Dunboyne line times up on journey planner
 

The times for the new Meath line are now up on journey planner.

Didn't get a chance to look at it in depth but will post later

Not quite up, everything either starts or terminates at Clonsilla, no mention of Dunboyne yet

Every 30 minutes all day till after 7pm

strange....

apart from the first few inbound or last few outbound on weekdays it would seem according to that timetable most dunboyne trains will operate non-stop between clonsilla and the city

Another classic Irish Rail mess

For reference as is the standard Irish Rail practice stations have to be renamed before opening just to confuse you

Pace has become M3 Parkway (very UK there on the name)

The timetable is great until you realise trains never stop in Broombridge, off peak run non stop Clonsilla Docklands and the last train home is before 10pm and requires a change at Clonsilla

not the greatest of timetables is it?......

last train outbound on saturday 19.20 and no connections to maynooth line services offered after that

last train outbound on sunday 18.10 and no connections to maynooth line services offered after that

last connection on weekday is to the 20.59hrs pearse maynooth

new longford-maynooth-m3 parkway-dublin timetable for september 3rd onwards up on irish rail website

http://www.irishrail.ie/your_journey...oth%2010-2.pdf

They removed the 09.05 clonsilla to connolly.
Damn!

Fares
 

Is this line covered by short hop tickets including the all day ones?

If not can you buy a ticket for the bit not covered at Connolly?

The line is within the short hop zone

so will the m3 parkway trains operate via the midland line to connolly at weekends given that it will run non-stop from clonsilla to connolly and am wondering will they make extra stops when events on at croke park.

I noticed the name "M3 Parkway" on the signs a few weeks ago. It's a rather boring name, but I suppose Pace isn't a very well-known name. Imagine "Pace station" or "Is this train going to Pace?" Is the car park "one giant Pace for mankind"?
The route will probably still be called the Dunboyne line.

Is M3 Parkway a geographical location?

http://www.dublinpeople.com/content/view/3458/57/

For once IE are on the ball with thier refusal to use anything other than geographical names for stations. Just think of Drumcondra.:D

I think the biggest mistake in this timetable is that the Saturday and Sunday don't stop at all stations. The gap between trains at the moment is 60 mins on Sundays and typically 45-60 minutes on Saturday. This was a great opportunity to double the weekend frequency to Connolly - but for whatever reason Coolmine to Drumcondra is bypassed :mad:

Timetable up.

I wonder why they decided that most trains will run non-stop to Clonsilla. Perhaps they want to market a high-speed service. (They have been told off in other parts of the country for trains being too slow.)

Or perhaps, in striking the balance between speed and number of places served, they reckoned that it's easier to add stops later than to remove them. I think that on balance, more stops will be needed, even if not all stations by every train.

I wonder what the train movements will be like in Connolly at weekends. They typically have about 37 minutes layover, so each train will have to move out of the way before returning to its departure platform. If they use the lower line (via Newcomen Junction) they will have to use platform 7.

well interestingly the weekend services do say platform 7 in connolly (under journey information)

Now..... how about a new dublin map? :D

and maybe a new name for the maynooth line, m3 maynooth line anyone? :D

But doesn't this begs the question, why is P7 Connolly the final stop? I thought that the purpose of terminating Maynooth trains at P7 was that the Connolly didn't have additional capacity at peak times, and P7 got over this problem and meant that conflicts with other trains/DARTs were avoided. This should not be an issue offpeak and at weekends.

Given that it seems there is idle time of over half an hour before the return journey starts, I think all stations from Dunboyne to Pearse should be served (without any extra trains or drivers needed). Serving Tara St and Pearse would make the service more attractive for many potential Dunboyne passengers. It could also get the frequency from Clonsilla to Drumcondra down to half an hour most of the time. Serving all stations would add only 7 mins to the journey to Connolly.

I'd argue that the Mon-Fri off peak trains should also go all stations to Connolly/Pearse for the same reasons. Very few people want to go to Docklands, apart for people commuting to/from work. When the station opened, the original timetable had trains to Clonsilla throughtout the day. In reality the demand for Docklands did not exist between 10am and 4pm, and the trains were dropped in the next timetable. While the demand maybe a bit higher from Dunboyne (because they don't have the alternative of services to Connolly!), I would have doubts about how busy it will be.


