Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson
Fact is train did not operate as timetabled and resulted in delays to passengers.
I don't want excuses, I want a train
Find it hard to believe there wasn't another train that could have been sent out instead while the first was fixed for a later service. They do have a spare train at the depot, Heuston has a spare train on standby as well
Of course there was no notice on the Irish Rail website this morning about it
Classic mess.
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In an ideal world, everything would run like clockwork and failures would never happen. <Irony> Like on our road system, for example <\Irony>
Back in the real world. So a train ran late this morning. What was the actual impact? 0630 was due in Heuston at 0740. Passengers from Kildare inwards would have got the 0630 ex Carlow, due Heuston 0752. Passengers from other stations (including Portarlington additional stop) were on the 0535 ex Limerick. As the latter arrived Hesuton at about 0745, the Carlow must have arrived about 0740. So inward of Kildare, zero delay on scheduled time; from Portlaosie - Monasterevin, around 5 minutes on scheduled time. The only real losers would be passengers travelling from west of Kildare to Sallins, who would have had to use the Galway (and, in the case of Portlaoise, change trains en route).
The 0630 ran late, but got to Heuston in sufficient time to work it's next train (0820 Westport). thus there was no further impact.
Not, I would suggest, earth shattering in their impact, so in my view the correct decision was made.
As I said, neither you or I know whether the 0630 was worked by a spare train, or whether the original fault was fixed. Starting a train from cold is not like getting in a car and turning the key, as you (as technical officer) should be aware - it takes 15-20 minutes I believe for a 22K to be booted up from cold.
IE do not always get things right, as I would be the first to accept (I had about 20 minutes sounding off at the "meet the manager" session at Heuston a few weeks ago), but to give out about such a minor incident with such little effect on passengers overall casts doubt on the seriousness and credibility of this board, and in turn RUI.
LC