Looks like based on the online timetable (also heard rumours on it) and probably due to the clockface timetable platforms 6 and 7 at connolly come back into play for the last evening services out of connolly.

I couldn't care less on the train type anyway or taking any kind of connector DART if it commenced at Greystones only. If I have to stay in Dublin later than 18:30 (Yes IE, shocker that this happens I know!) I have to get a Bus Eireann bus to Wicklow town and get picked up from there. All at the cost of another ticket and reliant on someone being around to pick me up!

I remember talking to a manager at IE a year or two ago and when he had mention that off-peak services were less busy. When I mentioned that the likes of the 19:00, 19:30 20:00 and 21:00 even the 21:55 to Maynooth were doing well he pointed out to me that they were peak hour services! :eek: He had pointed out that the lifestyle and work patterns of passengers had changed and they had to change with it. These services are quiet often all seats taken with people standing. You'll notice none of them have been chopped.

I took the 23:10 pearse maynooth 3 times last week and while not packed to the rafters there were very few seats left!

You would have thought that this sort of demand on the Maynooth and Drogheda lines would have incentivised them to try the gorey and mullingar lines.I dont know why management are afraid of taking risks on the gorey and Mullingar lines. They should at least try it out leading up to christmas. they would be suprised.

It may have happened already. Could be just an accident but the 1055 Newbridge - Heuston is a 22k 6-car set this morning.

More likely a 29K unit failed - it also did the 0835 from Kildare. The new timetable has Platform 1 in Heuston for Newbridge/Kildare services and it can only handle a 3 car ICR.

Platforms are a movable feast.

Today's Kildare commuter services were operated by a 3 car and a 6 car 22k set.

DART timetable is up now. http://www.irishrail.ie/your_journey/printed_timetable_pdfs/2010/IE%20-%202009-10%20DART%20and%20Com.pdf

new timetable + no publicity = confused public on Monday
 

IE don't seem to be publicising this new timetable very well - theres a tiny notice on the website, but no posters in the stations (that I've seen).

Some of the changes are quite radical and a lot of people are going to be affected on Monday - they should be running radio ads, posters on trains, the whole shebang...

There are posters on board the trains.

For such a major change in Dublin the advertising effort is very poor

they handed out new timetables in Dundalk this morning.. many more unhappy commuters after they started reading them :mad:

I see that this timetable is valid until further notice. Does this mean that if more trains are needed, the timetable will evolve?

By this I mean, if stations get over crowded will services be added to reflect the demand?

I had a strange situation with the new timetables yesterday. Went to Tara St. station to ask for them and I was told that they are not printed any more as part of 'cutbacks' and I should go to the IR website and - if I wanted - print them from there. I thought it was a joke at first but the man was dead serious.

This wouldn't be such a bad idea in the end but you can't print them in the same format yourself - it's a pdf with one 'strip' on each page and the original printout has three (the page is bigger than A4 as well).

Couldn't really believe it so I went to Connolly and - surprise, surprise - got one easily. This time I was told that they're being dispatched at the moment and should be there at every station once they get theirs.

So the first information was completely wrong and potentially damaging to IR reputation: the posters on stations and in trains say that the new timetable 'is available from your local station' so if you go there and learn that this is not true, understandably you are likely to call that crowd 'a bunch of dirty liars' straight away.

Does it mean you can get something from IR only if you're really stubborn and don't believe what their employees tell you? Is this somewhere in their customer charter, I wonder?

This appears to be standard procedure with a lot of IR staff - I've been buying the "book" in its various incarnations since 1979 and in the vast majority of cases ticket office staff have attempted to put me off buying it in some way or another.

No, it just means that they do not have a definite future planned date for a new timetable to come out.

Wonder will the flooding postpone the introduction of the split Galway-Westport train.

The spilt service will operate but won't split at Athlone

I am still without a timetable Connolly had them but refused to sell me a copy

Book or no book?
 

I'm confused, today after arriving into Heuston (by train) I asked at Customer Services for a timetable book. I was told there wasn't one and was asked what lines I wanted times for. I politely responded for all routes (as I normally buy the timetable book each year). I was told that they didn't have timetables for all routes, and was given a small selection of route timetables.

What a shambles.

In the UK books and leaflets are readily available at stations well in advance of timetable changes (at least that's been my experience to date). The web is fine but doesn't suit all users at all times.

The national timetable in the UK is done by three private companies currently

There is a book, at least one poster on this forum has obtained a copy. I've seen it but was refused when I wanted to buy it. Staff have their own special timetable book so why on earth are they refusing to sell the public edition

Dun Laoghaire, Blackrock and Tara Street had nothing at all in the way of timetables

An new all route timetable has been printed but from what I am told it is only for staff use and will not be sold to the general public this year.

But the staff have a quite separate timetable, A4 sized.

At least 1 copy has been sold

Assuming that customers are paying at least the marginal cost (essentially the cost of printing and distribution) of the timetable, selling them is a good idea.

Irish Rail always stated that the timetabled was charged for to cover production costs.

How about sticking a PDF on their site?

