Timetable 2007 - not so good

[Mr T.]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

The upside of the new timetable is it will be way more punctual than last year, yes by cheating with slower journeys but still.

I can't see any evidence of it being more punctual yet - 17:25 to Limerick yesterday (Monday) was 5 mins late arriving in Kildare (18:14); 7:16 from Kildare to Dublin today was 14 mins late arriving in Heuston (8:14). They can't even get it right when the trains have plenty of time to crawl up the track.

The 7:16 from Kildare was again overcrowded, with people even having to stand in the 1st class carriage (probably the only country in the world where you have to stand in 1st class!)

I was prepared to give it some time to "bed in" the new timetable but this is ridiculous. What's going to happen when the trains have to stop in Adamstown? Another 5 mins added to each journey probably.

The whole thing reeks of incompetence and lack of customer focus from IE. Their new marketing catchphrase should be:
Iarnrod Eireann: the no frills railway

[2Funki4Wheelz]

Day 2 in the New Timetable House *please read in a Geordie accent* and punctuality's not looking too good.

I'd guess the 18:05 Portlaoise train was late into Kildare too last night. It didn't depart until after 18:10, I assume because of the mess with the 18:00 Cork cancellation.

And the 5:20am from Galway's been late both days so far, arriving in Portarlington +10 mins late, don't know how it fared after that - I think it held up the 5:15am Cork today which arrived in Heuston 10mins late.

[Mark Gleeson]

Last nights failure of the 17:00 screwed up a lot of services

It will take time but on paper 2007 should be better than 2006

[Mr T.]

I can't understand why it will take time.

Just thinking out loud here but should the new timetable schedules not be effective immediately? It's not like a new pair of shoes in that you have to 'run them in'.

Is it that the drivers have to 'learn' new routes?

Maybe it was 'cause it was a frosty morning. Or there was a leaf on the track. Or a driver slept it out. Or maybe the wind was slowing up progress. We'll never know anyway, 'cause they don't even apologise for being late any more. Not that it means much, but it's just common courtesy.

It appears that all this padding in the timetables ain't hiding the skeletons in the closet...

[dowlingm]

Maybe IE need a copy of Microsoft Train Simulator to test out new timetables

[ACustomer]

MAybe 2007 should be better "on paper" than 2006 if it has been thought out better. However there is a big pitfall, already apparent from the delay at Thurles yesterday: more fraquent trains mean that if one breaks down there are likely to be several behind it which will be severely delayed. Also more difficult to get a rescue loco to the spot. Maybe there need to be a standby loco at about Portlaoise and also easier facilitation of single-line worknig