Drogheda station

[RHanaway]

I've lived in Drogheda for the last two years, commuting back and forth to Dublin during this time, I'm one of the many unfortunate passengers (I neglect to use the word customer here as that would imply an expected level of quality service) who use the enterprise service(:confused:).
Can someone explain any of the following:

The train is usually a carriage down.
Train is late about 50% of the time (usually by about only 10 minutes which wouldn't be an issue except there seems to be a "window" before this gets stuck behind a dart and increases the journey time)
How hard is it to put some soap in the dispenser in the toilet??
Playing musical platforms with the passengers (almost 200 people running back and forth accross a footbridge due to multiple platform changes).
Overstaffed, this is my favourite, between 7:30 and 8:30 each morning you can see up to 10 staff members wandering aimlessly around the stations platform entrance. When their not wandering about their usually blocking the doors to the toilets/platform entrance and generally the platform smoking and chatting. Don't these people have a canteen???


If anyone could help me with understanding any of this I would greatly appreciate it as I'm at a total loss.

BTW, a prime example this morning: Train was 15 minutes late arriving, one carriage short and 20 minutes late arriving in Dublin.

[chipper]

I don't think I have ever got anything from that soap dispenser. There used to a grubby little germ infested bar of soap by the basins but that went a long a time ago.

My gripe with Drogheda is with the management of the platforms. Trains arriving from Dublin (those not continuing to Dundalk) have to cross over to P2 or P3 which seems to make for a slow crawl into the station. If you get one departing northbound at the same time (as almost always happens at around 17:50) the incoming train has to wait to let it past. Three platforms - two tracks. It can't be too hard but they make a convoluted criss-cross out of it.

[clockwork orange]

The platform issue is simple. You can't have two trains on one platform. If IE implemented that practice there certainly would be far more complaints.

I'd like to know about the frequent delays to southbound enterprises aswell. They seem to be constantly delayed in the North for some reason. Which means big trouble when they arrive into DART territory.

If you have an actual complaint about the staff I would suggest you contact customer services (the info is available somewhere around here i'm sure). What exactly would you prefer them to be doing. At least they are there to help if you need something rather than hiding away in the canteen.


I travel from Drogheda regularly. The employees are friendly, helpful and polite whenever i've dealt with them. And I've dealt with them a lot. I take serious issue with anyone who says differently about them. You can knock the service all you like because it does have serious faults but the staff are a different matter.

[RHanaway]

My issue is with the late announcements forcing passengers to run from one plateform to the next whils't the staff stand and stare doe eyed at unfortunates scrabbling back and forth.
The staff in Drogheda are nothing better than a joke.
Friendly, yes, I'll give you that, but lazy as sin and care little for the passengers forced to travel on this sub par service.
Just because someone is friendly and has some banter with doesn't make them efficient or good at their job.
I take serious issue with someone who defends the layabouts who are obviously counting down the minutes until they can knock off for the day.
This mentality is what allows IE to continue to operate in this slipshod fashion.

[Mark Gleeson]

Overstaffing will be dealt with in coming months, unions won't like it but the time has come to slice out the wastage. There are a large number of staff based in Drogheda due to the maintenance facility.

The excessive number of station staff is not just Drogheda its true of many stations country wide which results in a weird situation of having 4 or 5 staff on duty while there are unstaffed commuter stations elsewhere with greater numbers of passengers. Second something goes wrong they vanish though! It is a breach of the customer charter for a member of staff to smoke within the public area of any station

We have written confirmation that a significant number of coaches are to be refurbished to provide a hourly service Belfast Dublin, the tender went out a few weeks back.

Platform choice in Drogheda is heavily effected by the single track across the Boyne viaduct, platform 1 is favoured for all trains, enterprise services get first call on it if another train is present. If a train is late you end up with two trains in Drogheda which should be in platform 1 at the same time. As a lot of trains in the morning start from the depot, platform 2 & 3 are a lot easier get at from the depot

All trains country wide approach their destination point with caution, its standard procedure, so trains running through to Dundalk generally roll into Drogheda a bit faster.

[ThomasJ]

They could done better by sending them to stations that have little or no staff.

