The Cork Dublin Express Train has entered service

[Mark Gleeson]

Items 2 through 7 have all occured on the Mk4, the AC works thats about the only difference

[2Funki4Wheelz]

5.30 mk4 from Cork this morning, 25 mins late arriving in Portarlington, 25 mins late into Heuston, made up no time and very slow approaching Heuston - the driver did make an announcement and apologise - 'due to slippage caused by wet leaves'. First time I've heard that reason on an intercity.


And as an aside

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

I have yet to find the sockets on a Mk4 the luggage rack drew a blank

Spotted a single socket opposite the toilet door in the corridor into the carriage. Even in the first seat you'd nead a long lead.

[Mark Gleeson]

Actually I'm told there there are 2 sockets inside the coach at the luggage rack end, very hard to find but they are there

Should be on the 11:00 am to Cork on Saturday next so a photo might be poosible

Though IE will deny it there is a serious ongoing maintenance issue with the locomotives, they may be rated at 3200hp but on the ground due to a amazing mess in Inchicore few if any come close to the standard this costs 10-15 minutes between Dublin and Cork since the train won't make it much above 85mph, we have been able to confirm the cause and can confirm the effect. The locomotives are not defective they simply are missing a very basic maintenance proceedure

[Thomas J Stamp]

Originally Posted by 2Funki4Wheelz

5.30 mk4 from Cork this morning, 25 mins late arriving in Portarlington, 25 mins late into Heuston, made up no time and very slow approaching Heuston - the driver did make an announcement and apologise - 'due to slippage caused by wet leaves'. First time I've heard that reason on an intercity.


And as an aside

Spotted a single socket opposite the toilet door in the corridor into the carriage. Even in the first seat you'd nead a long lead.

The leaves are a, erm, red herring. As Mark has pointed out, the engines are not tuned properly, as such they dont have the power to push the train out of cork fast enough, thats why its late, its been that late since it was introduced, and there were no leaves falling then. In actual fact, if leaves were an issue, it would be later.

It's not leaves. It's stupidity.

[Mark Gleeson]

It seems that IE know we know, for the first and second time ever I travelled above 90 mph on a Mk4, all the way to 101 mph and the difference between a weak locomotive and a good one is incredible and exposes the timetable for the joke it is when 15+ minutes can be sliced off a point to point time, again driver confirmed at Heuston that it was one of the few good ones which again proves that there is a problem

And the power sockets they are behind seats 05 and 06, last seats on the left side if you walk through a coach towards Cork

The ride is better than it was, its getting closer to being ok and it is fairly good at 100 mph but you still feel everything and the werid forward backwards motion appeared again this time while being pulled, last time it happened to me the train was being pushed

And can confirm that set 4001 does not have the test coach with the better suspension

[MrX]

On the booking system when you're reserving a seat is the pointy locomotive displayed really a loco or the DVT?

I get quite confused when i'm trying to book online and usually end up facing the wrong way :P

[packetswitch]

Is there a reliable way (either from the seat reservation or from general knowledge) to know which Dublin-Cork trains are MkIVs and which are not?

[Mark Gleeson]

Seat booking will in most cases give it away

A Mk4 looks like this http://www.platform11.org/images/boo...td_coach_c.jpg the airline style seating in the coach centre gives it away

However the seat reservations are often set incorrectly so a different train shows up

The list, definite
9:00, 11:00, 19:00 and 21:00 Dublin Cork Mon-Sat
5:30, 9:30, 13:30, 15:30 Cork Dublin Mon-Sat

The possibles (happened on Saturday last)
15:00 Dublin Cork Mon-Sat
19:30 Cork Dublin Mon-Sat

Sunday remains a great unknown but
10:00, 13:00 and 16:00 Dublin Cork
12:30, 19:30 Cork Dublin

Don't forget engineering works mid morning will delay the 9:30 ex Cork and the 11:00 ex Dublin

[Kildare Commuter]

0700 Dublin->Cork this morning was a Mk 4

[Thomas J Stamp]

Ah. Presumably last nights 19.00.

[Mark Gleeson]

Word is the 7:00 Dublin Cork and 11:30 Cork Dublin and the 16:20 Fridays only Dublin Cork are now run by a Mk4,

[2Funki4Wheelz]

Just a little thing to add to the wonderful MK4.
Got the 21:00 last night, walking through into a carriage and the glass door closed on me, trying to squish me, waved my arms about and only because someone was walking towards me set the sensor off so it opened. So I guess they're only outward sensors (not like lift doors with something in the frame or electric car windows with a pressure sensor?)

[Mark Gleeson]

If you do happen to be on a Mk4 and you hear a loud thud unlike the normal sound effects you get under the floor and you just happen to be sitting at the coach end, find and tell the train manager as it indicates a much larger problem

If the coach becomes wildly unstable after the thud, thats why they invented the communcation cord, which incidently doesn't directly apply the brakes

Passenger last week hear thud, told train manager and they stopped and found something broken

[hhf8]

Originally Posted by 2Funki4Wheelz

Just a little thing to add to the wonderful MK4.
Got the 21:00 last night, walking through into a carriage and the glass door closed on me, trying to squish me, waved my arms about and only because someone was walking towards me set the sensor off so it opened. So I guess they're only outward sensors (not like lift doors with something in the frame or electric car windows with a pressure sensor?)

Are they automatic,or do you have to pull them across first,I had problems with them opening for me,I ended up just sliding them across

[Mark Gleeson]

The door will open, just wait a second or two, latest accessibilty regulations seem to require it since things would be confusing if the door opened if you where partially sighted

Manually opening the door in most cases will break it so it won't close again, a few have shattered for reasons unknown

[MrX]

I've seen quite a few people forcing them open. It's not the most intuitive design.

Perhaps IE could put some "AUTOMATIC DOOR - DO NOT SLIDE"

[hhf8]

i was touching the silver handle,my thinking was,thats the sensor!,turns out there just slow

[Mark Gleeson]

Its by design not a bug per say

[hhf8]

yep,slap a sticker on so,there's one on the mk3 isn't there?

[James Shields]

Has anyone experienced the improved suspension yet? There's been a set in the coach shed at Connolly for the last few weeks. They sometimes leave the side door open and you can catch a glimpse of the DVT from the car park. Occasionally you can see the end coach poking out too.

Unfortunately I haven't managed to catch any numbers, so I can't tell whether it's one set that's been there the whole time, or several have made the trip.