2011 Proposed Timetable - Heuston Based Services

[Jamie2k9]

On Sundays they plan to send 3 (premier class) trains to Waterford.

Timetable states
Heuston - Waterfrod - 14:10, 17:40 and 18:40
Waterford - Heuston - 09:05, 15:05 and 18:05

Online system
Heuston - Waterfrod - 17:40 no premier class
Waterford - Heuston - 15:05 no premier class

Also on another note the 16:35 on Firdays will always be a 6 car set from now on. (no premier class when possible) according to one of the drivers.

Other changes:
13:10 to Waterford will now serve all stations from Athy - Waterfird
18:35 to Waterford will now serve Newbridge

[dowlingm]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Basically no changes really

Does this look like a timetable that might see 22037 return some time soon after its now 15 month sick leave, or is it only likely to allow a different six car set to get some deferred stuff done?

[comcor]

I put in a suggestion that certain Cork-Tralee services leave Cork later and reduce the wait time in Mallow. This has actually happened. Shocked if it's in response to my suggestion!

[Maire]

Originally Posted by Jamie2k9

On Sundays they plan to send 3 (premier class) trains to Waterford.

Timetable states
Heuston - Waterfrod - 14:10, 17:40 and 18:40
Waterford - Heuston - 09:05, 15:05 and 18:05

Online system
Heuston - Waterfrod - 17:40 no premier class
Waterford - Heuston - 15:05 no premier class

Also on another note the 16:35 on Firdays will always be a 6 car set from now on. (no premier class when possible) according to one of the drivers.

Other changes:
13:10 to Waterford will now serve all stations from Athy - Waterfird
18:35 to Waterford will now serve Newbridge

The 18:35 to Waterford will now take 18 minutes to get from Athy to Carlow!! Athy 19:24 - Carlow 19:42. This service is getting worse every year.

[Ron Burgundy]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Basically no changes really

Getting home almost 45 mins earlier is a big change for those of us commuting from Portarlington. Really happy about this !

[Kilocharlie]

Originally Posted by Maire

The 18:35 to Waterford will now take 18 minutes to get from Athy to Carlow!! Athy 19:24 - Carlow 19:42. This service is getting worse every year.

These are departure times, not arrival times. Service has same time for Muine Bheag. Most likely train dwells in Carlow waiting for another train and it will still take the same time from Athy as at present.

[Kilocharlie]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Basically no changes really

Three new services on Heuston Commuter!
0832 Newbridge - Hueston
1940 Heuston - Kildare
2045 Kildare Heuston

Plus minor changes that allow overtaking of Newbridge services.

[Mark Gleeson]

No clockface on Kildare commuter
Kildare commuter is still disgraceful in timings off peak
Minimal use of the 4 track section
Direct trains to Limerick are still a problem
No direct trains Limerick Junction - Ennis/Galway
Connection issues at Mallow remain
Sunday service to Midelton is poor

[Jamie2k9]

Some Waterford services are poor as a few have to wait about 10 minutes for other trains to pass. Could easly be improved by having services departing 10 mins earlier or lather.

Will two out of the four tracks not be used when the second phase of Kildare route project starts?

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/...w&news_id=1059

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=1063

New Heuston & regional schedules: From 8th May 2011 by Corporate Communications

Iarnród Éireann has announced that, following a new customer feedback process which allowed customers to view draft schedules and propose changes, new schedules for all Heuston and some regional routes will take affect from Sunday 8th May 2011.

Almost 1,000 customers sent feedback to Iarnród Éireann when the full draft schedule for:

- Heuston routes
- Cork-Tralee
- and regional routes such as Galway to Limerick, Waterford to Limerick Jn, and Limerick to Ballybrophy via Nenagh were published earlier this year.


Changes made to the schedules as a result of customer feedback include:
- A range of service improvements for commuters in areas such as Portlaoise, Portarlington, Monasterevin, Kildare, Newbridge and Sallins, through new services and extra stops on existing services
- New stops for Athy, Muine Bheag, Tullamore and Thurles customers

The changes following customer feedback are on top of service improvements in the draft schedules, which are now confirmed, including:
- Journey time improvements, including on some Heuston-Cork and Limerick-Galway services
- Improved connections between Limerick-Galway and key Galway-Dublin services
- Improved Athenry-Galway commuter services, and new evening Galway-Ennis & Ennis-Galway commuter service
- Improved connections between Waterford-Limerick Junction trains and Intercity services
- Extra Sunday Cork-Midleton trains

While these are the more significant changes, Iarnród Éireann advises all customers on all routes to view the new schedules, as many services will see departure time changes, or changes to stopping patterns of individual changes which may affect their journeys.

Full details of schedules from 8th May 2011 are available in pdf format now. http://www.irishrail.ie/your_journey/2011_heuston_printed_timetables.asp

Iarnród Éireann will publish draft schedules for Connolly Station routes, including DART and Commuter, shortly, and will be inviting customers to express their views on the schedule proposed.

[Colm Moore]

The Galway-Cork/Tralee timetable isn't as good as it could be as it doesn't include options via Portarlington, which adds a few trains per day.