Overall, I think this timetable is a bit of a wasted opportunity. I think that going to Docklands off peak, not going to Pearse at weekends, and not serving Coolmine to Drumcondra will mean the usage will be much lower than it should be.

I don't know, I reckon the reason for this express service is to introduce the people of Meath to the fast and efficent world of rail while utilising existing stock.

How better way to do this than to run nonstop Clonsilla to the city and run via newcomen overcoming the notorious bottleneck into Connolly. I reckon even weekend services will not use drumcondra but via midlands line upto Connolly platform seven.

I do agree it is not fair for the rest of Dublin 15 but I do think it will change due to things like gaa matches soccer matches at lansdowne and meath people wanting to go to castleknock etc time will tell!

New station to remain closed on Dunboyne line
 

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=880

timetable booklets available from connolly

This is pretty prescient. Surely there is a market for connecting buses from Navan, enabling passengers to bypass the tolls.

Heaven forbid, you could even sell through tickets.

Or did they not build anywhere for buses to stop in the car park?..

Bus Eireann still haven't got back to us despite two requests

There are several bus bays provided for at Pace/M3

Thanks. If BE don't do anything, I hope a private operator does.

Where exactly is the M3 Parkway station.

I looked on Google Maps, but not only does it not have the station, it doesn't even have the M3.

Its in Pace about 3 miles north of Dunboyne before the turnoff for Fairyhouse

Its in bing maps, well the sat image shows the station underconstruction

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=53...om=16&layers=M

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=sx5...21&lvl=1&sty=b - these images are of various dates, so if you move about, you see different stages of construction.

http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,701723,743812,6 - access is off the medium sized roundabout to the west of the motorway interchange. If you look at the historic layer, you can see the original railway.

Meath County Council are meant to be working with Irish Rail in improving pedestrian access.

Bus Eireann have confirmed that all route 111/112 buses will call at M3 Parkway from Sept 3rd onwards

Dunboyne railway line reopens
 

PDF Timetable now available
 

http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1283360532-111.pdf

The PDF timetable for same is now available. Hard copy timetable leaflets, if not already available, should be available at Busáras soon.

111 is the Athboy/Trim-Dublin route and 112 the Granard - Athboy/Trim - Dublin route.

And...
http://www.irishrail.ie/your_journey...rkwayBuses.pdf

Good to see this integration but it's needed across the whole country.

Better would be IE running its own buses to Navan, Trim etc. with through fares. Nah, this is Ireland...

I used to use the Granard bus years ago and back then it used to let passengers off on O'Connell street. If it still does, I can't imagine there would be much takers for the train transfer particularly if it costs more.

That being said, the journey time is pretty good if you were using this bus route and wanted to go to docklands. 15 minutes running time from Clonsilla to Docklands instead of 24 to Connolly is pretty impressive but I suppose it is a bit useless if you need to connect with the DART or go into town.

If only they could do the same express trick for the Longford trains but keep them going to Connolly. I've never understood why they can't make these just stop at Clonsilla and Dromcondra. If they did that, 4 cars would be plenty for the 6:15 from Longford which has tumbleweeds blowing through it before Maynooth. This same train goes down in the evening with less than 10% occupancy after Maynooth.

Fare from Dunboyne to Clonsilla
 

So how much is it from Dunboyne to Clonsilla one way - €2.30 as in Short Hop Zone?

Should be 2.00 or 2.30 single

IE have not published the fares matrix for intermediate journeys yet

and here are the bus connection details in the dublin city centre-docklands area
http://www.irishrail.ie/your_journey...landsBuses.pdf

Two things:

1. After the match tonight, people looking to head to dunboyne arrived in Clonsilla. Had to break the bad news to them!

2. Timetable notice at Clonsilla still showing the pre September 3rd timetable

Seems it was to be called Pace

I think "Pace M3" or "M3 Pace" would have beeb a better name.

There is Little Pace a few km away, but I don't think people would confuse them.