2010 timetable revisions - Irish Rail

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishrail.ie/your_journey/printed_timetable_pdfs/2010/2009-10%20Timetable%20Alterat.doc

Iarnród Éireann wish to advise customers that a number of alterations have been made to the current timetable which commenced on Sunday 29th November 2009. These late alterations should be read in conjunction with the printed and online publications. Any further alterations will be added to this file (most recent changes at top).
Last updated: 18th December 2009

DART (Monday to Friday):
07.50 Connolly/Howth a new service.
Dep Connolly 07.50, Dep Clontarf Road 07.53, Dep Killester 07.56, Dep Harmonstown 07.58, Dep Raheny 08.00, Dep Kilbarrack 08.02, Dep Howth Jctn. 08.04, Dep Bayside 08.07, Dep Sutton 08.09, Arr Howth 08.14.

NORTHERN COMMUTER (Monday to Friday):
06.30 Dundalk/Bray will call additionally at Howth Jctn. at 07.42.

NORTHERN COMMUTER (Monday to Saturday):
14.15 Drogheda/Pearse will now terminate in Connolly at 15.18.

CORK/LIMERICK INTERCITY (Monday to Saturday):
06.35 Limerick/Thurles is cancelled, customers travel per 06.35 Limerick/Heuston.

06.55 Limerick/Heuston is advanced to 06.35 and will not serve Limerick Junction.
Dep Limerick 06.35, Dep Thurles 07.17, Dep Templemore 07.25, Dep Ballybrophy 07.39, Dep Portlaoise 07.55, Arr Heuston 09.00.

05.05 Cork/Heuston will call additionally at Newbridge at 07.42.

06.30 Cork/Heuston will call additionally at Limerick Junction at 07.28 and arrive into Heuston at 09.15.

WESTERN RAIL CORRIDOR:
All routes which refer to connections to and from the Western Rail Corridor between Limerick and Galway have been amended to read “will open in 2010; exact date to be advised”. This is as a result of severe flooding in the Kiltartan area which has blocked the line for driver training. A revised date will be confirmed as soon as possible.

Iarnród Éireann are very disappointed to have to defer the opening of the Ennis to Athenry section. However, we will work to ensure that when the flooding recedes, that the line can be opened as early as possible in the New Year, to deliver direct Limerick to Galway services, as well as improved local commuter service options.
contd./…

MAYNOOTH/NORTHERN COMMUTER (Monday to Friday):
06.20 Maynooth/Connolly will now operate to Pearse. Dep. Connolly 07.02, Dep Tara Street 07.06, Arr Pearse 07.09. (This also provides a connection at Connolly for passengers off the 05.40 Dundalk/Connolly service).

NORTHERN COMMUTER (Monday to Friday):
07.00 Dundalk/Connolly will call additionally at Malahide at 08.03 and at Portmarnock at 08.08.

DART (Monday to Saturday):
22.30 Greystones/Malahide will now operate to Howth. Dep Bayside 23.41, Dep Sutton 23.43, Arr Howth 23.48.

22.55 Bray/Howth will now operate to Malahide. Dep Portmarnock 23.59, Arr Malahide 00.03.

DART (Monday to Friday):
08.22 Howth/Dun Laoghaire will now operate to Bray. Dep Dun Laoghaire 09.11, Dep Sandycove & Glasthule 09.14, Dep Glenageary 09.16, Dep Dalkey 09.18, Dep Killiney 09.22, Dep Shankill 09.25, Arr Bray 09.32.

23.21 Bray/Greystones is cancelled.

22.15 Howth/Bray will now operate to Greystones. Dep Bray 23.23, Arr Greystones 23.53

[ACustomer]

The business of the 2010 timetable is a total disgrace. Whoever designed it in the first place is incompetent.

If you go to the dreaded IE website you will see that the Christmas and New Year special timetables are still up: symptomatic of the sloppy nature of communications on irishrail.ie . Also the PDF printed timetables do not incorporate the raft of changes in the special notice. Is it beyond the wit of those in IE to amend the necessary files?

