Intercity journey experiences

[sean]

Was on the 130:00 Sligo-Dublin train yesterday.

Set was a 29000 Rocking and rolling all the way to Dublin. The WC lights (the ones in the carriages that say whether the jacks are in use or not) in the set (which contained 29424) did not work, at least for the small one anyway.

Got a €12 "Commuter promotion" ticket which did not work at the Connolly gates. That happens a lot.

[James Howard]

I presume that is the set from the 0905 from Connolly returning. This is always a 29k. This always strikes me as strange as

a) The online timetable says that this is operated as InterCity.
b) I take the train that originated from Sligo at 0545 and we almost always meet a 22k going to Clonsilla around Broombridge.

There is probably some Irish Rail Quantum Timetable Theory that explains why they are using a 22k for Clonsilla and a 29k for Sligo, but I find it hard to think of a reason why they can't at least get the online timetable right.

[Mark Gleeson]

There is a rostering issue at the moment due engineering works southside Dublin which results in an ICR being in the wrong place

The 5:45 is rostered for the 16:00 return with the gap in between for maintenance.

[seamus kilcock]

18th Oct boarded the 1100 ex Heuston for Cork at Kildare.
Left Kildare on time at 1131.
Also on time departing Portlaoise.
Late at all subsequent stops.
Arrived Cork 1407 - 12 minutes late.

Returned on the 1630 ex Cork.
Ticket checker at barrier refused me permission to go direct to Dining Car; he insisted I take a seat on the rear two coaches.
I boarded via the second last coach and walked to the dining car at the front!
I asked the dining car staff if they had any problem if I sat down waiting for service - I told them I was in no hurry - they had no problem.
What was the 'beef' with the ticket checker? Dreadful customer service.

Arrived Mallow on time.
Had to wait on Kerry train which arrived 1658 - 18 mins late!
We left Mallow 1705 - 13 mins late.
WE were late all the way to Kildare which was reached at 1917 - 30 mins late.
And NO I did not notice any wheel slipping due to leaves!
I did notice a few speed restrictions but surely these were not the sole reasons we were so late.
Why was the Kerry train 18 mins late arriving at Mallow?

By a coincidence I was listening, during the journey, to Matt Cooper interviewing Barry Kenny on To-day FM regarding IE's proposed free travel on certain trains from Galway to Dublin. Matt asked if trains can be speeded up to compete with the new motorway system. Barry was his usual self and gave nothing away.

Despite the hundreds of Euro spent on new trains and infrastructure during the last 10 years my experience of IE to-day did not reflect the investment.

Is my experience to-day a once off?

[Thomas Ralph]

There are 4 of 6 toilets locked off in the 1030 Cork-Heuston today.

[comcor]

I was on the 06:15 service from Cork to Heuston this morning

Just as the doors were closing in Cork, there was a power failure on board. Lights came back on almost immediately, but other systems seemed to take a while to come back.

As a result, we left about 15 minutes late.

We seemed to make back a bit of the time by Limerick Junction, but some slow bits between Port Laoise and Dublin led to us arriving in Heuston 15 minutes late.

Free tea/coffee and pastries were given out. I assume this was delay related, but that weas never said. While not complaining, it would seem a bit of an over-reaction to a 15 minute delay!

Otherwise, the information about booked seats disappeared before arriving into Mallow, leading to people occupying seats that were booked from Limerick Junction onwards.

The ride was the worst that I have experienced from a CDE set.

[comcor]

I forgot to say.

The Pay and Diaplay machine in the car park in Cork wasn`t accepting credit cards. Quite annoying.

[finnyus]

Yeah, I was on my way to work in the car this morning, and saw it passing Mourne Abbey @ 06:51, thought it might have been either rescheduled to 06:30 or it was an empty working to form the 06:55 back to Cork (but that's from Tralee).

[Colm Moore]

I was on the 1200 Heuston-Cork. Left 5 minutes late, arrived 30 minutes late. Two extra stops made at Kildare and Portlaoise, but we had only lost a few minutes at that time.

Before we left, there was on-board announcements that all the toilets were frozen over and would be unavailable. Several people, especially older seem not to have heard this and things were becoming 'pressing' at Ballybrophy. I suggested a lay-over in Thurles to one person, but the extra hour wasn't considered appealing.

I spoke to the train host Jonathan to see if something could be done and he said that he had left several of the toilets open, so people could use the toilets, but they would be unable to flush them. On Mark G's prompting, I suggested an extended stop at Thurles or Limerick Junction. He said this might not work, as yesterday those toilets were frozen and they had to make a 45 minute stop as only one cubicle was available. In the end a ~15 minute stop was made at Thurles.

[Colm Moore]

On the 28 December, I was on the 1630 Cork-Heuston. Boarding only started at 1624, with much confusion between the queues for the 1630 to Heuston (scheduled for platform 4) and the 1630 to Cobh (scheduled for platform 5), both of which had queued along platform 4. At about 1620, the Cobh service was rescheduled to platform 1-3, but he display at the top of the underpass didn't change. It is unfortunate, but the signage on platform 4 blocks line of sight the clock from most of the platform - it felt uncomfortable looking at "1630 Cobh" on my platform for 15 minutes.

