Enterprise Farce

[Inniskeen]

The 1520 Dublin/Belfast apparently failed on arrival in Drogheda at 1555 this afternoon. The unfortunate passengers reportedly had to wait until around 1745 before being stuffed onto the already overfull 1650 to Belfast. The 1650 itself was running about 20 minutes late due to an issue with the preceding 1555 Bray/Howth DART.

How can it be that Irish Rail's cannot rustle up even a suburban railcar at one of their principal depot locations. Really hard to see a prosperous future for such a dismal service.

[Mark Gleeson]

It takes 2 staff to take ANY train cross border, for evening peak hour there would be no spare trains in Drogheda they would be in Dublin quite rightly, in the morning there is spare in Drogheda which has numerous times filled in for the early enterprise.


15:55 Bray Howth was broadly on time leaving Connolly but started to loose time on the north side due a technical fault on one of the trains. A pantograph contact strip seemed to be missing or worn through on one coach so the train lurched badly under acceleration

Anyone on the 15:20 today going cross border is entitled to full refund of any ticket

[Inniskeen]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

It takes 2 staff to take ANY train cross border, for evening peak hour there would be no spare trains in Drogheda they would be in Dublin quite rightly, in the morning there is spare in Drogheda which has numerous times filled in for the early enterprise.


15:55 Bray Howth was broadly on time leaving Connolly but started to loose time on the north side due a technical fault on one of the trains. A pantograph contact strip seemed to be missing or worn through on one coach so the train lurched badly under acceleration

Anyone on the 15:20 today going cross border is entitled to full refund of any ticket

If the facts are as I understand them (i.e train failed on the northbound platform at Drogheda with no other attendant circumstances) then Irish Rail treated their passengers with contempt, either through indifference, incompetence or lack of reasonable contingency planning. Irrespective of how many staff are required to crew a cross-border service, any outfit that thinks a performance like this is acceptable or excusable doesn't have a bright future.

Incidentally NIR were able to provide a substitute train for the 1810 from Belfast. It crawled into Connolly behind yet another late running DART.

Also from what I understand the northern line peak commuter services were a mess yet again with, for instance the infamously slow 1755 to Dundalk taking a little short of two hours to reach its destination.

And Irish Rail wonders why people are choosing other modes of transport.

[Jamie2k9]

This is becoming a the norm to make passengers wait for the next service instead of providing a bus transfer. I think thats acceptable on the Cork line with an hourly service but not on any other line as the wait would be closer to 2 hours.

In general on time performance on the Belfast line has being appalling over the last few weeks. The 07.35 had wheel slip problems this morning but the amount of failures and delays both sides of the border is not acceptable of late.

[Inniskeen]

Originally Posted by Jamie2k9

This is becoming a the norm to make passengers wait for the next service instead of providing a bus transfer. I think thats acceptable on the Cork line with an hourly service but not on any other line as the wait would be closer to 2 hours.

In general on time performance on the Belfast line has being appalling over the last few weeks. The 07.35 had wheel slip problems this morning but the amount of failures and delays both sides of the border is not acceptable of late.

If I am travelling by train (and paid a premium for doing so), I certainly would'nt want to be dumped on a bus other than when there is no other option. If you are sitting beside one of the principal depots in the country there should be another option.

Yesterdays options in order should have been, spare ICR from depot, spare commuter railcar from depot, spare locomotive from Drogheda, bus substitution, locomotive from Connolly, NIR C3K from Portadown/Belfast, transfer passenger to late running 1650. I know not all of these options were necessarily available, but something better than the worst possible option should have been implemented.

Bringing the locomotive from Connolly and hooking it up to the train, even it it took 1½ hours would have been better than stuffing the unfortunate passengers onto the 1650.

[ACustomer]

Was the failed enterprise operating with HEP or a MK 3 Gen Van?