[P11 Press Release] DART fleet under capacity - The truth

[Mark Gleeson]

DART fleet under capacity - The truth

Date: 12th November 2006
From: Derek Wheeler, Communications and Media Office, Platform 11.
Contact : (086) 3452651
Issued by: Platform 11. The National Rail Users Organisation.

On the 12th of November the Sunday Business Post ran a story in relation to the delay with refurbishing the original batch of DART units[1]. The information about the DART refurbishment project going "off the rails" was provided to this Newspaper by Platform 11. It would not be in the public domain unless we had made it available. While we respect a newspapers right to put any angle they choose on a story, we wish to distance ourselves from the way this particular story was reported. It is not representative of the story we provided to the Sunday Business Post. It does not credit Platform 11 with making the discovery and makes no mention of the inconvenience caused to thousands of DART passengers through weekend closures to refit stations to accommodate longer DART trains. Nor does it mention the fact that DART passengers are experiencing unnecessary overcrowding due to the delayed introduction of 8 coach DART trains. Furthermore Irish Rail has already been the subject of a ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority[2] in relation to misleading advertising of longer DART trains. Irish Rail have made every effort to keep this story from the public. Their annual report makes absolutely no mention of it. Many questions remain unanswered. For example.

If Irish Rail is seeking damages, why are they continuing negotiations with Siemens? In fact why haven't legal proceedings been issued already?

Irish Rail knew of the problems in May 2005, when they suspended further shipments. Why did they not recall the already shipped units to Dublin so they could continue in service until a new tender could be issued?

The new Mk 4 trains are also experiencing problems. They arrived in the country in the summer of 2005 and still haven't been fully introduced to service. In fact the new 2007 timetable has been delayed due to the problems with these trains.

Irish Rail management like to blame somebody else for their own shortcomings. If it’s not the staff, it’s the unions. If it’s not the unions, it’s the Dept. of Transport or maybe the Dept. of Finance. This time its multi-national company, Siemens. Do they ever take responsibility for anything?

These two projects show that Irish Rail have no system for the supervision of some projects. They obviously have no control mechanisms in place and they obviously failed to carry out any interim reviews of these projects. While all of this corporate muscle flexing is taking place, loyal passengers are suffering and aren't even given the respect of being told the truth. All they get are promises and misleading advertising. This is not customer service and it’s about time Irish Rail ran the railway for its passengers and not for the benefit of themselves and their egos. It’s imperative that this story is portrayed in the context of the inconvenience to passengers. DART capacity is being affected now, not next January as Irish Rail claim.

Links:

1. Sunday Business Post article, http://www.thepost.ie/post/pages/p/s...797-qqqx=1.asp

2. ASAI ruling on 8 coach DART posters, http://www.asai.ie/complaint_view.asp?CID=100&BID=6

Further details including links to tendering information and a timeline of the project is available http://www.platform11.org/campaigns/whereismydart/

[MrX]

What specifically is causing the delays though?
Is it Siemens or is it some sort of a problem with how the contract's been issued?

e.g. was a change order or something drastic submitted half way through?

[Derek Wheeler]

Some units went to Germany for refurbishment. When Siemens got them they said the traction motors needed replacing and not refurbishment. Hence delays. IE blame Siemens. Siemens stay silent. Meanwhile passengers cannot benefit from longer DARTs. Contract was due for completion next month. Now, its anyones guess. Mark has the specifics on what the signed contract was to include. There's also evidence to suggest that Siemens may have delayed their contract with the cctv supplier. Why? We don't know.

My interest in this is purely from a passenger viewpoint and Im dissappointed that they advertised 8 coach DARTs in the first place. Although the ASAI corrected them on that score. If passengers are inconvenienced in the interests of improvements (weekend DART closure) then they have a right to up to date information. A tonne of customer related problems on our railway are caused by IE not talking, owning up etc. Their PR dept. might be successful with the Corporate sector and the media, but their is overwhelming evidence to say its a failure with the very people the company relies on....passengers.

Sorry Mr. X, Ive gone off topic, but I'd thought I'd make that point anyway.

[Mark Gleeson]

The tender clearly states the mid life refurbishment of various parts it does not state the replacement of the traction equipment. The information released separate to the contract stated replacement of the power semiconductors but clearly stated refurbishment of the existing traction motors.

Of course it doesn't explain the CCTV contract thats what really catches Siemens out

Should point out that we knew nothing of the traction system issue until recent weeks, up until then IE made no mention of traction motors, even though I'm fairly sure I mentioned it though.

Where it gets really dirty, indeed interesting to you on a 6 coach DART. it could be as part of the settlement for the delays IE decided against cash (well any damages would go back to the DoT) and instead sought a more modern traction system as a penalty if so IE are guilty of delaying it even more.

You think its far fetched, it is not uncommon to seek hardware in lieu of damages on delayed contracts since the money is of little use when the state is paying, outfit in Glasgow scored a few railcars in compensation for a delayed delivery, why since they had a overcrowding problem fastest way of getting more kit