[dowlingm]

The bus is 4h10/4h20 depending on if you change to X51 from Cork-Galway. Tough to beat that via Portarlington when the service will make all stops or all but Woodlawn/Ardrahan to Galway and if you stay on the 51 you have no changes to risk/endure. A couple of northbounds via Limerick can compete but only if you make 2/3 changes whereas all the southbounds are slower plus the changes - and then the bus is half the price.

If the 1230 ex Cork was a through timetabled 22K it could make Galway in 3h20 but it's not - at the very least IE have got to start timetabling the Galway service through to Limerick Junction and lift speeds on Limerick-Ennis if they want to get serious and I doubt they do.

[Thomas J Stamp]

i remember sitting across from a senior irish rail managment figure at a meeting a good few years ago being told that when the 4 tracking was done we would have amazing flexibility and availability, in tandem with the new railcars. We had years of promises of trains every two hours from Galway, Limerick, Waterford, a train every hour from Cork, commuter trains every hour from Newbridge. Oh, it was going to be so wonderful.

Reality's a bitch, isnt it?

[Alan French]

Another observation: There have been a few improvements in connectivity. The 16.50 from Waterford now stops at Kildare, allowing a connection for Athlone and the Cork line. On Sundays the 13.45 Tralee-Dublin now stops at Portarlington, which gives a good connection for Kildare and Athlone. Also on Sundays, the 10.30 Cork-Dublin stops at Thurles, allowing journeys from Cork to Portlaoise etc., previously impossible before 13.30.

There is still a big gap in connections from Cork to Portarlington (for the Western lines) between 05.05 and 11.30 on weekdays, even allowing for changing trains. This arises because of the emphasis on non-stop running in the morning trains towards Dublin. The 15.30 from Cork stops at Kildare at 17.46, but there is no way to transfer to any of the main evening trains to Waterford, which stop at Newbridge instead. Connections the other way, from Athlone to Cork, have a better spread through the day.

[Kilocharlie]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

No clockface on Kildare commuter
Kildare commuter is still disgraceful in timings off peak
Minimal use of the 4 track section
Direct trains to Limerick are still a problem
No direct trains Limerick Junction - Ennis/Galway
Connection issues at Mallow remain
Sunday service to Midelton is poor

Agreed.

Newbridge and all points east have a new gap-filling service at 0832 but Kildare is still left with a massive 40min gap between 0805 and 0845. Four trains pass through Kildare in that 40 mins.

Also no improvement to the large gaps in the evening peak services - 1725-1805-1840-1915.

Can't understand why the 1725 Heuston-Limerick still has to crawl all the way to Newbridge when a simple 5 min shift would enable it to overtake the 1715.


At least, depite the subsidy reductions, they have actually increased the number of services and cut none.

[Jamie2k9]

Does anyone know hoe the new timetable is working out.

Had a look at the Real Time Info for Heuston this morning and nearly all services arriving in Heuston between 08:20 - 09:05 were all delayed between 9 - 20 minutes. I know the Real Time gives lots of time between Park West - Heuston.

[Thomas J Stamp]

i got a lovel leaflet from irish rail in the door yesterday advertising "NEW SERVICE!" and a little cut out and keep of the time table for Thurles Station.

Pity we live nowhere near Thurles station, and in fact everyone uses two two local stations -Templemore and Ballybrophy.

Also the "NEW SERVICE!" is only running for the summer anyway and will be cut in September.

(This begs the obvious question... )

[comcor]

Originally Posted by Jamie2k9

Does anyone know hoe the new timetable is working out.

Had a look at the Real Time Info for Heuston this morning and nearly all services arriving in Heuston between 08:20 - 09:05 were all delayed between 9 - 20 minutes. I know the Real Time gives lots of time between Park West - Heuston.

06:15 from Cork was certainly quite delayed on Monday morning, which it has generally not been since I started having to take it regularly in February.

While there are a couple of places where the train seems to slow down before Port Laoise (notably a speed restriction near Buttevant that seems to have been there for ages), they have previously not made it late.

Any delay picked up on Monday morning was picked up on the Dublin side of Port Laoise.

[kieran4003]

Does anyone know if it is possible to buy a an actual timetable book for the new timetable like before? I have the last one for the november 2009 timetable which seemed hard to get. I know they probaly arent making one but it is very handy for frequent different travelling. Having loads of different printed pages is annoying! Or even if they dont want to print one it would be a little bit better if they had it avilable as a pdf on the website.

With regards the new Heuston timetable , I think the cork - Dublin times are still poor in most cases. For it to be competitive it needs to be faster. I would think with proper timetabling and small line improvements it should be possible for most services to have say 3 stops and take 2.5 hours.

Of course to reduce the stops on the Cork trains more direct trains to Limerick should run. Surely a 3 car ICR every two hours during the day to limerick would not cost much?

Another issue I have a big gripe about is the lack of overtaking on the 4 track section. It is very annoying getting stuck behind local trains coming out of Dublin! I was looking at the timetable and say deferring/advancing many local trains by 5/10 mins could give great opportunities. Eg. In the evening peak defer 1715 to newbridge to 1720 and it could be overtaken by 1725 to Limerick.

I remember making out a laod of practical suggestions for the timetable - Im a very mathematical person that loves figures and second a well travelled passenger so Id thought Id made great suggestions - But then realised Id missed the consultation period!

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by kieran4003

Does anyone know if it is possible to buy a an actual timetable book for the new timetable like before?

Not currently.