[21/11/2013] Delays to evening peak Darts and Northern suburban line
 

Presently 10-15 min delays to all northbound Darts. This is particularly impacting Northern suburban line trains, as Darts to Malahide are being run directly in the path of the suburban trains. It just get worse each day.:(

Delays now over 20 mins on Northern suburban line. Silence from driver. :(

Big delay yesterday evening. I was on the 1755 Pearse-Dundalk train. Was delayed, stopping at Malahide for at least 10mins .... it even went backwards at one stage ! Eventually crawled into Drogheda at 19.30 .... approx 30mins late.

Can someone please explain the logistics of having a DART to Malahide running 2mins before this 1755 commuter train. This commuter train (the first in 30 mins at what is peak rush hour) also stops at DART stations, making a long journey unnecessarily longer!
If it does need to stop at DART stations, then surely it makes more sense to run the commuter train before the DART!!

The DART is supposed to be 6 minutes ahead of the commuter service, presumably it was running late.

Unfortunately the priority for operating the services is set as follows:

1. DART
2. Commuter
3. Enterprise / Intercity

This does lead to nonsensical decisions on occasions, such as running DART services directly ahead of non-stop services.

The thinking behind it would be that the DART has a short turnarounds in Malahide/Howth and the hope would be that it would make up time en route to get back on time.

The current operational methodology on the northern line is little short of idiotic. For instance, on aoccasions, the 1800 ex Greystones is dispatched from Connolly litterally seconds ahead of the 1900 to Belfast.

A not untypical scenario is that the 1842 DART to Malahide departs more or less to time, then 18 minutes later the 1853 to Howth departs, then seconds later the Belfast train departs.

Taking a more holistic view, the current timetable is poorly designed and creates conflicts where none are necessary. DART theoretically at runs to a 15 minute interval schedule, yet Belfast trains in many instances are not aligned with that schedule. Going back to the 1900 to Belfast, even if the preceding DART is on time, the Belfast train will be forced down to a crawl from Killester to Howth Junction and suffer a delay of at least five minutes. Answer move the Belfast departure to 1905, same applies to the 1100. I could list about thirty similar examples of commuter services similarly and unecessarily delayed.

Take the 0540 from Dundalk. This used to depart at 0545 and arrive on the tail of the 0630 DART from Malahide. This DART is routinely late, but rather than address the DART issue Irish Rail advanced the 0545 to 0540. It still arrives on the tail of the 0630 DART, is delayed by it and frequently misses the 0709 return departure from Pearse.

Leaving aside the inadequate number of running lines north of Connolly, the infrastructure that is in place is poorly designed. Malahide is a joke with DARTs languishing on the running lines obstructing other services as only one line is then available through Malahide with southbound trains forced to change tracks at little more than walking pace.

Clongriffin is another farce, plenty of space to divert DART onto a separate track in both directions but despite spending tens of millions on a new signalling system, Irish Rail couldn't be bothered providing the facility in the southbound direction.

The real elephant in the room is DART performance, the last few weeks have been pathetic while overall performance outside the leaf fall season, in terms of timekeeping, is at best indifferent. Recovery from delays is poor both in terms of individual train performance and in terms of system management.

In the morning, before the first northbound Enterprise, there is a commuter and before that, there is a DART. That makes sense as each train is then maximised and every(?) station is served. However, yes, sending a DART in fornt of the enterprise doesn't make sense.

"The DART is supposed to be 6 minutes ahead of the commuter service, presumably it was running late."

I would travel on the 17.55 Pearse-Dundalk Commuter train 95% of the time and I guarantee that the DART is never 6 minutes ahead ... never !