I was on that DART and it was stopped north of Connolly for six seconds under five minutes. It was full with a fair number standing but nothing spectacular given the delay and the time of the evening. Station stops were relatively brief, approximately 30 seconds at each station from Clontarf Road to Portmarnock again indicating that the train wasn't overly taxed in terms of passengers.
The main problem with operations on this route is that the infrastructure is inadequate to support the timetable and too inflexible to allow quick recovery in the event of anything other than a very minor disturbance. Without additional tracks stations such as Clongriffin can only be properly served by downgrading existing services which is in effect what the proposed new timetable does. Huge stations have been built on the Kildare line with up to five platforms in addition to fast and slow lines. Patronage at these stations are negligible while Clongriffin, which is much busier, has been built with four platforms and only three tracks !
|