Late Late Late
 

Virtually every day this week and last I've been late going to and from work. I understand the leaves excuse, but part of the problem is down to overcrowding due to IE's rubbish timetable and short trains.

Specific case - I get the 0730 train from Greystones - this is one of the busiest Darts of the morning rush because a) it serves Greystones and b) the 15-minute frequency from Bray at this time is insufficient. Its standing room only from Bray onwards every morning.

Yet IE have been running it as a 6-carriage train so at every stop it gets delayed as people struggle to get on and off. Multiply by 16 stops into the City Centre and it regularly arrives at Pearse over 10 mins down. OK, an extra 2 carriages wouldn't prevent all of this, but it would help - they are running 8 carriage Darts, they should be prioritising the busier services.

The earlier 6.50 train from Greystones serves just a few stations on it's way into the city.

Though I think the DART and Luas should only stop at places where demand is, at rush hours. Not every DART really has to stop at the likes of Shankill, Seapoint, Booterstown, or Sutton. The stops are out of the way, with few businesses in the area for people to get/from, yet every DART stops there despite this low demand, and waste of time.

Regarding the Luas, particularly on sports days, it's obvious that 95%+ of the passengers only want to get on/off at Red Cow-Heuston-Abbey Street-Connolly. So what's the point of every tram stopping everywhere else?

But just remember, count yourself lucky you have a job to go to.

Perhaps the luas should have a stop button similar to the bus...

thats an intercity train.

I'm not sure that there's much benefit in running limited-stop services on the south-eastern line as there is nowhere for trains to pass each other and the line is desperately slow. The diesel services that serve only a handful of stations take just as long to get to Greystones as the Dart which serves 16+ stations. They just need to ensure that Darts serving Greystones in the rush hour have 8 carriages.

I've often thought that it would help a bit if the driver could open all of the doors rather than just enable them - at least at the bigger stops. When I used to get off a Longford train in Pearse, it used to happen at least a couple of times a week where somebody would be standing in front on the button and it might take 10 or 20 seconds to get the doors open.

The biggest problem with passenger flow in this country is that people have no manners. It wouldn't occur to 90% of people to step off a train to one side of the door to clear the way for 30 or 40 people and then get back on it. Similarly a fair proportion of people are too thick to realise that everyone will get where they are going a bit faster if they let people off the train before getting on themselves.

Maybe they could have a helpful instructional poster like the one that explains why leaves on the track make the trains go slow. Or an announcement along the the lines of "Hey Thicko, let everyone off before you get on the train".

Another genius thing that would help matters is the fact that every single train in the country seems to be 4 inches higher than every platform in the country (well, maybe it is just the platforms I use). And when you consider that most of the platforms on the DART, Maynooth and Sligo lines have been extended over the last 10 years - specifically to accommodate new trains, why the hell didn't they raise them at the same time? That would save 2 or 3 minutes faffing about with ramps every time somebody in a wheelchair needs to get on or off a train.

Keeping things running just doens't seem to be a priority. Take the example of a medical emergency (which is usually somebody fainting due to overcrowding). This usually results in the train stopping for 20 minutes while somebody makes tut-tutting noises to the victim and waits for the paramedics. Now, it is perfectly reasonable that the person not be moved off the train by an amateur, but they could let the train continue on to one of Connolly, Clonsilla, Heuston or Sydney Parade which are near major hospitals and arrange for the paramedics to meet the train there. This would probably get the person to proper care faster, would lessen the travel time for the ambulance and would keep things moving.

Nobody ever seems to have a plan when entirely predicatable things go wrong.

Agreed, but it might be phrased a bit more diplomatically. :)

Actually, level boarding would benefit everyone - you don't have to hesitate at the door to check where the step is, thereby allowing faster boarding and unboarding. Also CIÉ consider 25% of their passengers to be mobility impaired - its not just people in wheelchairs, but people with young children (with or without buggy), shopping, luggage, older people, etc.

The platforms are set at 915mm (three feet, but often called "three and a bit feet") and this roughly matches the DART fleet. However, the entire diesel fleet is one step higher than this.
The problem is when that train then breaks down midway between stations and there is no meaningful access for the ambulance crew. While this may not be a profound issue with a simple fainting, it could make a serious difference for someone with a heart attack.

Well with limited stops, they can move faster, the only necessity to be slow is the underground Dun-Laoghaire-Sandycove section. Dalkey-Killiney, Connolly-Clontarf can be taken at decent speed, and the rest are more or less straight runs to each other.

One major delay can be avoided by clearing all DART trains clear of the path of Connolly-Rosslare services. 2 weeks ago, I got the train to Bray looking forward to breezing past the intermediate stations. Unfortunately, a DART was allowed to arrive and leave in Connolly before departure, and we spent the entire journey being dictated to by the pace of the slower DART. Then there was the inevitable hold-up outside Bray, and the train eventually arrived in Bray 10 minutes late. There's no excuse for that.

I totally agree.I would be happy if the DART would leave Connolly and the Rosslare train would leave seconds behind it.After the DART got to Grand Canal Dock it would stop.There would be a Northbound DART at Pearse.The Rosslare train would arrive on the Southbound platform at Pearse and leave Pearse and changing over on the wrong track passing Grand Canal Dock platform with the DART on the main southside side.Rosslare would simply pass it out and cross back over before Lansdowne Rd.Giving it a chance to for shorter times. I think everyone says the same about the Rosslare train the slowness of it :)

Another classic one from Irish Rail

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I take it the lower figure is the correct one? And that is quite shocking.

New record low this month

Its fun to see they have two posters with different numbers, one the CEO sees going to/from work, and real one

I can well believe that - its been atrocious. I would also be interested to see a cumulative figure for how many minutes (hours) late in total. Being 6 minutes late is one thing, but being 26 minutes late is crazy.

In 6 years of taking the DART, the last month has been the worst for the service being consistently late each and every day - sometimes 7-8 mins, sometimes more. I waited 25 mins for a DART on Saturday at 3pm and when it finally arrived it was another 15 mins late by the time it reached Pearse station ..absolutely disgraceful ..the timetables mean nothing anymore ..just a rough guide.

Latest numbers in today down to 47% of DART's ontime

Disgraceful

If the government were serious about public transport and wanted to save some money quickly they should incentivise Irish rails subsidy against their timing stats.

The same applies to Longford services. The 1805 to Longford has been consistently 15 minutes late at Edgeworthstown every evening for at least the last two months. Very occasionally, they manage to get it down to 5 minutes late. And this is with about 15 minutes padding in the timetable as well.

As far as I know they don't even publish seperate stats for Longford but they would be pretty poor.

In the UK they publish peak-time stats as well. These are far more relevent as more than 80% of people travel at peak.

The problem there is that with less subsidy service will suffer. With fewer trains punctuality will increase because of less congestion. Is that the answer? I would think the answer is to demand that management identify the causes of lateness and if they can't or won't remedy it, hire people who will try something else.