Finally the reference to the flood delays to the opening of Ennis Athenry mentions flooding at Kitartan. I thought the floods were at Ballycar (between Limerick and Ennis). If it is flodded at Kiltartan, the engineers who spent the last couple of years rebuilding the line have some questions to answer.

But I don't expect any real answers, just corporate communications (a mixture of waffle and porkies)

[Mark Gleeson]

There is a further change to that on a Sunday that last DART from Greystones serves Howth not Malahide as shown

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by ACustomer

Finally the reference to the flood delays to the opening of Ennis Athenry mentions flooding at Kitartan. I thought the floods were at Ballycar (between Limerick and Ennis). If it is flodded at Kiltartan, the engineers who spent the last couple of years rebuilding the line have some questions to answer.

Ballycar is the annual event, Kiltartan is the "rare" event.

[James Howard]

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Railway_Corridor), the WRC so far as it has been done has cost €106 million. This is an absolutely staggering waste of money given the length of time this line has been closed.

This is just another symptom of the mindblowing waste of taxpayer's money that has been thrown at Iarnrod Eireann over the last 10 years. I've been commuting from Edgeworthstown for going on 6 years now and the only tangible improvement in the service is that one of the early morning trains is timetabled to take about 10 minutes less than 10 years ago. Some people might find the 22k trains an improvement over the old coaches but it is marginal. They are louder and the seats are harder but the indiviual armrests are nice. Hardly worth over 2 million quid per car.

How can you come up with a service so chronically unreliable after being able to replace all the track (including doubling from Clonsilla to Maynooth), all the signalling, most of the level crossings and all of the rolling stock over a 10 year period. It seems to me that Iarnród Eireann has taken its focus off serving customers and has put it more on delivering projects.

As somebody who spends close to 4 hours per day on trains, I used to happy to see investment going into the railways. But at this stage, I would rather they took the foot off the pedal for a couple of yours and put some effort into operations. It needs to move on from Are you right there Michael are you right.

[Mark Gleeson]

In real terms the subsidy level will be such that each passenger who travels 5 days a week return will subsidized to a level equal to being on the job seekers allowance

Loss for 1 year operation at least €2 million
Passenger numbers 100k tops

= €20 per passenger per journey => €200pw

The usual Irish Rail laziness ensures the least number of connections

For the record the current average is €4.50 and in fact if you look at Dublin its in the region of a euro

[James Howard]

Plus, in addition the government forgoes about 60% of the cost of most monthly or annual tickets in revenue between tax, levies and PRSI.

The business model behind rail travel in Ireland is very badly screwed up. I pay about €3100 p.a. for a seat from Edgeworthstown which ends up costing me about €1500 from after tax income. So if you go for an average of 60 seats per €2m intercity railcar, each seat costs about €33k. So my annual ticket will pay for the railcar seat in 22 years, excluding interest, staffing, rolling stock maintenance, track maintenance and fuel costs.

You could say that estimate is a bit flawed, but I would be very surpised to find that each seat on the Sligo line is used more than once per day each way. Before Maynooth, occupancy on the early intercity hovers around 50%.

On the later trains the vast majority of the traffic is €10 day returns and Social Welfare so that isn't paying for the line.

Given the collapse in government revenues, it is obvious that sooner or later, Irish Rail are going to have to stand on their own two feet and I dread to see what happens when that comes to pass.

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishrail.ie/your_journey/printed_timetables.asp

Printed Timetables 2009 - 2010

Iarnród Éireann wish to advise customers that a number of alterations have been made to the current timetable which commenced on Sunday 29th November 2009. These late alterations should be read in conjunction with the printed and online publications. Any further alterations will be added to this file (most recent changes at top).

