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-   -   New Timetable (http://www.railusers.ie/forum/showthread.php?t=13727)

Commuter101 18-08-2011 11:52

New Timetable
 
Does anyone know when the new timetable comes into effect?


Thanks!

Mark Gleeson 18-08-2011 12:17

Expect announcement end August, for implementation in early October

Inniskeen 18-08-2011 18:39

IR were indicating that this TT would be implemented this Summer !

Mind you at this stage it would make sense to wait for the first phase of the city centre re-signalling (Malahide to Killester) and the commissioning of the new bay platform at Clonsilla.

Seannew1 20-09-2011 13:06

Why does drogheda have a superior train service than dundalk? for example,during 3pm to 7pm,10 trains go to drogheda whereas 5 go to dundalk.I'm not in any way complaining,just a general question.Thanks

Thomas Ralph 20-09-2011 13:44

Presumably because more people commute from Drogheda to Dublin than from Dundalk? And did you miss the 1650 Enterprise?

Mark Gleeson 20-09-2011 13:56

Its purely a demand/distance function and there is an equation which relates the journey time, frequency and population of a town to the demand it will create which was devised for Dublin some years back, so as Dundalk has a smaller population and is further away than Drogheda its demand is lower

Further out a commuter train goes, the fewer it carries and the fare for longer journeys is less than that of a shorter journey. So the cost to run further increases quickly. Some evening trains to Drogheda manage to turnaround and get back to Dublin to provide another peak hour service

There are plans for additional services on the northern line and these will be focused on Dundalk/Drogheda with limited stops and will be intercity railcars. Probably looking at something happening in 2012 on this as the trains and new signaling should be in place

Seannew1 20-09-2011 14:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas Ralph (Post 64124)
Presumably because more people commute from Drogheda to Dublin than from Dundalk? And did you miss the 1650 Enterprise?

This is certainly the case nowadays but i remember back a few years ago,passenger numbers were roughly the same.For example when the 7.10 train from dundalk pulled into drogheda a few yrs ago,it used to be nearly full,nowadays there is only about 15 people on the train when it gets into drogheda,perhaps they were unhappy with the current service but who knows.

No i included that in,3.20,4.50,5.13,5.55 and 7.00 trains serve dundalk.

Seannew1 20-09-2011 14:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson (Post 64125)
Its purely a demand/distance function and there is an equation which relates the journey time, frequency and population of a town to the demand it will create which was devised for Dublin some years back, so as Dundalk has a smaller population and is further away than Drogheda its demand is lower

Further out a commuter train goes, the fewer it carries and the fare for longer journeys is less than that of a shorter journey. So the cost to run further increases quickly. Some evening trains to Drogheda manage to turnaround and get back to Dublin to provide another peak hour service

There are plans for additional services on the northern line and these will be focused on Dundalk/Drogheda with limited stops and will be intercity railcars. Probably looking at something happening in 2012 on this as the trains and new signaling should be in place


Thanks for the reply and clarification,good to hear that IE are planning something productive to bring back commuters from drogheda/dundalk,they've lost a lot of them in the past 2 yrs.

Eamonn 20-09-2011 20:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson (Post 64125)
There are plans for additional services on the northern line and these will be focused on Dundalk/Drogheda with limited stops and will be intercity railcars. Probably looking at something happening in 2012 on this as the trains and new signaling should be in place

Have you any more information on this by any chance? The train service is painfully slow at the moment and seems to be getting worse with the increased passenger numbers with the schools and colleges back.

The train that comes into Balbriggan at 07:50 is due in at Tara Street at 08:34 but it is usually late. A bus (the 101n) leaves Balbriggan 10 minutes later but regularly passes under Tara Street bridge in or around the same time as the 07:50 train even though the train only has 4 scheduled stops before Tara Street. All peak time trains going into town seem to stop at Clontarf and take an age to get through Connolly too.

On the way home I only get either the 17:16 train from Tara Street or the 18:40 from Connolly because the others are desperately slow. The 18:40 train takes 33 minutes to get to Balbriggan from Connolly whereas the 17:58 train from Tara Street takes an extra 16 minutes on good days.

Inniskeen 20-09-2011 23:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson (Post 64125)
Its purely a demand/distance function and there is an equation which relates the journey time, frequency and population of a town to the demand it will create which was devised for Dublin some years back, so as Dundalk has a smaller population and is further away than Drogheda its demand is lower

Further out a commuter train goes, the fewer it carries and the fare for longer journeys is less than that of a shorter journey. So the cost to run further increases quickly. Some evening trains to Drogheda manage to turnaround and get back to Dublin to provide another peak hour service

There are plans for additional services on the northern line and these will be focused on Dundalk/Drogheda with limited stops and will be intercity railcars. Probably looking at something happening in 2012 on this as the trains and new signaling should be in place

Two key points in the above post seem to be at variance with the facts.
  1. The population of Dundalk (at least in the 2006 census) was actually higher than Drogheda.
  2. On the northern line fares actually get dramatcically cheaper nearer the city (from Balbriggan and stations thereof), a long time bone of contention. Drogheda and Dundalk commuters are charged Intercity fares but are getting nothing like an Intercity quality of service having to make do with really slow trains, heavy peak period overcrowding and significant sevice gaps. Something substantially better is long overdue and is an urgent requirement if Irish Rail wishes to regain market share.

Colm Moore 21-09-2011 06:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inniskeen (Post 64132)
Two key points in the above post seem to be at variance with the facts.
  1. The population of Dundalk (at least in the 2006 census) was actually higher than Drogheda.
  2. On the northern line fares actually get dramatcically cheaper nearer the city (from Balbriggan and stations thereof), a long time bone of contention. Drogheda and Dundalk commuters are charged Intercity fares but are getting nothing like an Intercity quality of service having to make do with really slow trains, heavy peak period overcrowding and significant sevice gaps. Something substantially better is long overdue and is an urgent requirement if Irish Rail wishes to regain market share.

1. You need to consider Mornington, Donacarney, Bettystown, Duleek and most of Louth south of Dundalk would use Drogheda.
2. While there are fare anomalies, I think Mark meant that the income/distance drops a lot from Drogheda to Dundalk, whereas the cost/distance doesn't.

Padna 21-09-2011 10:22

On the Dundalk vs Drogheda issue, I wonder are Dundalk people favouring the bus over the train more so than Drogheda people for journeys to/from Dublin?

I live in Dundalk and was a regular commuter on the train from 2007 to 2010. This year I switched to the Matthews Coach service and my (totally unscientific) impression is that it carries more Dundalk than Drogheda passengers (whereas the trains generally seemed more popular with Drogheda passengers).

Not sure why this might be the case (if my impression is actually correct)!

Seannew1 21-09-2011 10:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Padna (Post 64136)
On the Dundalk vs Drogheda issue, I wonder are Dundalk people favouring the bus over the train more so than Drogheda people for journeys to/from Dublin?

I live in Dundalk and was a regular commuter on the train from 2007 to 2010. This year I switched to the Matthews Coach service and my (totally unscientific) impression is that it carries more Dundalk than Drogheda passengers (whereas the trains generally seemed more popular with Drogheda passengers).

Not sure why this might be the case (if my impression is actually correct)!

Your probably right,I've noticed that myself,more trains start and terminate in Drogheda whereas matthews seem to have a good few buses that go directly to dundalk so thats prob a big factor.

IE lost a lot of dundalk commuters when the malahide viaduct went down,i think for a lot of them that was the final straw,drogheda didn't have it as bad with the buses starting from there.


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