New Timetable

[Oisin88]

Originally Posted by Ronald Binge

That's a bit bloody snide. I do travel a bit at the weekends and do use the train. A book is a lot more convenient than either 1. firing up the computer or 2. digging out fiddly leaflets.

It's a small network. The trains are never on time anyway.

There are alot of things they need to get right before they bother about a book.

[PLUMB LOCO]

Originally Posted by Oisin88

It's a small network. The trains are never on time anyway.

There are alot of things they need to get right before they bother about a book.

Nonsense the service is not that bad and a book timetable is, and always has been, an indespensable item - not all of us are living in the Greater Dublin Area.

[Oisin88]

Originally Posted by PLUMB LOCO

Nonsense the service is not that bad and a book timetable is, and always has been, an indespensable item - not all of us are living in the Greater Dublin Area.

Yes the service is that bad. 100% of the trains have been late for me since the new timetable. My annual ticket doesn't work in the barriers. There is thousands of euro of ticket barriers in heuston and a booking system on the galway line which are not being used. Service has disimproved. Trains are smaller. Catering is abysmal and unpredictable, frequently run out of even basic things like boiling water for teas/coffees, no sandwiches on lunchtime trains towards Dublin. Ridiculous padding in the timetables. Stupid vouchers as refunds for late trains when I have an annual ticket and if I need another ticket will buy it online. A rail company that pretends to consult the public by just telling them what they are going to do and refusing to look at any other options. New trains that are much bumpier. No space for bicycles. Timetables with no apparent logic... Pretending to be implementing clockface timetabling, but then only doing it at terminus stations. JOurney times longer than by road. No integration between trains and buses, or even between trains and trains. Bizarre ticketing arrangements, including a €6 add on to get to Connolly from Heuston!

Nobody has yet given a proper answer as to why the book is indispensable. Also, given that most of the population do live in the Dublin area, and what difference does that make anyway? The new timetable seems to be an unmitigated disaster in many other ways, with alot more waiting around for signals. And Ronald, despite you calling me "snide" you still have not made a clear case for the ****ing book.

[PLUMB LOCO]

Oisin88 while I agree with 99% of your post about the failings of CIE/IE, I don't see how adding to the problems by not producing a proper book timetable will help. Nobody is harder on CIE/IE than I - see my other posts here - however I think you are being a bit harsh on them as regards punctuality but of course I don't know of your personal experiences. The book timetable should be able to pay for itself or, God help us, make a profit and should be franchised out if CIE/IE are incapable of producing it.

PS My reference to the Dublin area is aimed at those whose only concern is the DART clockface timetable and who never use a train to venture outside the Capital.

[ThomasJ]

A few reasons as to why the book timetable is needed :

- commuter and intercity passengers making connections to DARTs and vice versa

- bear in mind there is no dart and commuter timetable out. This was handy for someone travelling via dart to make a connection to the northern line.

- not all dart times are clockface look at malahide and also off peak and weekends services yet judging by a lack of timetable leaflets you wouldn't think so

people dont want to be carrying a number of small leaflets around at the bottom of their bag this book was handy for people taking different routes

given that there are so many complaints this is another reason why irish rail are so out of touch with their passengers

[Oisin88]

Originally Posted by PLUMB LOCO

Oisin88 ..... but of course I don't know of your personal experiences.

My train is late again. The realtime timetable says that it will be 14 minutes late, which is convenient for the "statistics." Every train I have been on in the last week has had this sort of "creep lateness." All the 14 minuteses add up and it gets very irritating when you see it all coming out as 90+% on time. The fact that the journey to Tullamore could take 55 minutes, but is timetabled for 1:07, add the 14 minutes standard lateness, effectively there is an extra 50% on all of my journey times. Also, this train is fairly packed and is shaking like a 1950s jalopy on a dirt track. Also, I know when I get out late at Heuston, that I will have to queue up to show my annual ticket at the gate because (a) they haven't made the annual tickets smart card yet and (b) they seem to have given up on having people use the exit validation machines themselves.

I appreciate that by commuting out of Dublin I am not the average commuter, but think how much worse is it for the sardines packed in to the same trains going the other way. i apologise for getting irritated, but when all is said and done, I still think that the whole paper book thing is a little bit down the list of things, but I appreciate that other people have different views and like the old book system.