Dublin - Sligo and Sligo - Dublin

[joey]

Three hours is too long, surely this can be done faster. The Cork service was improved why not this one? Even one or two of the trains each day, doesn't need to stop at every stop, yes there are loops.

[Jamie2k9]

3 hours is completive with the car and the bus takes much longer. Nothing is going to change anytime soon. Haven't traveled past Maynooth on Sligo line but isn't there a lot of bends. Speed and bends don't mix well.

Running a limited stop service will have little affect as trains will still crawl through stations so saving at best will be a few minutes while it has potential to lose passengers as a result.

Comparing Cork with Sligo isn't realistic as Cork is the bussiest rail line and Sligo is fifth or sixth bussiest.

[Inniskeen]

There is considerable scope for speeding up Dublin/Sligo/Dublin services. At least twenty minutes could be be taken off the existing schedules within current line speeds.

In addition there is considerable scope for increasing maximum line speed to 90 mph over considerable sections of the route, especially west of Hill of Down.

Further time could be saved by more intelligent scheduling between Connolly and Maynooth - it really shouldn't take a non-stop service any more than twenty minutes to cover this section in either direction.

[joey]

Further time could be saved by more intelligent scheduling between Connolly and Maynooth - it really shouldn't take a non-stop service any more than twenty minutes to cover this section in either direction.[/quote]

Absolutely, 30mins connolly to maynooth is too long, ten minutes could be saved there. Car takes 2 and half hours sligo from dublin, to be competitve they need to speed the train up.

[James Howard]

Removing stops probably isn't really a possibility - certainly east of Longford there are relatively few stops and these are all quite busy anyway. The Maynooth running time is just stupid. I have been on a delayed service that has covered Connolly to Maynooth in under 15 minutes so 20 should be achievable but not with Irish Rail's somewhat casual attitude towards timing.

If you look at the 0545 up-train, this is scheduled for 37 minutes between Maynooth and Connolly - 7 minutes more than the 1100 yet it manages an overall running time of 2 minutes less - probably because it doesn't have a spare 10 minutes allocated to sit in Edgeworthstown waiting for a crossing.

A bit more flexibility with scheduling the crossings would also be a massive help. Most up trains wait to cross for 10 minutes in Edgeworthstown but surely it would make more sense to plan to cross in Longford as it is more likely that a down train is going to be delayed due to congestion around Dublin. Then you could have the up-train proceed the 11km or so to Edgeworthstown and cross there if a down-train was delayed. Something similar would work between Mullingar and Killucan but Edgeworthstown and Mullingar are too far apart. In an ideal world, adding an extra crossing somewhere like the former Inny Junction would give even more flexibility but that is never going to happen.

90mph running wouldn't help the timetable while Irish Rail still run 29Ks to Sligo which are restricted to 70mph.

[joey]

29k on the 1300 ex Sligo today. Why is there an insistence using these commuter trains on long journeys?

[Inniskeen]

There is little excuse to run 2900s on Sligo line services, only reason is that it may be more convenient for Irish Rail to roster 8 x 2900s rather than 6 x ICRs on some busier Friday/Sunday services.

[Inniskeen]

There is little excuse to run 2900s on Sligo line services, only reason is that it may be more convenient for Irish Rail to roster 8 x 2900s rather than 6 x ICRs on some busier Friday/Sunday services.

[James Howard]

The 13:00 to Sligo seems to always be a 29k on a Friday probably because is too busy to be run by a 3x22k and they don't have any other spare 22Ks available. Hence Irish Rail need to drive some customers away by making it a 29k.

I am always quite surprised when I take an afternoon Sligo train. You would think a mid afternoon service like the 3PM would be deserted yet they end up being packed. It is quite an achievement for Irish Rail to lose money on this level of business.

[joey]

So uncomfortable dot com using the 29k on a journey like that, I have had many an experience using it. They often do the 1pm ex Dublin on a Sunday then that would have been the 5pm back from Sligo - before the timetable changes.

[seamus kilcock]

Is the 1105 Dublin to Sligo a 22000 service.

[Mark Gleeson]

All services Monday to Saturday with the possible exception of the 13:05 to Sligo and 18:00 return are 22k operated

[seamus kilcock]

Thanks Mark.
Seamus

[Jamie2k9]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

All services Monday to Saturday with the possible exception of the 13:05 to Sligo and 18:00 return are 22k operated

Its only Friday and Sunday that the 13.05 and 18.00 services are not 22k, because there isn't/not bothered finding a 6 piece to operate instead of the usual 3.

[seamus kilcock]

I joined the 0800 Connolly to Sligo train at Kilcock to-day 26th Feb. Timing was good.
And the wi-fi worked almost 100% the whole way to Sligo. I was in carriage 'A'.
Returning from Sligo at 1300 - same train set - I was in carriage 'C'.
Even though I had a constant wi-fi signal on my iPhone, RTE and Newstalk were constantly dropping out.
I switched off the wi-fi and I found the o2 signal gave me almost 100% perfect RTE and Newstalk.
The only timing issue on the 'up' trip was being held at Edgeworthstown for 13 minutes because the 1305 down we were crossing was running late.
I wonder why the wi-fi did not work in carriage 'C' on the up trip having worked ok in carriage 'A' on the down trip?

[Mark Gleeson]

There are a handful of coaches floating around which have defective equipment.

There is a program to trace and replace a part on those coaches to resolve the issue.

[James Howard]

This is why the WiFi service doesn't work especially well. If you want to listen to the radio, you should bring a radio. If 20 people on the train are using streaming audio, that effectively uses up the entire channel and nobody gets a good experience.

I have largely given up on the WiFi except in Connolly station where for some reason my phone's data connection doesn't work at all well.

13 minutes at Edgeworthstown isn't too bad. Most up trains are scheduled with 5 - 10 minutes extra between Longford and Edgeworthstown anyway.

[joey]

1300 from sligo to dublin - 3rd march was a 29K

pulled up in Longford and a six car 22K set sitting idle on a station siding.

terribly uncomfortable journey, plus WI-FI dire.

Why oh Why!

[James Howard]

This set is what runs the 1805 Connolly to Longford Monday to Friday. Given that there are no Longford-only services at the weekend, there is no practical way to get it back in place at Longford to run the service it is needed for on Monday morning.

The only option which might make sense would be to run it to Sligo as an 18:05 Friday-only service which would probably be reasonably busy and then run it back up at the crack of dawn on Monday so that it was in Longford at its normal time. But I can't see that doing much trade so this is not likely to happen.

In theory, they could run the 1805 to Longford as a 29k on a Friday but I'm not going to argue for that on a personal basis as this is my regular train. Also it is probably more in Irish Rail's interest to keep the commuters sweet by offering dependable 22k service rather than trying to please the infrequent weekend mid-day travellers.

[joey]

same again today