[Thomas Ralph]

We have written confirmation that a significant number of coaches are to be refurbished to provide a hourly service Belfast Dublin, the tender went out a few weeks back.

Which coaches? Mk3s?

[dowlingm]

Which coaches? Mk3s?Yes. 48 of them according to etenders, although since IE tried to sell them through etenders too that's no guarantee of anything...

[Mark Gleeson]

4 * 8 coach (6 passenger + 1 buffet + 1 guards van) have been pencilled in for Dublin Belfast. This will allow hourly services, and mean there will be a spare train in Dublin to cover for failures. It goes without saying the trusty Mk3 runs rings around the current enterprise fleet

It should provide significant relief to the overcrowding

[clockwork orange]

My issue is with the late announcements forcing passengers to run from one plateform to the next whils't the staff stand and stare doe eyed at unfortunates scrabbling back and forth.
The staff in Drogheda are nothing better than a joke.
Friendly, yes, I'll give you that, but lazy as sin and care little for the passengers forced to travel on this sub par service.
Just because someone is friendly and has some banter with doesn't make them efficient or good at their job.
I take serious issue with someone who defends the layabouts who are obviously counting down the minutes until they can knock off for the day.
This mentality is what allows IE to continue to operate in this slipshod fashion.


Thats an awful lot of accusation with absolutely nothing to back it up, if you don't mind me saying so. Its sounds like you've had a particularly bad experience if you think they care little for the passengers. If you could find the time to explain why, i'd love to hear it.

[dowlingm]

Mark

do I take it correctly that this means no First on the Dublin-Belfast mk3 sets, or is one of the 6 passengers likely to be a First/Citygold fit?

[Mark Gleeson]

There will be first and catering from what I'm told

A full strip to bare metal overhaul and new interior is coming for the 48 Mk3 coaches, first class is part of the train. They can sell over 50 first seats on the busier services, a Mk3 first class has only 42 seats so business wise its a no brainer to ensure first class is present. Hourly is coming so it will end the mess on enterprise and provide standby coverage

[Padna]

When is the hourly service likely to be introduced? Will all / most trains stop at the intermediate stations (Drogheda, Dundalk, Newry & Portadown)?

[Mark Gleeson]

Probably be 2010

They may look to remove stops to speed things up, Drogheda might go, but in conjunction with more Dublin Dundalk services. Newry and Portadown to remain, Portadown is the change point into local services.

NIR have funding to sort out some problems on there side so things should get better and arrivals into Drogheda in the morning should be more punctual

[chris]

Probably be 2010
Any chance of staggered improvements or is it likely to change all at once?

They may look to remove stops to speed things up, Drogheda might go, but in conjunction with more Dublin Dundalk services. Newry and Portadown to remain, Portadown is the change point into local services.
Isn't the main issue with Drogheda that stupid bridge? Until the associated speed restrictions are relaxed, it's walking pace through Drogheda station anyway.

NIR have funding to sort out some problems on there side so things should get better and arrivals into Drogheda in the morning should be more punctual
Can you say anything more specific about what's planned? Maybe a Berlin-style wall through a certain section of Lurgan to stop people getting at the tracks...

[Thomas Ralph]

Hourly is coming so it will end the mess on enterprise and provide standby coverage

That's going to make a savage mess of northside DART and (to a lesser extent) northern commuter services, though.

[Colm Moore]

They can sell over 50 first seats on the busier services, a Mk3 first class has only 42 seats so business wise its a no brainer to ensure first class is present. Hourly is coming so it will end the mess on enterprise and provide standby coverageI imagine hourly services will see the loadings spread a bit more.

Isn't the main issue with Drogheda that stupid bridge? Until the associated speed restrictions are relaxed, it's walking pace through Drogheda station anyway.That is an issue, but also the vast numbers of commuters getting onto long distance services makes the trip less pleasant for those who will spend 2+ hours on the train.

Hopefully the cascading of commuter railcars from intercity routes will mean more Drogheda commuters can use those instead of long distance services. They will also need to manage the number of commuters displacing long distance passengers on long distance services - you don't want your train full in Dublin, leaving long distance passengers behind only for the train to be empty north of Drogheda.