Missing Carriages

[midonogh]

Please see below letter of compliant lodged with IR.

"Dear Sir
Can someone provide me with an explanation as to why yesterday's (2 April) train was one carriage short and this mornings (3 April) was four carriages shorter. Also as to why no announcement was made to this effect at Skerries Station. The reduced capacity led to severe overcrowding on all carriages and passengers were unable to board at Donabate and at Malahide and Howth Junction. The lack of platform announcement at Skerries led to a dangerous scrum along a narrow platform as passengers realised at the last minute that there were 4 carriages missing"
Yours....

I lived in London for many years and travelled on the LU Northern Line so am well used to packed carriages. This morning was as bad as anything that I experienced there. What infuriated me was the lack of announcement and the suspicion that IR are reducing the number of carriages during the school holiday period to reduce costs. If teh carriages have been taken out for essential repairs I would agree that now is the best time to do it, but at least they should let us know that this is the case.

Does anyone have any insight?

[Terrontress]

I was on that train this morning and the situation was exacerbated by a few other matters.

The train was about 7 minutes late by the time it left Donabate. Therefore, all the people who had arrived for the 8.00 service to Connolly tried to board the 7.51. I am sure this happened further up the line.

Furthermore, the train went to what I would call the Northbound platform at Howth Junction instead of its normal platform. As a result, many people who were waiting for the DART got onto the Commuter train.

I am surprised that the passengers are able to interact in a civil fashion when we are being treated like cattle on their way to market.

So after one of the most uncomfortable train journeys of my life, the train was 20 minutes late getting into Lansdowne.

What a joke.

[Mark Gleeson]

It would be helpful to know specifically which train(s) this was

Some trains are booked to be 4, 6 or 8 coaches in length, it is physically impossible to be 1 coach short, suburban trains always come in multiples of 2

Irish Rail keep denying it but they are short suburban trains, a good 40 coaches by our estimates and as a result the current fleet is pushed well beyond what it was intended to do with resulting variations in train lengths

There is a cosy arrangement between rail operators and safety authorities, they cling to the fact that there is no standard anywhere in Europe concerning overcrowding levels and state the train is designed to carry way above the achievable load

[midonogh]

Ah apologies, my mail to IE had the train in the title
It was the 07-18 from Drogheda to Pearse (it goes on to Bray I believe)

[Mark Gleeson]

Thanks for that it makes investigation much easier

7:18 Drogheda Bray is rostered as a 8 coach 2600 type train, the railcar with the original DART style seats

Firstly the train set of the 7:18 (also the same as the dreaded 18:15 from Pearse) is the most unreliable train operating through Connolly, its broken down in all manner of ways in the last few weeks (http://www.platform11.org/news/news....007&no=7.html). Its likely on Monday a 6 coach set was sent out as they still haven't fixed the coach which broke last Tuesday evening, they had lifted 2 coaches from the Rosslare line to fill the gap last week

So clearly Tuesday morning something else broke. No notice on the IE site. I don't blame the maintenance guys since they pushing the fleet as hard as it will go to cover the fact Irish Rail are short coaches, its not sustainable and there are ZERO suburban coaches on order

[ThomasJ]

That train was 20 minutes late leaving connolly. Departed ahead of the 08.42 connolly to bray (from maynooth) caused knockons with darts