dwell times

[Colm Donoghue]

What's worse than freezing standing on the platform waiting for the train to arrive?
standing on the train waiting for the platform to depart.

This morning (and most mornings) the dwell times at Malahide and Portmarnock were 3-4 minutes. The dwell time at Donabate could have been the of the same order.
We arrived at Malahide at 7:29
Departed Malahide at 7:33
Arrived Portmarnock at 7:37
Departed Portmarnock at 7:41

The train is timetabled to depart Malahide at 7:29 and depart Port at 7:37. Not arrive at those times, fart around, let the cold wind howl through the carriage, let the passengers ingest some aromatic Diesel fuel smoke and fumes, eventually close the doors and mosey on.

IE want more money for the extra fuel costs they have. How about shutting the godam doors and keeping the heat in and saving fuel?

8 minutes to travel 3.8 km is a joke anyway. I could cycle that fast nearly.

This happens everyday. I just don't get annoyed enough to actually time it every day.

[colmoc]

This dwell time drives me crazy too. I used to get the 8:16 coolmine to pearse and the 5:45 pearse to coolmine.
These dwell times are caused by

• Driver unable to close the doors on the crush loaded train
• Waiting that extra minute or two to get even more people on at castleknock
• Stopping near croke park to keep the timetable padding
• The slow pace

And to add insult to injury this train is always a few minutes late but considered "ontime" by IE and their lovely lie of a charter and stats

So a few months back I started cycling to and from work through the park. To my surprise the train leaves ten minutes before me which saves me the 5 min walk to the station and I make it to town before the train!!!
I'm no lance armstrong but its a joke that I can cycle faster than a train to work

I still get this train the odd day but it just encourages me to go back to my bike.

[al2637]

This morning I timed the dwell times on my commute to work (A'dam Metro).

From the moment the metro came to a complete stop, to the moment it started moving again ranged from 14-16 seconds. Even at busy stops in the city centre, the MAX was 16. This time includes door opening, passengers/bikes getting off, passengers/bikes getting on, door closing warning sound, doors closing, and then moving....

I really don't understand why the DART and Commuter trains dwell for so long. Is it simply the padding in the IE timetable? I know at crush load it can take a bit longer, but they still seem to stand at the platform too long. Even after the doors close it usually takes a few moments before the train actully pulls away.

Maybe this is very simplistic, but surley the less dwell time you have, the quicker the journey will be and thus the more capacity you have?

[Thomas J Stamp]

Kate Thornton always waits 13 seconds from "the next person through to the next round is" to naming the person.

We timed it one night.

[2Funki4Wheelz]

Originally Posted by Thomas J Stamp

Kate Thornton always waits 13 seconds from "the next person through to the next round is" to naming the person.

We timed it one night.

I will time Tyra on the next ANTM - "The person still in the running to become America's next top model is...."

On topic - I suppose you have to make allowances for people that are slow getting on the trains and general lack of commuter etiquette (all piling in, not moving out of the way etc). This is very noticable on the Luas which is regularly delayed at stops because of people's bad manners.

[Mark Gleeson]

Not forgetting trying to crawl through the coach to find the platform in Portarlington

[Mark Gleeson]

Well I've timed Pearse

To fill a 8 coach 29000 set, and the passengers know to spread out takes 45-50 seconds but thats with no one getting off. So from the train stopping to the train moving is 60 seconds

I've seen sub 20 seconds done its possible but in many cases no point since it would put you ahead of time

It needs things tightened up

[Thomas the Tank]

[quote=al2637;14846]This morning I timed the dwell times on my commute to work (A'dam Metro).

From the moment the metro came to a complete stop, to the moment it started moving again ranged from 14-16 seconds. Even at busy stops in the city centre, the MAX was 16. This time includes door opening, passengers/bikes getting off, passengers/bikes getting on, door closing warning sound, doors closing, and then moving....

I guess the thing with Metros in places like Amsterdam etc is that if you don't jump on within 14-16 seconds you know that there's always going to be another one along in 2 or 3 minutes and so dwell times are reduced accordingly. Compare that to here...

[Colm Donoghue]

I timed a 29k in Pearse last week in the evening peak.
49 seconds wheel stop to wheel moving again.

[Mark Gleeson]

Originally Posted by colmd

I timed a 29k in Pearse last week in the evening peak.
49 seconds wheel stop to wheel moving again.

Which is pretty good given the wall of people who need to get on