Old Commuter & Dart Announcements!
 

For the past year the announcements on both the Commuter and the DART have been in English and then Irish. For instance, "The Next Station is <English station name>, <Irish station name>". Also, when it gets near town it says "Please mind the gap and have your ticket ready for validation" after the announcements for the next station. While I am aware of the introduction for exit validation I much preferred the old announcements when it said "passengers leaving the train at <named Dublin station>, please mind the gap between the train and the platform, please ensure you have your ticket ready for INSPECTION". It sounded smarter and more precise. Some passengers might not know what the announcements mean when they say "gap" or "validation". Correct me if I am wrong but Pearse still doesn't have exit validation.

As well as that, when I would have gotten on the Commuter a year ago the announcements would have said "this train is for <destination name>, calling at <destination 1>, <destination 2>...... and <destination name>". Now it says "this train is for <destination name>, <destination name in Irish>". I think it is important that the passenger knows the exact list of stations being served as soon as they board the train as they may end up being trapped on the train, accidently passing their intended stop. Recently they partially fixed this problem where it calls out the remainder of the stations when it gets into town. While it may have been quite intrusive for the passenger who has been on the train since it's departure, it is important that these announcements are made when taking on new passengers at later stations. Alternatively, the announcements could be made at stations being serviced by Commuter branded trains when the train is approaching. I personnaly think that the old announcements should be brought back!

Im with you on every point that you've mentioned. It is important for the calling out at every new station. The Please have your ticket ready for inspection bring that back. But then your going to get someone who will say there is no inspection but you enter your ticket through the validation machine and Bla, Bla, Bla....... After all the machines inspects your ticket...

In most cases the information notice on the platform (where installed) will have said which stations the train is serving. I've also found (on my limited experience of suburban railcars) that once the train gets into limited-stop sections, the driver announces "next stop Dalkey" or whatever after the doors open.

"This train is for Bray calling at Leixlip Louisa Bridge, Leixlip Confey, Clonsilla, Coolmine, Castleknock, Ashtown, Broombridge, Drumcondra, Dublin Connolly, Tara Street, Dublin Pearse, Grand Canal Dock, Lansdowne Road, Sydney Parade, Booterstown, Blackrock, Seapoint, Salthill, Dun Laoighaire, Sandycove, Glenageary, Dalkey, Killiney, Shankill and Bray."

Repeat at every stop, reducing the number of stations called out by one.
Also repeat every time the driver attempts to close the door but cannot due to overcrowding.

Trust me - this can become annoying. Especially on the mornings when for some reason the announcement is deafeningly loud.
I prefer the current setup. One less annoyance to bear. In fact, I'm all for manual announcements.

The double announcements in Irish should be got rid of - I doubt there are too many people travelling on Dublin suburban routes who speak Gaelic only.

The legal requirement is to state the destination and next stop only.

There is a statutory requirement on Irish Rail as a state body to display all destinations in Irish and English. The Mk4 Dublin - Cork trains are perfectly bilingual

An automated system is favored as it is consistent in the information it provides and the voice is known and recognised by those who are blind or partially sighted

Irish Rail should not be using the tickets for validation line, thats not a required statement, mind the gap is however required for safety reasons at certain stations only and the computer knows which

Everyone may agree or disagree but everytime I board any train, I expect the PA information to be displayed and the driver/onboard announcements to work/said.

To be honest I prefer the PA announcements made by the train crews. Some can be quite good and to the point

Ed

Dont get me wrong, The other day the travelled to Dublin and returned on 18:35 Rosslare and the driver said the announcements so cleary. If the drivers could do this(Not teasing any drivers if any on this site)then we wouldnt need onboard announcements just the outside display and front.......... Its just some drivers come on and they either shout or cough and the intercom isnt excatly friendly.

I was on the 14.10 ex Gorey recently and the manual announcments were very professional . As the train entered Connolly passangers were told change here for . . . . not often heard on manual announcments.

Ed

Up the Gorey/Rosslare drivers...........

I think the old announcements were fine. About Five years ago a Rosslare driver must have been in a great humor because as he approched every station on the route he said (Examlpe) Ladies and Gents we are now approching Gorey, Welcome to the south east. Courtown is about 6miles from the station enjoy your hoildays and enjoy the town. Thanks a million for travelling with Iarnrod Eireann and me.......

I personally think Iarnrod Eireann should bring back last years onboard announcements on the Commuter trains. They were much more whats the word professional than the announcements now. Just for example "Next station Bray, Bre, Please mind the gap". Towards last years "The next station is Bray, Pasengers leaving the train at Bray, Please mind the gap between the train and the platfrom".. On arrival into Gorey when the train has come to an complain stop then the announcement says "Were now arriving at Gorey, This is the last stop on this service etc etc.. Dont you think that the final announcement should be heard just approching what-ever station it may be terminating at.;)

The new version is more concise and is closer to the required format of the accessibility rules

There is a requirement to keep the announcements simple and clear, last year the announcements where ridiculously long winded and broke several of the rules

Those Bray announcements above there is about 5 seconds between them and last years. There really should'nt be rules regarding this. Mind the gap against Please mind the gap between the train and the platform, Its just this bit added:confused: . So the rules are to be short but not literally to the point. Gap -> Gap and the train...
Still not your doing so I cant eat you:D

I got on the 17:34 Malahide DART at Pearse this evening. I hadn't got that particular DART since the new timetable came into operation and assumed it hadn't changed, ie - it was serving all stations to Malahide, hence I never looked at the display in the station which would have told me which stations it would be serving.

Between Pearse and Tara St an automatic announcement came on to say that this train does not stop between Connolly Station and Howth Junction. Same announcement came on between Tara Street and Connolly Station. It was only after people got off the train at Connolly Station that the driver announced that the train served all stations to Malahide (I had already organised a lift from Howth Junction). No further automated announcements after that.

I find that the announcements don't seem to work properly, or at all, on most of the DARTs I travel on.

Just curious but why has IE never considered putting the time on the PA systems aslike the Enterprise service.

They did, it was considered a step too far, something yet further to go wrong

Shame but has the Belfast ever encountered a problem with this. Because it is handy just looking up at the time.. but I guess this is to advanced for IE:D

Time, date, temperature, speed etc can all be done on the Dublin Cork train just not a good idea

There is an accessibility issue, the displays are meant to be used to convey useful information.

Enterprise has a very different display system to everything else, it can display graphics

Oh, I thought you meant like "This is the 0751 service to....."

It's quite obvious why they don't do that. It's because the trains never run on time.