Enterprise Article

[Colm Moore]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/background/7325380.stm

Top train 'needs £500m overhaul'

Northern Ireland Railways has revealed that its premier service, the Belfast to Dublin Enterprise, is losing money and needs a £500m overhaul.

It has also emerged that on average an Enterprise train breaks down every eight days.

A standard adult return fare between Belfast and Dublin currently costs £36.00.

Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy has admitted there are problems with the service.

"There is always room for improvement - you can never be complacent and say a service can't be improved," said Mr Murphy.

"And some of the flaws relate to the structure the service operates on, which is the responsibility of ourselves and the two railway companies, to try and decrease the time between the two cities.

"Travel on the train between the two cities is hugely important for both administrations."

[MrX]

They seem to be absolutely lousy trains from a reliability point of view.

Is there no way they could be fixed / replaced with something that's standard?
Seems all they need is a generator van. It can't be THAT complicated can it !?

[sean]

this might cause it this thread to get moved to the members section, but it's more complicated than needing a generator van.

Yes, HEP failures are an issue - the 201s fundamentally just can't cut the mustard when it comes to running a train and providing Head End Power.

But the sets have other problems too, such as with their parking brake, maybe the suspension too.

Irish Rail had alleviated the HEP problem slightly by cycling a wide pool of 201s on Enterprise service. Now that pool has been reduced by new NIR rules, it's set to get worse.

[MrX]

From a technical perspective the Enteprise just strikes me as a complete mess.

At least the Cork-Dublin Express (CAF) coaches work well with the locomotives and there's a clearly designed-in upgrade path to full 125mph operation. The bugs were largely ironed out and they seem to be increasingly reliable.

I'm not posting this as a long-winded or boring technical rant, but as a tax payer and a rail user, I would like to know a few things:

The questions I'd have about the enterprise are:

1) Why are there on-going problems with the doors and brakes and why didn't the manufacturer resolve them as the problems presented themselves? It's running for over 10 years now!!

2) How did they not realise that the locomotives were not really compatible with the trains? i.e. If they cannot provide them with electrical power without basically self destructing, they're simply not suitable for use on the service!

3) Why, oh why were they specified to run at a maximum of 90 miles per hour? It seems insane that a modern intercity train built to that level of specification is so speed limited.

4) Is there no upgrade path possible i.e. retrofitting the coaches to allow them to go faster and fixing the power problems?

It strikes me as a textbook example of pathetically bad project management and design and a gross waste of public money.

There were simple almost off-the-shelf solutions out there in 1995/96 when that train was built, yet they decided to roll out some utterly weird solution that to me anyway, makes absolutely no sense!

From an end users perspective it's a complete disaster of a service that's totally unreliable and unacceptably poor. The fact that it shares a bit of interior design with the Eurostar doesn't really make up for it!

[Derek Wheeler]

Originally Posted by MrX

From a technical perspective the Enteprise just strikes me as a complete mess.

At least the Cork-Dublin Express (CAF) coaches work well with the locomotives and there's a clearly designed-in upgrade path to full 125mph operation. The bugs were largely ironed out and they seem to be increasingly reliable.

I'm not posting this as a long-winded or boring technical rant, but as a tax payer and a rail user, I would like to know a few things:

The questions I'd have about the enterprise are:

1) Why are there on-going problems with the doors and brakes and why didn't the manufacturer resolve them as the problems presented themselves? It's running for over 10 years now!!

2) How did they not realise that the locomotives were not really compatible with the trains? i.e. If they cannot provide them with electrical power without basically self destructing, they're simply not suitable for use on the service!

3) Why, oh why were they specified to run at a maximum of 90 miles per hour? It seems insane that a modern intercity train built to that level of specification is so speed limited.

4) Is there no upgrade path possible i.e. retrofitting the coaches to allow them to go faster and fixing the power problems?

It strikes me as a textbook example of pathetically bad project management and design and a gross waste of public money.

There were simple almost off-the-shelf solutions out there in 1995/96 when that train was built, yet they decided to roll out some utterly weird solution that to me anyway, makes absolutely no sense!

From an end users perspective it's a complete disaster of a service that's totally unreliable and unacceptably poor. The fact that it shares a bit of interior design with the Eurostar doesn't really make up for it!