The ticket checker validated the wrong part of my return ticket. Train left on time. Train was lightly filled at Cork, but was quite busy by Limerick Junction. Arrived about 10 minutes late

As we left, there was on-board announcements that all but 3 of the toilets (at the rear - so much for paying extra for first class or reservations) were out of order.

Then there was an automatic announcement that the dining car was open and that it was situated at the rear of the train. That didn't sound quite right, but I wandered down anyway, only to be told by someone else looking for it, that it wasn't there. Of course, the dining car is always at the Dublin end of the train (pointy end/DVT/baggage-first class-dining => loco is never in the covered section of Heuston). I mentioned it to the train host, who said that train staff tended to not hear (the detail of) the messages, as they hear them too often. I asked and she made a manual announcement. Of course, there was only one member of catering staff and a trolley service was being done before the galley opened.

I had to report a 2 year old to his parents as he had wandered down the carriage and climbed up on a seat back table.

[comcor]

I'm beginning to think that the train host is going to have to start lurking around carriage C in Mallow to ensure that people aren't taking the pre-booked seats.

Yet again this morning, large numbers piled onto the train there and just took any seat that was unoccupied, even those that were clearly marked on the overhead text as booked after Limerick Junction.

Strangely, it never seems to be a huge problem in Cork or Limerick Junction, just Mallow.

[comcor]

03/03/2011 - 06:15 Cork-Heuston

06:08 - The booking office in Cork doesn't seem to be open. There's about 40-50 people waiting for it. Fortunately, I have a ticket already.

06:10 - There's some shunting of the train to be used going on. It is unclear why. No announcements.

06:14:30 - The train finally starts boarding. Rather than being sensible and getting every passenger on the train ASAP, tickets are checked.

06:20-06:25 The train finally gets underway.

Unsurprisingly it arrived late.

[comcor]

There are significant numbers standing on the 19:00 to Cork tonight. First time I've seen that in years.

[comcor]

06:15 from Cork delayed this morning by 3 or 4 minutes because people were still queuing at the booking office. It opens at 6am and I've often seen this happen. I know they want to encourage use of the machines, but causing delays to the train is not the way to do it.

By Limerick Junction, the delay was made back, but as has been the case a lot recently, 10 minutes was lost between Portarlington and Sallins.

BTW Does anyone know what the story is with the speed restriction just on the Charleville side of Buttevant (just after the track crosses the Awbeg river)? It's been there for several months now.

[Thomas Ralph]

Originally Posted by comcor

06:15 from Cork delayed this morning by 3 or 4 minutes because people were still queuing at the booking office. It opens at 6am and I've often seen this happen. I know they want to encourage use of the machines, but causing delays to the train is not the way to do it.

I believe this one's a union issue with the booking office clerks rather than trying to get people to use TVMs; as I recall there was massive heartache when they moved the "first" train from 0700 to 0630.

However there really should not be anyone using the booking office other than 16-25 railcard holders, free pass holders, and people wanting stations on the Connolly side. The TVM can do more or less everything else.

[Mark Gleeson]

Thats great until the TVM's decide not to work in Cork as they like to do.

The booking office should be open 30 minutes before the first train. Its probably something we can work with the NTA on.

[Jack O'Neill]

Piece in Irish Times

"Paul Murphy recently travelled from Heuston Station in Dublin. However, he used a return ticket in the wrong direction and now has to pay the fare and a €100 fine. “It was an honest mistake as I find the rail tickets hard to decipher and I was rushing. My gripe is that the ticket machine at Heuston did not prevent me from accessing the platform,” he says.

He says Iarnrod Éireann justified the fine by saying “the validators recognise only that there is a valid journey left on the ticket but do not read the direction of the journey” and now he has no choice but to pay or face the courts.

“I find this excuse both bizarre and unfair. Even if one has an invalid ticket, the “validators” still allow one to use the rail service. It’s almost a form of entrapment and not fair to the consumer. I would just like to bring this system to your attention.”

[Thomas Ralph]

Can't really sympathize with him; it's his own responsibility to have a valid ticket. The gates also wouldn't stop people over-riding, or on the wrong train, etc.

[Mark Gleeson]

Using a return ticket twice in the same direction or the wrong way around is a classic fare evasion tactic

The issue of the gates allowing people through on technically invalid tickets have been raised but the need for the gates to let people through is a high priority

If the gentleman had boarded at an ungated station the situation would be the same so the gates do not change the status quo

[Thomas Ralph]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Using a return ticket twice in the same direction or the wrong way around is a classic fare evasion tactic

A bigger one, over here at least, is someone buying two monthly returns, one in each direction, for their commute, and a season for the last few stops before London. They then use the season to get through the gates, and on the odd occasion that the tickets are checked, they have a valid ticket and buy a new one the next day.