[15/08/2012]-Delays through Connolly

[Jamie2k9]

Darts suspened between Clontarf qnd Tara St due power line problems at Connlly. Maynooth and M3 Parkway all delayed 40mins and no serving Drumcondra. Other Northen services also delayed 40mins.

[Mark Gleeson]

Incident earlier at Northern end of Connolly, DART damaged the overhead lines at Junction with Maynooth/GS&WR line.

Power off Clontarf Rd - Connolly

Equipment now on site to repair but require isolation of entire Connolly area

Maynooth via Midland line to platform 7 Connolly.

Northern and Enterprise can just about fit by down by the train wash

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishrail.ie/cat_news.jsp?i=4671&p=116&n=237

DART resumimg between Tara Street and Clontarf Road . Delays up to 30 mins to services through Connolly Station.
15 August 2012

DARTs services between Tara Street and Clontarf Road have now resumed following earlier disruption due to a mechanical fault on a train north of Connolly. Delays to services through Connolly up to 30 mins continue but these are expected to ease shortly.

The mechanical fault north of Connolly was due to the pantograph (the extending arm on the DART which connects with the overhead wires) and caused overhead wire damage also.

Iarnród Éireann apologises for the inconvenience caused by this morning's disruption and thanks customers for their patience.

[karlr42]

Seems to me that when there are problems leading to DARTs meeting red signals unexpectedly the ATP slows things down immensely, or the drivers are not reacting fast enough to the warnings. I've been watching train after train drop to <5mph on the viaduct outside Pearse and then crawl into the platform all day.

[Inniskeen]

Very poor decision making in relation to the Connolly disruption this morning. Initial incident of southbound DART snagging the OHLE occured just before 0700. Subsequent southbound diesel operated services were delayed by between twenty and thirty five minutes up to 0830 after which Irish Rail decided to commence repairs to the damaged overhead resulting in subsequent services being delayed by up to ninety minutes.

It is very hard to understand why repairs were commenced while thousands of people were still approaching Connolly on heavily overcrowded diesel operated services. Surely repairs could have waited until 0930 or 1000 by which time the majority of commuters would have reached their places of work.

I am not by the way criticising the unfortunate repair crews who had to work in truely miserable weather conditions.

DART services through Connolly were restored around 1250.

A really dismal day for Dublin rail commuters made all the worse by very poor management and decision making.

[Rashers]

I got the impression there was an issue with overhead powerlines between Dun Laoghaire and Bray (around Dalkey) between 7am and 8.45am. This delayed my inbound Drogheda-Bray train between Howth Junction and Connolly for an additional 20 mins (not a single announcement by driver). But when I got off, I thought they were announcing that while that issue had been resolved, a 2nd overhead issue had occurred north of Connolly. I know someone who was stuck on the Newry to Bray service, and he said he was 1 hour and 15mins delayed.
And that before the weather got bad!

[Inniskeen]

There were no services between Bray and Dun Laoghaire until alomost 0800 this morning, the first train being the 0555 from Gorey which arrived at 0709 and departed at 0748.

There was a service of sorts from Dun Laoghaire but this was disrupted by the absence of southbound workings due to further OHLE damage which occured near Connolly shortly before 0700 and resulted in the suspension of services south of Clontarf Road to either Connolly, Tara Street or Pearse as dictated by varying OHLE isolations as the morning progressed.