West station is nearing completion and is of the same design as Adamstown.

I still think the name of the Phoenix Park station is misleading given its location and should be called Navan Road or something else but seeing as I dont use the station nor the line that's neither here nor there.

http://www.phoenixparkracecourse.com/includes/images/aerialDublin.jpg

[Thomas J Stamp]

Any pics of the new station?

Pictures for Members Section only. Why you would want a picture is between you and your therapist.

[gng]

The usual problem - all displays are obscured by other fixtures on the platform, in this case the frames of the fancy new large shelters. Only clearly visible over about 10% of the length of the platform.

Clocks are all 1 minute slow. Some of the train drivers are waitng on these clocks resulting in delays on the route. Docklands train at 8:34 has missed it's slot at Glasnevin junction 3 or 4 times this week and has been 5 or 6 minutes late at Docklands each time.

The train information on the displays has not been updating most days. It still shows the 6:42 to Connolly as the next train even at 8:34.


Car Park is 'pay per bay' - not sure if it's being implemented yet, but there are signs all over the place threatening car owners.

One temporary issue...
The bridge over N3 outside the station is not yet open so cars or pedestrians can not access outbound side of N3. Cars leaving the car park must go back 1Km towards the city to Ashtown roundabout (at evening rush hour this is usually standing traffic). Passengers leaving the station on foot must walk almost 1Km in either direction to cross the road.

[Mark Gleeson]

The information displays won't work, they might work inbound but outbound they won't work with any level of accuracy, reason is complex but they just don't have access to the information to generate the data

Irish Rail are notorious for clocks being wrong, one of the clocks in Docklands was out by over a minute compared to the one alongside

Car park and bridge are nothing to do with Irish Rail and are the developers problem

[philip]

Get a 39 bus or a train up if you really feel that kind of urge. Its just a station.

Personally, if I see a photo of it here, I'll post real ****.:D

<philip boards 39 bus or train>

[gng]

There is no point in Irish Rail putting up information displays if they don't work. This is just plain misleading. But then again this is par for the course with them. It's not good enough to say 'oh they don't have access to the relevant information to update them'.

And in case you hadn't noticed, this is not an Irish Rail forum, it's for Rail Users and if there are problems accessing a railway station to use the service, e.g. bridge/car park/footpaths then it's an issue for discussion on this site.

[Mark Gleeson]

Problem is the station is owned by Irish Rail (they didn't pay for it) none of the access roads, bridges and the car park are owned by them, its the developer of the Racecourse site who owns the whole show and is responsible for them.

If you are a resident of the development, you can take it up with the management company, we can't since we aren't residents

We can complain to IE all we want but its pointless since there is nothing they can do. You can't complain to the council about a pot hole in a private estate, its the same problem

As we have pointed out the passenger information displays are likely to be unreliable or incorrect. We have discussed the issue with IE management in the recent past and it won't be till the city centre resignalling project which is 2010 at the earliest.

[Thomas J Stamp]

And in case you hadn't noticed, this is not an Irish Rail forum, it's for Rail Users and if there are problems accessing a railway station to use the service, e.g. bridge/car park/footpaths then it's an issue for discussion on this site.

Welcome to the board gng. A few pointers to start with. Firstly, please do not tell the committee members who have been doing this gig virtually 24 hours a day for the past number of years what is or isnt and issue for discussion on this site. Secondly, and I know that MarkG can be easily mistaken sometimes but even I dont see him taking your post to task. He is simply providing you with information, he isnt disagreeing with you, he isnt saying that the station deficiencies you have pointed out do not exist nor he is he saying that they are excusable in anyway.

I for one am not surprised that in this day and age IE, in conjunction with the builders, have made a dogs bollocks of this fairly simple station. With things like these still happening its comforting to know that RUI has a healthy future ahead of us.

Thirdly, and I really mean this, we have an announcement on infrastructal threads/posts, please read it. As you are new, you will not be aware of the fact that a survey revealed that such things, like photos of trains and stations, tend to give the impression that RUI is a bunch of trainspotters and that image is one we really would like to shake. Thats why there is a memers section for that sort of thing simply because so the casual visitor wont be overwhelmed by terms like 22K, notch 1, DMU, EMU, 201 class, DD, and photos.

[Colm R]

Thats why there is a memers section for that sort of thing simply because so the casual visitor wont be overwhelmed by terms like 22K, notch 1, DMU, EMU, 201 class, DD, and photos.