After several more attempts, I found another station with a copy of the timetable. I got to see the back page which states 'Internal Company Use Only'

What is strange is there already is a staff timetable, so why bother producing two?
Attachment 1094

No station I've visited had the pocket timetables bar Connolly but even Connolly was short on most routes.

Mallow - Cork - Cobh - Midleton 09/10 timetable
 

Arrived home (in Mallow) on Friday, the 2009/10 Mallow - Cork - Cobh - Midleton pocket size timetable had arrived with the post.

At Kent Station on Saturday they were handing out the same timetable.

Arrived at my parents house (in Midleton) on Saturday and they were after getting the same timetable in the post as well.

Is the book version available? I'm confused after reading all the board message :confused:

The book is being sold, it depends on where you are and who is behind the counter

Will see if they will sell me one tomorrow morning @ Kent Station.

Reports from the field of lots of cold and unhappy passengers, lots of people standing who normally got a seat and so on.

Irish Rail as always denied there even was a reduction in peak hour service in this mornings metro after our press release

http://www.railusers.ie/news/news.ph...009&no=15.html

Numbers don't lie

Was rushing this morning for the number 5 bus, so I did not get a chance to ask @ Kent Station, but @ Mallow I was told that "its not coming out in book form this year".

I'm in Connolly Station at the moment and I have been definitively told by Customer Service that the timetable booklet is not being sold to the public and is only being made available to station staff.

Filled in a comment form requesting that the PDFs available on the Website be changed to the Booklet format as the leaflet format is unwieldy.

Time for an Irish Bradshaw I reckon if Irish Rail won't do it.

Book of Fiction
 

I am a little bit lost as to why anyone would want the #1 book of fiction in book form.

In reality, it should not be necessary at all, as the trains should be consistent and clockface.

Other then that, who needs the whole book. (Does it fit in the pocket of a parka?):eek:

The production of the book form of the timetable is yet another ongoing farce. It should be an important marketing tool for the railway and I have been chasing CIE/IE for a number of years to advertise their own products in it - such as the former "Rail Rambler" ticket, Fastrack, their own late lamented" Brasserie na Mara" but like so much else in CIE/IE it couldn't be done! In years gone by (1950s and 1960s) Sweet Afton cigarettes used to be the main external advertisers. A list of station buffets (!) used to also be included and while these are now an endangered species there are a few survivors.

Many people travel countrywide by rail and the book timetable is what they require not a handful of pocket sized leaflets which always end up mislaid. I am amused to see that another moribund concern "Tourism Ireland" is now embarking on a major promotion of Ireland in Britain and what better way to get people around the country than rail - of course that would be using the much trumpeted but rarely seen concept of 'joined-up thinking'. :mad:

copy the PDF into a text file, edit out the extraneous info and save it on your phone...

here's one I made earlier for Greystones:

That's a bit bloody snide. I do travel a bit at the weekends and do use the train. A book is a lot more convenient than either 1. firing up the computer or 2. digging out fiddly leaflets.

Some folks around my area got sick and tired of waiting for stuff to happen so they developed their own iPhone app.

http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/reviews...ne-red-rocket/

A fundraising idea for RUI?

There are already 2 apps, but without the full staff timetable (itself now split into at least 3 editions) its pretty hard to build a proper application

Oisin 88: I'm afraid I have to take issue with your message of yesterday in which you don't see why anyone would want a timetable booklet.

That's probably the attitude which IE management have: the mindset which thinks it knows what the customer wants. Also your premise that a clockface timetable renders detailed timetables un-necessary is false: regular clockface timetables are by no means the rule on IE: even Dublin-Cork has its gaps.

Irish Rail appear to have failed its customer base. Roll on the Irish Bradshaw
 

A hard-copy (i.e. printed) timetable is a necessity even in this, the internet age.

I have purchased the timetable book each year for over the last two decades. Its apparent demise is a sad day.

With a timetable book one can flick through the pages and plan a one-route or multi-route journey quite quickly, jotting down the key times on a page.
With individual leaflets the process is slowed a lot.

To print out all the route timetables one ideally needs to get an A4 ring binder with plastic pockets and all-in-all by the time the job is done there may be time left out of two hours for a cup of tea after which you may need to visit a computer store to replace the ink cartridges that have been gulped during the process.

On a day out or short break many people don't want to bring a laptop. Certainly nobody wants an enforced visit to an internet cafe or library.

Certainly the internet is great, but not the exclusive replacement of printed material. Throwaway remarks to the effect of ah sure it's on the internet what would one want a (printed) timetable for are sadly becoming too common in transport companies these days and demonstrate a lack of understanding of how the customer base accesses information.

Roll on the Irish Bradshaw. A definite business opportunity.

But Irish Rail claim copyright if they didn't we would have a printable b&w pdf available by now

If anyone is interested I can provide following

Departure times and destinations for all services ex Connolly, departure times for all services southbound Lansdowne Rd

The magical DART office (the same people who said no DART after U2 concerts and then ran 4 trains) are considering changes, but as always its more a case of saying that than actually doing something