You are not suggesting a relation to both, I expect it was just timing the recession really started to bite at the same time hence the reduction in numbers.

I think platforms may become an issue if an eight was added, not overly sure about Connolly but suspect an eight coach would result in train off the platform EGV and/or loco and possibly blocking access to the next platform as well?

I was on the 2115 t0 Dublin this evening: NIR confirmed the first DD set had travelled South as part of its safety certification and its appearance back in regular traffic is "imminent": the other two sets are far off. As far as I recall although four train sets were planned the Enterprise service was three trains to cover eight round trips each weekday which utilised the bulk of the fleet (24 out of 28 carriages in three train sets).

There was asolutely a relationship between the collapse of Malahide viaduct and the drop in usage of the Enterprise service and northern line commter services generally. There were/are a host of other factors not least of which is service quality, journey time, frequency and reliabilty.

As for platform lengths at Connolly, No 4 would be more than adequate, although not too convenient for the holding pen.

I was under the impression that the main reason for reducing enterprise to 7 cars was to reduce the failure rate on 201s under HEP, though other factors such as reduced passenger numbers came into play. If memory serves (and it so often doesn't), I seem to recall it was some time after the restoration of the Malahide viaduct that the 8th car from each set was removed.

There certainly was talk of the extra passenger car being restored with the addition of Mk3 generator vans, however that project ran late and I think the refurbishment started almost immediately after. The sets had been reduced to 6 cars before sets started to be replaced with IE/NIR trains, causing considerable overcrowding.

I expect there will be some disdain from Drogheda/Dundalk commuters when the extra train that runs ahead of the early morning Enterprise is removed.

James

Original plan was 3 7 car sets and a spare.

The spare used to run as DVT+3 std on the 1840 Connolly-Drogheda/Dundalk in the early days.

HEP wise the problem with HEP was running the engine at 900rpm all the time, the actual load wasn't really at issue

You can certainly hear the difference when an Enterprise was stopped. Before, there was a constant high-pitched roar the whole time. Now (and by "now" I mean when Enterprise stock is running), the loco quietens down to a gentle purr while it's idling.

James

There are two HEP modes, standby and normal. In normal is 900RPM from the HEP alternator, in standby it uses the main traction alternator and runs at 700 rpm.

Either way its gone and the Mk3 gen van works perfectly. The train in fact accelerates faster now as it has about 300hp more to play with

At least some of the staff working the train see the Mk3 van as somewhat of an achillies heel. There is little doubt that it is an advance on Head End Power but not quiet perfect. It is also an impediment to reversing the 20% cut in standard class seating although the flip side of that is that it may force the operators into running more services on a timetabled rather than an ad-hoc basis.

Is the generator van not able to provide power for 5 standard class cars?

James

Gen van will power up to 10 coaches, platform lengths particularly in NI cause issues

Where are the platform issues in NI ? Would have thought Connolly would be the biggest issue as a larger train on 2 would block 3.

Lisburn for one

Yes, Lisburn may be a bit short but then the DDs probably have grandfather rights given that the original eight coach formations stopped there for years.

Is there some technical limitation that means the loco and gen van can't stop beyond the end of the platform? As long as the coach doors are all within the limits of the platform, there shouldn't be any passenger issue.

I see what you mean about long trains blocking access to Platform 3 in Connolly (from a quick look at Google maps), but I'm 99% sure that when we had 8-coach constructs, only the loco was past the "kink" in the track. Based on this, it looks like 8 passengers plus gen van plus loco should still be well short of the points.

Personally I'd much prefer greater frequency to longer trains, which could probably have been done at minimal cost when the Mk3s came off the IE network, but I don't hold a lot of hope of that happing in the foreseeable future.

James

It would also depend upon where the signal is located.

And they tend to put then on the platform ends

Also need to be aware of the possibility of running backwards, so you can't assume the loco will be at one end.

The Mk3 idea was kicked around a while back to get 3 sets and a spare made up from the Mk3 fleets, convert the DVT to first and add air con (strip it out of another coach), remove the generator and update to modern crash requirements (read expensive). Overhaul the rest with new doors and toilets per Chiltern in the UK

That would give you 6 sets total which is enough to sustain hourly service, the theory expanded to do 5 Mk3 sets and have one in Cork and Heuston spare (Which Connolly could borrow)

Now that the 22s have been doing Enterprise refurb runs, the excuses for not increasing frequency on the route using them just come down to cash. I would have converted the whole service to 22s but we're too far down the road for that now, sadly.

There are 9 ICR sets cleared for NI if needed

The issue is not just cash, it means stealing them from other services...

1035 ex Belfast 31/10
 

Unusual movement today: the 1900 ex Dublin was trapped in Belfast last night due to trouble in Lurgan (it was ever thus) last night. The 0735 ex Dublin(an additional 22000 set) was attached to the rear of the regular set which left some forty minutes late for Dublin at 1120 Connolly at 1345 (slight delay at Drogheda as an engineering team did some unspecified task). Train was packed including 31 in First. IE offered a full service so a credit to all concerned and good to see some effective contingency planning. We left from Platform 1 at Central presumably to facilitate the coupling of the two train sets. As we were boarding a GNR liveried steam train and carriages pulled into Platform 2 for a Halloween excursion service.

Was it 2 5 coaches together or did the 07.35 get worked by a 3 coach?

According to a poster on boards one set will return to service on the 9th (06.50) followed by another on 23rd (08.00) and final set should follow soon after and remaining coaches by end of January 2016 individually.