I must admit I am overwhelemed by these too, and I'm a member, albeit not very active. :p

[packetswitch]

On the point of principle, though, Mark and gng raise an important issue. While it's great that new stations can come out of new development, if you can't access the publicly-owned railway service due to problems with the non-public aspect, or lack of heads-banging-together between public and private, that's a serious problem that is going to have a impact on the end user, i.e. the passenger/consumer. A platform that can't be properly accessed by passengers is a problem for those passengers, who don't perceive it in terms of legal ownership of land or planning permission responsibility. They see it as a problem "with the trains".

IÉ need to get this in hand - soon. Expecting passengers to know which access problem is IÉ's fault and which access problem is the fault of the council and which access problem is the fault of random private landowner is about as reasonable as expecting them to understand the differences between two flavours of train. The customer service problems we're aware of are bad enough without new excuses of 'not my fault mate' appearing...

[Mark Gleeson]

Problem here is there is good road and pedestrian access to the station, fully accessible etc, its just not convenient to some, the new flyover bridge built in parallel with but separate from the station is not yet open.

This is not case where the only way to reach the station is by train eg Manualla Junction, or the crazy back entrances of Kildare and Newbridge.

Had the planning authority had any intelligence it would have had a condition on this station to hold off opening until the bridge was in place, we will have to wait for the DTA to do this, if they get the power

[Thomas J Stamp]

I must admit I am overwhelemed by these too, and I'm a member, albeit not very active. :p

When Thomas Bibby was on the Committee he sparked the idea of a glossory, or even a P11 (as it then was) Wiki. Wikipedia is a good help. I have never seen an edition of the IRRS Journal but I picked up a lot of the jargon from sharing a few pints with MarkG and a good tutorial from Derek. One thing I can state with absolute authority is that I have no clue how to differentiate a 171/141/121 if it was looking at me, apart from the fact that they are the "old" locomotives. I am proud to say that as well.

As for the topic in hand, IE are, in my mind, totally at fault here. They are, in effect the recpients of this station, they should have designed it and told the developers to build it. I'm sure the developers dont build rail stations every day.

[Mark Gleeson]

As for the topic in hand, IE are, in my mind, totally at fault here. They are, in effect the recpients of this station, they should have designed it and told the developers to build it.They did, developer paid for it

http://documents.fingalcoco.ie/AnitePublicDocs/00050015.pdf

Other guys built the road and got planning permission 2 years earlier to do that

The alternative would be not to open the station until bridge is finished thus depriving those with access of the benefit

[Colm Moore]

I was there today.

The concourse is similar to Adamstown, not quite as big, but at least it doesn't have a gale blowing though it as it has a proper roof. Four ticket machines! All access is via the concourse, although there does appear to be a fire escape at the end of the Maynooth-bound platform.

The platforms are nice and wide, with the wall that supports the car park providing good shelter from the wind. The shelters are a varient of the usual although they would have been better if they provided a canopy only fixed to the retaining wall. Unfortuneately, as always, the seats are now in the shelters, you get one or the other.

The lifts open directly onto the platforms (that is perpendicular to the direction of train travel) and have single-sided doors. This means that wheelchairs must reverse in/out of the lifts and a brrier has been placed in the middle of the platform to stop wheelchairs reversing onto the tracks. High visibility / contrast colours would be nice on this barrier to stop poor unfortutates impaling themselves running for a train.

The security gates between the platforms and concourse are oddly half-way up the stairs.

[ThomasJ]

So what do you reckon? are people still confused thiking that the station is in the Phoenix Park?

Sure look at the number of views for this thread compared to every other thread on this section, that number doesn't seem right! :D

[ThomasJ]

Passing by phoenix park station at lunchtime and was suprised by how occupied the car park was. It was well over half full!

Just to mention not so long ago you would see less than 20 often 10 cars parked there!

[ThomasJ]

Just shows how useless the non-dart pis systems are at the best of times

the phoenix park pis is displaying times as if today was a normal weekday. The next train listed when i passed it by was for docklands.

I presume it would be the same for stations on the kildare line.

[Thomas Ralph]

That's because the signalling out past Drumcondra isn't as modern as that on the DART area.

[ThomasJ]

Just passed at the station and the signs are highlighting the station as a park and ride venue