[11-09-2007] 07:00 Dublin-Cork

d8boy · 11-09-2007, 23:13

A fun morning at Heuston!

I was travelling to Limerick on the 07:00. Arriving at 6:50 I found a long and stationery queue at Platform 5. At 7:25 we were directed to Platform 6 where it looked like the set for the 08:00 to Cork was being used to form the 07:00. We left at 07:40 but made additional stops at Hazelhatch, Sallins and Newbridge to cover for the 06:15 to Portlaoise which had been cancelled due to a "fault with the set". The late departure of the 07:00 was also blamed on a "fault with the set" and there was plenty of railway jargon in other announcements. While informative, the advice that "passengers for Kildare should detrain at Newbridge as this train will use the middle road in Kildare and will not thus stop at the station" may have confused a few souls! There were also several requests for passengers for various named suburban stations to identify themsleves to staff "as we are trying to expedite progress by making as a few stops as possible" and a promise that "the driver will try to make up time".

We were 57 minutes late by Limerick Junction and 65 minutes late arriving in Limerick as the connection from the Junction was delayed in the loop at Dromkeen.

To be fair on IE they had staff at that ticket barriers in Limerick handing out Passenger Charter claim forms. But could someone not have decided to use a substitute set earlier than 7:25 and thus minimise the delay?

CSL · 13-09-2007, 11:21

sounds to me like you were blessed with intelligent staff ON the train and at Colbert, but were let down by the rest of IE [ two sets sitting down simultaneously and no-one bothering to inform anyone till too late to make a difference ]

11-09-2007, 23:13	#1
d8boy Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Dublin Posts: 12	[11-09-2007] 07:00 Dublin-Cork A fun morning at Heuston! I was travelling to Limerick on the 07:00. Arriving at 6:50 I found a long and stationery queue at Platform 5. At 7:25 we were directed to Platform 6 where it looked like the set for the 08:00 to Cork was being used to form the 07:00. We left at 07:40 but made additional stops at Hazelhatch, Sallins and Newbridge to cover for the 06:15 to Portlaoise which had been cancelled due to a "fault with the set". The late departure of the 07:00 was also blamed on a "fault with the set" and there was plenty of railway jargon in other announcements. While informative, the advice that "passengers for Kildare should detrain at Newbridge as this train will use the middle road in Kildare and will not thus stop at the station" may have confused a few souls! There were also several requests for passengers for various named suburban stations to identify themsleves to staff "as we are trying to expedite progress by making as a few stops as possible" and a promise that "the driver will try to make up time". We were 57 minutes late by Limerick Junction and 65 minutes late arriving in Limerick as the connection from the Junction was delayed in the loop at Dromkeen. To be fair on IE they had staff at that ticket barriers in Limerick handing out Passenger Charter claim forms. But could someone not have decided to use a substitute set earlier than 7:25 and thus minimise the delay?

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13-09-2007, 11:21	#2
CSL Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 378	sounds to me like you were blessed with intelligent staff ON the train and at Colbert, but were let down by the rest of IE [ two sets sitting down simultaneously and no-one bothering to inform anyone till too late to make a difference ]