Train Performance -Track Record
 

http://www.irishrail.ie/cat_news.jsp?i=4736&p=116&n=237
06 December 2012

Stats:
http://www.irishrail.ie/index.jsp?p=115&n=265

One thing that stands out is the poor reliability on Galway services comparted to others.

Interesting that the reliability on the Sligo line indicates that there has not been a single failure all year. Does a bus transfer count as a service that ran? Because back in March, there were bus transfers between Boyle and Sligo.

http://railusers.ie/forum/showthread.php?t=14196

However, I have noticed that the leaf-fall season has been especially easy this year. I would normally expect a cumulative delay of at least an hour a week from leaf-fall but it has been a fraction of this.

I think they should publish the stats from previous years as well because in fairness to Irish Rail, they have been brilliant on punctuality over the last year.

Looks like if there is a bus transfer in place for a service it still sort of operates. Moving passengers to another service counts as a service being cancelled by the looks of it. I do question some of the Reliability stats as I know of a few Waterford services that were canceled and no bus provided.

They seem to have stepped up the railhead treatment this year, I've actually seen the sandite train running, which is a first.

The numbers don't stack up at all

So IE say

So for DART last month

5/11/2012 Dun Laoghaire incident 2 hours (12-16 part cancellations)
12/11/2012 Bray incident 3.5 hours (20+ part cancellations)
21/11/2012 CTC collapse 20:00-20:45 (?)
22/11/2012 CTC collapse 23:15-??:?? (2 cancellations)
26/11/2012 Dun Laoghaire Dalkey closed flooding (20+ part cancellations)
03/12/2012 06:25 Connolly Greystones terminated at Pearse due train failure (1)

3850 DART per 28 day period
99.78% => implies 10 cancellations only which doesn't stack up to reality of at least 60

It is a bit of a pity that the reliability numbers don't appear to be hugely reliable because there has been a genuine dramatic improvement in real punctuality on the trains I take (normally 0545 Sligo -> Connolly and 1805 Connolly -> Longford).

The stats are especially meaningless for the evening train I normally take as I get off at the station before the terminus (Edgeworthstown on a Longford service). Last year during leaf-slip season almost every evening the train was 12 or 13 minutes late at Edgeworthstown but there was plenty of slack in the timetable to get it back under 10 minutes at Longford where it is measured. But this gripe aside, the train is rarely 10 minutes late this year.

They seem to have forgotten that they run Cork Commuter, Nenagh branch, Limerick Junction-Waterford and the WRC...

Ssshhh! Those services are run on the QT by local staff without management knowledge! :D

Also Manulla-Ballina, Mallow-Tralee, Dublin-Gorey, Dublin-Longford.

We will have a more accurate accoount of OTP from Feb onwords once the new Heuston timetable starts and with all extra time for most services removed. I expect a drop.

Yes, but managing the drop is the issue.

A few things:
* Aggregating numbers hides the extremes - how do Dublin-Sligo services compare with Dublin-Longford? How do Dublin-Maynooth services compare with Dublin-M3 Parkway services?
* Give the age, spare capacity and flexibility of the fleet, there should be few complete failures.
* If punctuality is consistently above 95%, there is way too much padding in the journey time and customers are being dissuaded from using the train by over-stated journey times. Between 85-95% things should be studied and below 85% remedial action needs to be taken.
* Safety should not be compromised to achieve punctuality, but neither should the railway be so risk adverse that it does nothing.

Another thing that would be nice to see is peak-time performance which is the most important figure for commuters who are the people most affected by delays. In reality, a 10 minute delay every day doesn't really matter if you take an inter-city train once a month but a 5 minute delay on a 10-minute DART trip takes its toll if you are doing it twice a day.

I would also like to see Dublin-Longford separated out. There are three return services per day that terminate at Longford and there should be a lot more given the percentage of Sligo line traffic that goes no further than Longford.

It would also be sensible to move to a more normal standard to allow international comparisons although it is a little difficult as almost all services in Ireland would be considered regional services by international standards. By this measure, regional commuter services and anything out as far from Dublin as Longford / Dundalk / Arklow / Portlaoise would be held to a 5-minute standard.

By comparison, the UK manages about 90% on this standard but this was as low as 75% 10 years ago.
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/about/performance/

Take Sligo the other day. 15.00 from Sligo failed at it was a 6 car set. They had to terminate the 15.05 to Sligo also a 6 car set at Longford so it could be back in Connolly to operate the 19.05 normally operated by 15.00 from Sligo. If there 22000 were not doing M3, Maynooth etc they could of get 2 3 sets together. Limerick J-Limerick shuttle I know its an intercity route and all that but should 22 be doing it (same on the Wasted Rail Corridor) as the level of passengers on them during the day doesn't stand up IMO. I would prefer to see an ICR on the 16.55 Cork-Mallow which is always packed. IE would be much better speding money on a refurb of a 2800 set and have it operate the Limerick shuttle. We are talking max 50-60 pax per shuttle on a very good day and a train with 190 seats.

A failure in the likes of Cork, Dublin Area, Limerick would be alright as there is spare but other areas its not the case.

Only way to prevent this is frequent maintenance and not running sets that are in need of maintenance until they break down. In fairness IE are doing a good job but every so often they slip up and there is many failures within days/weeks.

The Limerick shuttle has always been the weak point in the Dublin Limerick product so a high quality train is needed.

22K should be quicker in the dash to Limerick, any time I've made the trip the commuter railcar was maxed out at full power just to keep up

The set on the Limerick shuttle has from time to time stepped in to run to Dublin

I'd love to get a record of what exactly the faults are that are marking a particular train as 'failed'. Given the amount of redundancy in a DMU, it could only be something like headlight/horn/cab equipment failure, lack of fuel/coolant/other consumables in all carriages or full toilets, which are issues related to poor management, diagramming and maintenance checks between journeys.

If they get a brake stuck on, they aren't going anywhere. Is it one particular unit that is causing bother on the Sligo line, because there was chaos about a month ago when the 1705 failed in Maynooth on a Friday evening. The same unit had failed a couple of days earlier.

One thing I have noticed is that windows are staying broken a long time recently which to me gives the impression that the trains aren't seeing much regular maintenance during the week. I've seen the same broken window with sticky film sheet on a 22K on the Sligo line all week and this is by no means unusual.