[13-12-2007] Dart Northbound.
 

Last night, I arrived at Pearse street needing to go to Clontarf road.

Upon getting the platform, the PIS said the next train was far Malahide calling at Tara, Connolly, Clontarf Road, Howth Junction and Malahide.

I was delighted, with the platform packed, I knew the train wouldn't be too bad as the train didn't suit most people.

So in came the Dart, and I boarded. I was standing, but there was plenty of room. This was at about 18:28 last night. A French couple were talking next to me, (in French, which I don't really understand too well) - but the general gist of it was they thought they were on the wrong train.

I asked them were they ok, did they need help. He said he wanted to go to Connolly but was confused and can't see where Bre is on his map. I was confused by this, until I saw the onboard PIS. It said, "Next station Bre, this is the last stop".

I smiled and assured him, that after the next stop, which is Tara, you can get off at Connolly. Rightfully, he didn't seem to trust me - why would he. From his point of view, the National Rail Company is suppose to be correct. Anyway we pulled into Connolly, much to couples relief.

So then, as we made our usual slow departure out of Connolly and traditional stop at Fairview, for no apparent reason, I got thinking - this train is an exception. Its a Dart with an express from Clontarf Road to Howth Junction. Even if that element of the journey did not affect the tourists I encountered, it is still important that the onboard PIS display the correct information for a train that is not going to stop at a number of stations it would normally stop at.

So sure enough, we finally got an annoucement coming into Clontarf Road:

"This train will not stop Clontarf Road Howth Juntion, I repeat, this train will not stop Clontarf Road Howth Juntion"

Thats what he said. I understand it, you understand it. But its a good job that Ireland has a very few tourists and a low immigrant population who rarely use public transport!! *Tongue in cheek*

[quote=Colm R;28385]Last night, I arrived at Pearse street needing to go to Clontarf road.

Upon getting the platform, the PIS said the next train was far Malahide calling at Tara, Connolly, Clontarf Road, Howth Junction and Malahide.

"This train will not stop Clontarf Road Howth Juntion, I repeat, this train will not stop Clontarf Road Howth Juntion"[quote]

That simply was'nt on. The PIS at Pearse read those stations and therefore should stop. Its a little late after passing Connolly when you could change trains, Stopping at Fairview Clontarf is literally right there. I didnt even know there was a Express Dart train. I say there was a good few people not happy about that.:eek:

I'm pretty sure that this particular Dart is a regular occurence. I show up at Pearse at irregular times so don't get it that often. Personally it suits me great, and its not too busy as it leaves lots of people behind on the platform.

I think they were able to fit it in ahead of an enterprise or drogheda service, hence not holding up the train behind it.

I've had the (mis)pleasure of getting that train in both disguises when aiming for Killester.

Once on the original set with no indication and no announcement by driver that it was skipping all stops between Clontarf Road and Howth Junction. Got to spend half an hour in Howth Junction.... Lucky me.

A couple of other times there were automated announcements and displays indicating that it would not stop between Clontarf Road and Howth Junction when it did stop at all stations.

My mother told me about the CIE mystery trains of old. Guess we still have them.

There is no secret the train is listed in the timetables as skipping those stations and it is on the platform display

There are serious issues with the automated systems which Irish Rail just don't want to address we have tried but they don't seem to want to listen

There's a Malahide bound DART that leaves Pearse at 18.20, is that the one?

I've nearly been caught out once or twice, gf was once and missed Killester.

The problem is that even if you know about it, there's a Howth-bound one that stops at all the stations 5 minutes later. If the trains are (as they so rarely do) running late, you can easily get on the Malahide one thinking its the Howth one. Given the mess the PIS is sometimes in you won't know unless the driver makes an announcement, or you see Killester whizzing past.

I confess to not knowing the DART timetable for every station off by heart. Also, the stations that a train serves tends to be on the scrolling part of the platform display so it could be missed by less vigilant folk like myself.

Important to clarify this is not a arbitrary random change, its published

So you are admitting you don't use the information provided ? With respect, how long does it take to watch a display scroll - 15 seconds?

Point taken, however my issue is with the on board PIS. It was wrong. As anyone who is familliar with Dublin, it wasn't a problem. But for foreign tourists, or even someone up from the country shopping for the day, it confused matters. The fact that this service had limited stops means that the PIS really needs to be working anyway.

If the onboard system is working it does tell you it runs non stop, of course it never works and I've had it tell me numerous times the train is running non stop when its not

I know IE will roll out all class of excuses of software problems but it really depends on the driver more than anything else, they frequently forget to push the start button

I watched a stand off a few years back between a passenger and a driver when the system was way out of sync, driver kept saying he couldn't switch it off, 30 seconds later it shut down:D