How right you are. I'll try my best to add my two cents from what I know and think and then explain it in basic , non trainspotter terms.

1. The locos can provide power to a train, but realistically only if its a freight train with a limited amount of light and heat required in a "crew carraige". (popular in the states.) Basically these locos are american and are ideally suited to hauling freight trains. Like previous purchases by IE/CIE they are not built for passenger traffic like we operate it over hear. They are used on the Enterprise because IE were stuck in a Government enforced neglect of rail transport that actually still existed when the new Cork line trains were ordered. Hence the use of the same locos on this service.

2. The line speed is hindered by two factors. The landscape north of the border and the commuter train impact south of the border.

3. It is bad project management that was exasperated by hit and miss, sticky tape approaches to rail funding from successive Governments. There are a multitude of issues on our railway that can be traced back to poor investment and subsequent lack of vision from IE. Two wrongs dont make a right.

4. Ultimately its the user that suffers. As a service it is a disaster. It was never anything more than a poorly funded, politically manipulated and stop gap measure.

How many times have we had to listen to Barry Kenny and the mantra of "decades of under investment"? Well, lots actually. Poor investment causes obvious problems. However I believe IE have used this to cover up substandard decision making. Its a tale of two evils. Bad Governance and bad railway management. Despite more money, its still rampant.

[KSW]

Originally Posted by MrX

At least the Cork-Dublin Express (CAF) path to full 125mph operation.

I thought the 201 class loco's were only 100mph in full power can someone explain 125mph full power

[MrX]

So, basically the Enterprise is just a cosmetic / marketing enhancement by adding a few fancy looking carriages to a crock of a service. Give it a slick paint job and whack a "cool" name on the side ?

A bit like sticking a swanky new Italian kitchen into a 1920s house with a leaky roof, bad plumbing and electrics that are liable to burst in to flames at any moment and hoping that no one notices!

[sean]

In a nutshell, yes.

[dowlingm]

Originally Posted by Derek Wheeler

Basically these locos are american

Well, "North American" I suppose, in that London, Ontario is still part of Canada. If I need my passport when I head down there after the weekend I'll be very annoyed

[dowlingm]

Originally Posted by KSW

I thought the 201 class loco's were only 100mph in full power can someone explain 125mph full power

KSW - the carriages are designed for 125 with suitable motive power cars/track/signals. The locos are limited to 100.

[Thomas J Stamp]

£500 million to compete with a bus.

This is truely the era for burning money.

[MrX]

£500 million sounds a bit mad given the passenger numbers involved and the distance between the two cities.

Even a fleet of those 22000 new intercity DMUs that Irish Rail bought would bring that service up to an acceptable level that was able to compete with the motorway.

If it's frequent, has sufficient capacity and a reasonable level of on-board comfort it will always be popular.

As it stands it's too unreliable and infrequent to make a serious impact.

On a route that short whether you're going at 100 mph or 125 mph isn't going to make a whole lot of difference. The major issue is removing the bottle necks on the line and coming up with a solution that allows the enterprise to come into Dublin without being snarled up in slow moving DART / Commuter traffic.

That could just be the use of more intelligent and better implemented signalling and passing loops.

[Derek Wheeler]

Originally Posted by dowlingm

Well, "North American" I suppose, in that London, Ontario is still part of Canada. If I need my passport when I head down there after the weekend I'll be very annoyed

I stand corrected. They were indeed manufactured at the "American" companys plant in "Canada".

[Sealink]

The decline of the Enterprise is very sad to see. It used to easily see of competition from airlines (I think Capital Airlines was the last one to try a Belfast - Dublin service) but I think the upgrading of the road could see the train service reduced to a curiosity. It could have been so much better. It didn't need a dedicated trainset, and the use of locomotives - was that to soothe NIR's ego? But I suppose it's easy to say that in hindsight...

[dowlingm]

Could have used IE's clockfacing timetable on Tuesday - 4 hr headway between a city of 352,000 (city only) and one of 2,503,000 FFS, and fares from 40.30 full restricted std. to 124 Eur no-advance no-restriction First. Sadly the Feds have starved VIA for years.