[March-April 2009] Heuston services: 21-22 March, 4-5 April, 18-19 April 2009

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=478 Heuston services: 21st-22nd March, 4th-5th April, 18th-19th April by Corporate Communications

Iarnród Éireann advises customers that, due to works associated with the Kildare Route Project, there will be revisions to services to and from Heuston Station on Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings on the following weekends:

21st-22nd March
4th-15th April
18th-19th April

Service details for these weekends are as follows:


Saturday evenings 21st March, 4th April, 18th April

18.05 Westport to Heuston: operates Westport to Newbridge, with bus transfer Newbridge to Heuston
20.30 Cork to Heuston: operates Cork to Portlaoise, with bus transfer Portlaoise to Heuston
18.25 Waterford to Heuston: operates Waterford to Kildare, with bus transfer Kildare to Heuston
18.30 Heuston to Tralee: deferred to 18.35, and calls additionally at Hazelhatch, Sallins, Kildare, Portarlington, Portlaoise, Ballybrophy and Templemore. Arrival time in Tralee: 23.02hrs

Commuter services:

The following trains are cancelled:
20.35, 21.45 and 23.00 Heuston to Kildare, 18.35 Heuston to Thurles (served by 18.30 Heuston to Tralee: see details above)
21.54 and 22.50 Kildare to Heuston, 21.00 Thurles to Heuston


Sunday mornings 22nd March, 5th April, 19th April

08.10 Heuston to Tralee (connections to Limerick and Cork): bus transfers Heuston to Portlaoise, train Portlaoise to Tralee. Connecting 10.12 Limerick Junction to Limerick deferred to 11.00, connecting 11.00 Mallow to Cork deferred to 11.30.
08.40 Heuston to Galway (connection to Westport): bus transfers Heuston to Kildare, train Kildare to Galway. Connecting 10.35 Athlone to Westport service is deferred to 11.00
09.30 Heuston to Waterford: bus transfers Heuston to Newbridge, train Newbridge to Waterford

Iarnród Éireann apologises to customers for any inconvenience caused by these essential works.

Details of further services changes later in the year due to Kildare Route Project works will be updated on this website in advance.

[on the move]

This stuff is beyond a joke at this stage.

We don't have overnight services like other countries. Why can't this work be carried out for 4-5 hours every night, rather than 40 weeks a year?

When the Luas had similiar line issues 2 years ago, they got engineers to work on it every night of the week. The work started in June and finished in November. That was it.

The inconvenience to passengers from these works has gone on far too long, and would be unacceptable in any other European country.

[Thomas Ralph]

Two Luas stops were closed for over three months solid. That's quite a bit more disruptive than half a dozen low-traffic services being replaced by bus transfers every few weeks.

[on the move]

Two Luas stops were closed, at relatively little inconvenience. The stops are 5 minutes walk from the last stop. And now, it's done.

By contrast, the Heuston line works have been going on for a couple of years, inconveniencing anyone travelling on the scheduled services. And some of them are as far as 100 kilometres away. Some of them have had no bus transfers available.

If the upgrading was completed nightly rather than weekly, it would be over and done with by now.

[Mark Gleeson]

Work is done at night, however there is only 4 hours gap in place, you can't knock a bridge or move the track in that kind of timeframe, need 8-12 hours for that class of job

Its a very big job and work is progressing very well. On no occasion has there been an overrun effecting services and no nasty surprises.

Elsewhere in Europe they would already have 4 tracks granting much greater flexibility