Delay avoidance or lack thereof

[James Howard]

As we enter into leaf-slip season in earnest, the 1905 to Sligo has spent the first of many lengthy delays sitting in Killucan waiting for the 1800 from Sligo. This has been going on for as long as I've been commuting (10 years) and I'm sure for many years before. So, I've have quite a long time to ponder the question, but why should it ever be necessary to sit in Killucan for 25 minutes to wait for a crossing when it is a mere 13 km (about 8 minutes run time) from Mullingar.

Are the signalling systems too crude to be able to allow trains to use such opportunities to avoid delays or is it just that nobody can be bothered to notice such things and allow the on-time train to proceed?

I'm sure there are many such places on the single-line network where there are relatively short distances between crossing points that would allow much better on-time performance.