2013 Draft Connolly Timetable
 

http://www.irishrail.ie/cat_news.jsp?i=4685&p=116&n=237

One interesting observation/error...

How is the Dublin-Rosslare service supposed to make it from Wexford to Rosslare Strand in 1 minute??

Looks fairly good to me, sensible changes made.

All the services I take currently remain unchanged expect for minor changes. The 9.40 and 11.40 Maynooth-Pearse services, in my experience, almost always have a delayed depature from Maynooth to allow an inbound Sligo train ahead and are consequently usually 5-10 minutes late at intermediate stations, so pushing them 5 minutes later is a good idea - in that it will be good for delay statistics.

The changes to the M3 off peak schedule means that customers from Clonsilla inwards are reverting back to an hourly service outside of the peaks, which is very crap and ridiculous for a commuter railway. The extra services to Connolly were handy and fairly well used from the D15 stations. Oh well.

The latest train out of the city centre is still early, but it now has a connection to M3 Parkway, which is great. Last train on a Sunday is still very early, but again has a connection. IE definitely seem to be trying to make the most out of the underused branch in this timetable, which is great. The loss of same platform interchange in favour of crossing over a footbridge to the bay platform will probably be grumbled about by some though.

I don't use the Sligo service, but am I reading right that the 1700 and 1900 from Sligo are amalgamated into a 1800? Seems like a noticeable drop in service to me, but I'll defer to people with more experience.

The 07.05 and 09.05 to Sligo are now changed to 08.05 and the 17.00 and 19.00 return changed to 18.00. They seem to be sensible changes to me as its just getting rid of services that are running almost empty. I agree there needs to be a later Maynooth service on Sunday even if it was at 22.00 its would be better than nothing.

No changes made to the Rosslare line what so ever. Another year of the same timetable. I know its a draft timetable but will ultimately be it.

•Dublin/Belfast (InterCity)
•Dublin/Dunboyne/Maynooth/Longford (Commuter)
•Dublin/Drogheda/Dundalk (Commuter)
•Dublin/Gorey/Rosslare Europort
•Dublin/Sligo (InterCity)
•DART
I did notice Dublin/Gorey/Rosslare Europort isn't labelled (InterCity) like the other routes !!!

Not happy with it

Has anyone spotted which Dublin to Balbriggan services will be cancelled? I use the line but was unable to find any changes in the draft timetable.

Looks like the 9:05 Bray to Balbriggan now terminates at Connolly at 9:43, and the 10:50 Balbriggan to Connolly that train currently forms is now cancelled.

Make a lot of sense - particularly delaying the 1700 Sligo - Dublin until 1800 which will do no end of good in improving the reliability of the evening down trains as everything before the 1805 gets a clear run to Longford and the 1805 gets to Edgeworthstown before crossing.

It is the best that can be expected with declining resources really.

To be fixed.

Having to change trains at Clonsilla will not help with customer levels on the M3 Parkway off peak services. But this is made far worse by the typical IE slack operating performance: between the M3 train arriving at Clonsilla bay platform and the connecting departure of the Maynooth train there is typically a 7 to 9 minute interval.

This is very sloppy given that the Journey time from M3 Parkway to CLonsilla is only 12 minutes, leaving very little excuse for late running. How will such a large increase in overall running times (plus the inconvenience of a train change) affect demand? Was this question even considered by IE?

So the 18.18 to longford is going and not a 21.00 in sight.......oh how different it could have been!

And I be live the 21.00 would have not been cancelled.

The 18:18 to Longford serves very little purpose except that it is useful for a few people commuting from Longford to Maynooth. I used to take it very occasionally when I was transferring in Connolly and missed the 1805 but even then I reckon I used about 10 times in 5 years of that commute and I haven't used it at all in the last 3 years of going straight from Connolly. Any time I did use it, there was never more than a couple of dozen on the train after Kilcock.

I agree that it would have been nice to introduce a 21:00 but it is extremely difficult to move a last train earlier so Irish Rail would need to be very sure about the business case before introducing a service that would be almost impossible to remove.

The big gaps in the morning down and evening up timetables are probably of greater concern - particularly with the last up train moving an hour earlier. But at least they have kept a 19:00 up train on a Sunday which is heavily used by students.

+ 1 - same old rubbish for the Rosslare line, currently investigating options with Wexford bus from 2013

Is there ANY chance of IR putting the 17.58 Pearse Dundalk Commuter before the 17.55 DART to Malahide.

The 17.58 stops at Howth Jn, Clongriffin, Portmarnock AND Malahide and makes an already long journey even longer .....

By swapping these and letting the 17.58 go first would mean no (or less anyway!) delays

It should be someone's job to make sure that commuter trains are given priority over Darts leaving Connolly, both northbound and southbound.

Far better to hold up a Dart for a minute or two and give a head start to those going further afield.

It's not just not someone's job, it's against IE policy as stated on page 17 of the 2011 Network Statement. DART first, then commuter, then Enterprise, freight, infrastructure.

Irish Rail frankly haven't an operational brain in their head. Was on the 1900 to Belfast last night. At precisely 1900 the 1800 DART from Greystones swung onto the main line at Ossory Road heading north. Aa a consequence the Belfast train didn't exceed 26mph until after Howth Junction and incurred a delay of 10 minutes as a consequence. Further delays followed due to speed restrictions at Clongriffin, Malahide, Mosney and Drogheda.

THe "congestion" argument doesn't hold up as the previous train left Ossory road northbound about 20 minutes earlier.

Thres more people on the DART argument does'nt hold up either as there wasn't.

Additional delay to the DART service would have been about 1½ minutes v 10 minutes to the Belfast service. What a joke !

I'm fairly sure the priority is coded into the signalling system and unless the signalman intervenes DARTs will automatically go first(or stick to the order in the timetable regardless of delays) everywhere. For example, a common occurrence at Pearse is for a Maynooth train to be sitting in the siding, ready to depart northbound, but a 5-10 delayed northbound DART is allowed to go ahead of it, delaying the Maynooth train for its entire journey. In the time taken to wait for that delayed DART to arrive and sit at the platform for way too long, the Maynooth train would have made it all the way up through Connolly and off shared track.

There's just a lack of interest on IE's part on trying anything clever or overrriding defaults.

I know all to well.The last Rosslare service from Dublin at 18.36 A DART train going to Greystones or Bray comes in and instead of allowing the Rosslare train go ahead it does only serve Tara St and Pearse and onto DunLaoghaire. We have to crawl all the way behind the DART. "lack of interest on IE's part on trying anything clever or overrriding defaults."

Another example is the way they handle crossing delays. During leaf-slip season, it is a regular occurrence for the 1805 Connolly to Longford train to sit in Killucan for 10 or 15 minutes waiting to cross with the 1700 from Sligo.

However, the run from Killucan to Mullingar can easily be done in 7 or 8 minutes. These delays then knock on to the other two trains coming behind. So instead of having one train with about 40 passenges being 20 minutes late instead of 10 minutes late, they end up with three trains carrying 400 - 600 passengers being up to half an hour late.

The exact same thing happens two or three days a week for three months in the autumn every year and nobody ever learns.