Timetable Alterations : Last Updated 1st February 2010 http://www.irishrail.ie/your_journey/printed_timetable_pdfs/2010/2009-10%20Timetable%20Alterat.doc

I've rationalised the document here:

Iarnród Éireann wish to advise customers that a number of alterations have been made to the current timetable which commenced on Sunday 29th November 2009. These alterations should be read in conjunction with the printed and online publications. Any further alterations will be added to this file (most recent changes at top).
Last Updated: 01st February 2010

NEW: GALWAY INTERCITY (Monday to Saturday):
06.05 Galway/Heuston will call additionally at Woodlawn at 06.32. It will depart Ballinasloe at 06.42 and then Athlone at 07.05 as normal.

CORK/LIMERICK INTERCITY (Monday to Saturday):
05.05 Cork/Heuston will call additionally at Newbridge at 07.42.
05.35 Limerick/Heuston will call additionally at Sallins at 07.32. It will depart Hazelhatch at 07.41 and arrives into Heuston at 08.03.
06.30 Cork/Heuston will call additionally at Limerick Junction at 07.28 and arrive into Heuston at 09.15.
06.35 Limerick/Thurles is cancelled, customers travel per 06.35 Limerick/Heuston.
06.55 Limerick/Heuston is advanced to 06.35 and will not serve Limerick Junction. Dep Limerick 06.35, Dep Thurles 07.17, Dep Templemore 07.25, Dep Ballybrophy 07.39, Dep Portlaoise 07.55, Arr Heuston 09.00.
16.25 Heuston/Limerick will call additionally at Portlaoise at 17.18. It will depart Templemore at 17.41, Thurles at 17.48 and arrives into Limerick at 18.38.

MAYNOOTH/NORTHERN COMMUTER (Monday to Friday):
06.20 Maynooth/Connolly will now operate to Pearse. Dep. Connolly 07.02, Dep Tara Street 07.06, Arr Pearse 07.09. (This also provides a connection at Connolly for passengers off the 05.40 Dundalk/Connolly service).

NORTHERN COMMUTER (Monday to Friday):
06.30 Dundalk/Bray will call additionally at Howth Jctn. at 07.42.
07.00 Dundalk/Connolly will call additionally at Malahide at 08.03 and at Portmarnock at 08.08.

NORTHERN COMMUTER (Monday to Saturday):
14.15 Drogheda/Pearse will now terminate in Connolly at 15.18.

DART (Monday to Friday):
07.50 Connolly/Howth a new service. Dep Connolly 07.50, Dep Clontarf Road 07.53, Dep Killester 07.56, Dep Harmonstown 07.58, Dep Raheny 08.00, Dep Kilbarrack 08.02, Dep Howth Jctn. 08.04, Dep Bayside 08.07, Dep Sutton 08.09, Arr Howth 08.14.
08.22 Howth/Dun Laoghaire will now operate to Bray. Dep Dun Laoghaire 09.11, Dep Sandycove & Glasthule 09.14, Dep Glenageary 09.16, Dep Dalkey 09.18, Dep Killiney 09.22, Dep Shankill 09.25, Arr Bray 09.32.
23.21 Bray/Greystones is cancelled.
22.15 Howth/Bray will now operate to Greystones. Dep Bray 23.23, Arr Greystones 23.53

DART (Monday to Saturday):
22.30 Greystones/Malahide will now operate to Howth. Dep Bayside 23.41, Dep Sutton 23.43, Arr Howth 23.48.
22.55 Bray/Howth will now operate to Malahide. Dep Portmarnock 23.59, Arr Malahide 00.03.

[Mark Gleeson]

Of course there is no notice on the IE site and its in breech of the NTA contact as at least 5 days notice of changes

[Colm Moore]

http://irishrail.ie/your_journey/printed_timetable_pdfs/2010/2009-10%20Timetable%20Alterat.doc

Please note that Clongriffin is not included in the Northern line timetable and not all services are included in the DART timetable.

[Mark Gleeson]

Now for the changes IE won't tell you about

15:30 Dublin Galway - Bus from Athlone on Fridays
17:10 Maynooth Pearse - Terminates Connolly on Fridays
22:10 Dublin Portlaoise - Bus from Kildare Mon-Sat