The 0735 was a four car ICR and was appears to have been delayed significantly at both Newry and Portadown.

The return 1035 from Belfast did not leave until 1120 as a 9-piece with the rear 4 cars being locked off and detached at Drogheda. The train was 59 minutes late leaving Drogheda and was further delayed at Malahide while a DART limped onto the south-bound platform. There were no other trains in the vicinity of Malahide but yet it was found necessary to obstruct a service now running almost an hour late rather than run the DART to the empty northbound platform. Still such nonsense can always be attributed to Low Rail Adhesion if anybody bothers to ask !

It was hard to see as all the passengers were corralled on the platform while the train sets were connected and the doors were tested. (I was at the very front to board the "A" carriage) I have to say I was both surprised and impressed as service resiliency has never been a feature of the Enterprise service. I was even more surprised that a full catering service was available (this crew are Dublin based). The 22000 set has worked well, operating three round trips a day with superior acceleration to the DD sets and while not as comfortable work well: if we ever achieved the nirvana of an hourly service a 22000 five carriage set in addition the the DD sets would be perfectly acceptable.

Crew probally got a hotel for the night, will be surprised if they were bused to Dublin.

Yes the ICRs have worked well on the Belfast line and would be the obvious candidate to operate additional services. They do perform better than than the 201s on the De-Dietrichs in the same manner as they are operational superior to the 201s on the Cork Mk4s. Comfort wise they are certainly way better than Mk4s but inferior to the De-Dietrichs and the refurbished Mk3s used by UK operators.

The crew did go to Dublin on Friday evening on the bus transfer passengers due to go to Dublin at 2115. The IE Enterprise service is only catered from Dublin so if the crew had stayed overnight in Belfast catering would have been very limited. What really impressed yesterday was how effectively IE/NIR managed the situation overnight.

Extra Services
 

IE shouldn't need to provide an 22 for extra services as NIR were able to come up with 4 sets? to cover the refurb. I'm sure if they tried hard they could keep one for Dublin and if needed have no stopping between Newry-Connolly. First class will not be enough of a reasons in my book as extra services would be worked outside of the peak services were demand will be next to nothing.

In theory it would be possible to increase usage of the current 3 sets to increase form 8-9 services per day but it would require big changes and while I think it would work well generally provided customer feed back agreed.

Belfast - 06.00/07.15/09/15/11.30/13.00/14.30/17.00/19.15/21.00
Dublin - 06.30/08.45/10.00/11.45/14.15/16.45/18.15/19.45/21.30

Based on block time of 2h15, many scheduled for 2h10 or less now with an average of 30 minute turnaround similar to now.

Would give early arrival at either end and better evening options out of Dublin.

Only issue maintenance as the same set would be in Dublin all the time however depending on how much servicing they receive you could really cut Saturday to 8 and work Sunday around a set swap.

I suspect that it would be more likely to move to a fixed two hourly pattern using three sets, and then augment it with 3 22k sets to go hourly.

Bear in mind that with the proposed 10 minute DART frequency paths will need to be standardised going forward.

DART already follows (for the most part) a fifteen minute interval schedule departing Connolly northbound at 09, 24, 39 and 54 which leaves potentially unobstructed fast paths northbound at 05, 20, 35 and 50. Despite this Irish Rail insist on scheduling Enterprise departures at 1100 and 1900 which means that if the DART is 3 or 4 minutes late it is leaving a mere two minutes ahead of the Belfast service. The 1100 and 1900 frequently take 38 to 45 minutes to reach Drogheda, a performance that barely matches the clapped out steam trains of the 1950s.

The ten minute interval DART service will ensure that all Enterprise services will have de-graded paths. Similarly all longer distance northern line and south eastern line commuters beyond Greystones can expect longer journey times. In addition the potential for delays and congestion will be significantly magnified to support a service expansion which the very limited and inflexible infrastructure will struggle to support.

First set back today and Im told the 11.00 has broken down or at least encounter issues.

Irish flag internally displayed.....not sure how wise that is!

Its dragged itself out of Ballbriggan but looks like it won't get much further

Its past Mosney now, but ain't moving quickly at all

Looks like it going to be cancelled at Drogheda and passengers on the 10:57 Pearse Dundalk which will run through to Belfast

47 minutes late at Drogheda so will be at least 1 hour late by Belfast if lucky

Refunds http://www.railusers.ie/passenger_in...hp#their_fault

Word is a traction motor fire and its 206 again which went puff earlier in the year.

Unclear if a train swap occurred or not, as you can isolate a traction motor and continue

Was well over an hour late out of Dundalk

arrived Belfast 88 minutes late. It was 208 not 206

Latest is a flat wheelset on 208, full set continued to Belfast.

Broke down again this morning. C3K took over

Leg Room?
 

I have a question. Has the leg room between seats been reduced because of the new seats on the Enterprise? It seems like if two people of 5’10 or above are sitting opposite they are constantly moving their knees just not to be touching. There was never much space on these trains but for anyone over average height while even sitting up straight, this is downright uncomfortable.

And as for the new Wi-Fi. Oh dear.

Uncomfortable seats
 

Does anyone else find the new seats on the refurbished Enterprise trains extremely uncomfortable ?

Yes and the legroom is much less.

Hate to point this out but they are the same seats, no change in spacing.

Just new seat covers.

Mark: which train service is the refurbished Enterprise set operating. Is it 0800, 1405 ex Belfast and 1100 and 1650 ex Dublin? The timetables have not been changed. Many thanks.