[21.06.2007] heuston
 

Heard a radio report of a body found on the line near heuston and that services are disrupted until further notice

In a fairly stupid move IE have pulled everything

No reason why a full Arrow service could not be sustained between Heuston and Hazelhatch

No info on the early morning Intercity services from Cork, Limerick Galway Waterford etc

Services have resumed according to aa roadwatch can still expect major delays

The reports on Radio 1 hinted that they were "sending out trains empty to pick up passengers in Dublin" so maybe some Arrows did run?

Well its not on the IE site, IE failed utterly to orgainse

However, it never said which stations these trains were serving - Clever !!

Weary traveller here just into work!

Herad the announcement on the radio getting out of bed. Guy in Portarlington station said there'd be delays of maybe 1 to 2 hours.
Note there are no 'alternative arrangements' in Portarlington other than driving.

The Limerick train (which I think should depart Port at 7-ish) was sitting in the station. So I hopped on and settled in for a sleep, what else can you do? Walk home and randomly head back to the station to get a train using your psychic powers to guide you with the timing?

The tea and coffee van in the Port car park did a roaring trade cos the trolley service/snack bar wasn't on the Limerick train due to "a member of staff not turning up" (as per the on baord announcement).

Train started moving at 8.30 with about 5 mins notice - which was great cos people had got off to walk to the shop - frantic mobile ringing and sprinting back.

A few more on-board apologies, all punctuated with "which is beyond the control of Iarnrod Eireann" and we got in at 10.05. Quite a few people on the train heading for the airport, I know one couple had no hope of making their 10.30 flight.

I know it is beyond their control but the haphazard wait and see approach solution is useless.

Somewhat bizarrely, Barry Kenny said on Newstalk that trains would be pulling into stations and buses would be organised locally.

On the face of it a good and rational emergency plan - if everyone on the train is heading to one destination and also if you can find a large amount of buses at a moments notice during a school run time.

Otherwise it looks like its a whitewash and a simple refusal to state to people "look you're stuck and we don't know when you'll be going again"

You decide.

That's the thing, as usual we were getting more info off the radio than off the local train station.

Lets look at this logically and use past experience

Running a railway is about a sense of order, time and money.

We know that it takes about 2 hours to clear the line after a train vs person incident, thats well known in the industry, BTP in the UK have a target to clear all scenes such as this in under 2 hours, I've seen it done in 90 minutes in Dublin

So we now know roughly when the line can be expected to reopen, IE failed to indentify or indicate this to the passenger, sure Barry Kenny will say it would be irresponsible to do this but this info is key to enabling the passenger to make a informed decision

We know IE had the trains, staff and signalling capabilty to operate a full service Hazelhatch Heuston, they didn't or if they did they didn't say so. This is like the usual if something goes wrong in Dalkey that Bray Greystones is also shut, its lazy inflexible staff and management

Its about that sense of order, if it goes wrong the least possible section should be effected, it shouldn't be used as an excuse for a mass shutdown, I would argue that Irish Rail are liable in the case of any Hazelhatch/Adamstown/Clondalkin/Cherry Orchard passengers as they failed to make reasonable effort to sustain the service where such was reasonably possible

with all the talk of the PPT there is a bit of irony On the rte website there is a picture of passengers disembarking connolly station with the text trains disruption, thousands of commuters affected under it. I doubt there was a problem half as bad on the connolly end of things.

I don't know what the process is after the find had taken place and i don't know where the find happened but is the sallins area 4-tracked and could 2 tracks be used in the circumstances.

RTE reported on 1 o'clock news that trains were late by up to an hour.
Not sure if this was coming from IE management but it was way off.
The Limerick train was over 2hrs late arriving in Dublin.

I'm sure in Abbey Street templates are been created;
'Dear Sir/Madam,
As the incident on 21/6 was outside of the the control of IE we will not be
reimbursing you for 50/100% of your fare....blah...blah..blah'

There are only 2 tracks from Inchicore outwards. From reports of people from sallins they did send 2 empty and 1 occupied CDE trains by the scene before the other trains got moving.

Also they think the body was beside the tracks (just south of Sallins station), but the line had to be closed to get emergency services access to the location.

kevin

They did keep saying 'beyond our control' on the intercom in case anyone tried to claim their fiver voucher or anything. :mad: The lack of information available was not beyond their control though.

I doubt Abbey Street is that efficient from past experience.

When it comes to them not having to give refunds I'm sure they can be motivated!

:D They always have their back-up 'Ignore' policy.

Delays
 

I was on the Galway train, not sure if that's the so called 7.02 or 7.06 from Portarlington, it arrived at about 10 past 7, stopped in Monasterevan for a good hour. As annoying as it was just sitting there, and I'm always the first to give out about IE, I have to say that the communication on our train was good, both over the PA and by the staff member walking through the carriages. In fact he walked into each carriage and asked had we all had heard the announcement. Shortly before we left Monasterevan it was announced that we could get free tea and coffee. Arrived to Heuston at about 10.00am

Much better experience on board the 07:10 from Heuston to Galway.

At 7am there were Irish Rail staff walking up the train calmly apologising to people and telling them that there was a body on the rails near Sallins, and they would let us know as soon as they had any info on moving. Some people left.

There was an announcement at about 7:30 that the GardaÃ* had taken charge of the scene at there was an estimated 1 hour delay. They trolley man was handing out free tea and coffee and the Irish Rail staff had had one or two more trips through the carriages keeping people informed.

At 8:15, the Mk4 which was on platform 6 (usually the 8:00) moved off, closely followed by the one on platform 5, which is normally the 07:00 moved off. We got going at 8:30, presumably followed by the 8:35 to Waterford.

Refund leaflets were handed out and explained (a first) by Irish Rail staff to all passengers on the train.

Everyone was kept in the loop. Everyone was happy.

So I guess we can claim for refunds then? :confused:

More bizarre behaviour. According to their own rules it's a fair bet this was an incident "beyond their control" (you know, like they've been saying everywhere) and so no refund. So why hand out the refund forms in Heuston? Perhaps a little investigation would reveal that the outbound trains could have run anyway, with a speed restriction?

Or, is this another IE smokescreen, like Barry's non-existent buses? Just say or do anything that looks good, it'll be a few months before those who bothered to look for a refund are told they're not entitled to one and we can bury it then, but right now it's great PR?

Answers on a postcard to the usual address.