New Timetable from 9 September.

[James Howard]

It's worse than that - if you just turn up for a DART at random your expected wait time will drop from 7.5 minutes to 5 minutes. So, statistically you'll only gain 2.5 minutes from reduced waiting time which will be offset by increased journey time after about 3 stops. When you factor in the decreased reliability the result is going going to mean massively increased journey times for everyone.

I did take this up with the NTA the last time they tried this as it also adds about 15 minutes to a day in Dublin for long-distance commuters on Sligo due to the earlier departure of the 0545 from Sligo and the later departure of the 1705 from Sligo.

They seem to have made a slightly better job of Sligo this time round as the later departures of the 1705 and 1905 seem to better reflect the reality of the journey - in particular removing a long wait at Killucan for the 1905 to cross with the 1800 from Sligo. They now have the 1915 down leaving Enfield at the same time as the 1800 up leaves Mullingar so sensibly the much less heavily loaded up train is scheduled for the long wait.

The 10 minute DART on present infrastructure is a silly stunt so that the NTA can be seen to be Doing Something. It is probably going to spectacularly blow up in everyone's faces especially once the first big storm of the autumn takes down a heap of leaves.

[berneyarms]

Originally Posted by James Howard

It's worse than that - if you just turn up for a DART at random your expected wait time will drop from 7.5 minutes to 5 minutes. So, statistically you'll only gain 2.5 minutes from reduced waiting time which will be offset by increased journey time after about 3 stops. When you factor in the decreased reliability the result is going going to mean massively increased journey times for everyone.

I did take this up with the NTA the last time they tried this as it also adds about 15 minutes to a day in Dublin for long-distance commuters on Sligo due to the earlier departure of the 0545 from Sligo and the later departure of the 1705 from Sligo.

They seem to have made a slightly better job of Sligo this time round as the later departures of the 1705 and 1905 seem to better reflect the reality of the journey - in particular removing a long wait at Killucan for the 1905 to cross with the 1800 from Sligo. They now have the 1915 down leaving Enfield at the same time as the 1800 up leaves Mullingar so sensibly the much less heavily loaded up train is scheduled for the long wait.

The 10 minute DART on present infrastructure is a silly stunt so that the NTA can be seen to be Doing Something. It is probably going to spectacularly blow up in everyone's faces especially once the first big storm of the autumn takes down a heap of leaves.

That all assumes that the current DART timetable and more specifically the running times reflect reality - I would argue that they don’t and DART punctuality statistics would tend to bear that out.

Hence I’d the extended running times in the new timetable as being more realistic and that it should be more robust as a result.

[Inniskeen]

Originally Posted by berneyarms

That all assumes that the current DART timetable and more specifically the running times reflect reality - I would argue that they don’t and DART punctuality statistics would tend to bear that out.

Hence I’d the extended running times in the new timetable as being more realistic and that it should be more robust as a result.

Unfortunately the approach of simply throwing more time into the schedules rather than addressing the underlying issues does not have a great track record (pun intended !).

DART running is currently erratic with trains frequently drifting along way below the line speed sometimes for no reason and other times to avoid running early. Excessive station time is another variable and is frequently evident even when the train is late and all passenger activity has ceased.

Given the disruptive effect of a 50% increase in DART frequency some attempt should be made to improve performance rather than generate additional congestion through slower running.

I suspect also that there will be an increase in the number of complaints relating to early departures, already a characteristic of services such as the 1552 from Bray. This will be even more important with the truncation of northern and western commuter services at Connolly and the increased dependency on DART for connections at stations between Howth Junction and Portmarnock.

[Eddie]

The reason the NTA is driving this is that the "Bus Connects" scheme which is due to go live in a year's time and is predicated on there being a higher frequency Dart service so that it can deliver people to stations to continue their journey by train.

Bus Connects will either work well or be a spectacular disaster.

Another impact of the 10 minute Dart is the extra time that Level Crossing Gates will be down, which is only going to increase the number of Gate dodgers trying to go through in the short time they have. This will lead inevitably to Dart delays as the number of collisions with gates increases.

[Mark Gleeson]

There is no actual increase in the number of DART services at peak hours.

The existing timetable always had a few extra trains thrown in at peak, so the 0747 Bray Connolly and trains to/from Dun Laoghaire. The move to the 10 minute interval just moves these around and extends them to balance capacity out.

There is no change to level crossing downtime as the number of trains is the same between Lansdowne and Dun Laoghaire, Bray could be a bit of problem. To be fair Merrion Gates is NOT the constriction in the evening the traffic queue is mainly as a result of trying to filter onto a clogged Rock Road

Off peak is the big shift but should not be a problem, there are no public or private scheduled buses through Merrion Gates daytime (prize if you can name the only one)

[Mickey H]

"Due to operational issues the following services will not operate this evening: 16.20 Howth to Bray service 18.25 Bray to Malahide service 20.04 Greystones to Malahide service 21.45 Malahide to Bray service"

No driver?

[Dublin13]

Couple of people at Connolly gossiping tonight saying a few lads decided they were not going to work the new timetable today and that's why the services are cancelled and that there was a higher level of unserviceable rolling stock than expected - anything in this, or just rumour?

[Traincustomer]

Aside...

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Off peak is the big shift but should not be a problem, there are no public or private scheduled buses through Merrion Gates daytime (prize if you can name the only one)

84N (city - Greystones) thrice nightly early hours of Saturdays & Sundays.

[Mark Gleeson]

Winner