[23-26/8-2012] tall ships race - service information

[ThomasJ]

I'm surprised no one has posted about this yet.

http://www.irishrail.ie/cat_offers.jsp?i=4668

Rail service information:

•Docklands Station will be open during The Tall Ships Race festival for M3 Parkway services.

•Tara St. station will be closed on Saturday 25th August until 22:30hrs, and on Sunday 26th August until 14:00hrs

.•Customers will not be allowed bring their bicycles on DART or Commuter services during the festival.

•A regular DART service will operate with extra capacity provided each day of the festival

.•Extra services will operate on the Maynooth and Drogheda commuter lines - search timetables above for full details.

•Avoid queues, travel early and buy Return Tickets.•All tickets can be purchased in advance from any Iarnród Éireann ticket offices.

[Rashers]

I have been hearing second hand about capacity problems on the Northern suburban line on Saturday due to the Tall Ships. Also issues with certain ticket offices been closed on the Sat - a lot of families were trying to use the train, and were not daily users. Finally I heard Connolly was under a lot of pressure due to Tara street been closed. Anyone any first hand observations?
I also know Red Cow park and ride had to be closed due to capacity issues....

[ACustomer]

Was in Seapoint-Dublaoghaire area to see the tall ships to-day (Sun). There was a Southbound dart stuck for at least 30 mins at Seapoint and a Northbound stuck in Dun LAoghaire station, with another behind it mid-section from Sandycove. Must have been a lot of very frustrated punters. Any news on the cause? The delay was occurring between about 12noon and 1230.

As for ticket offices closed at weekends: This wuld seem to allow unlimited free travel between intermediate stations on the Maynooth line as the electronic barriers are also open in places like Castleknock. Rvenue protection, how are you!

[Inniskeen]

It was a hectic weekend for Irish Rail in the Dublin area, one of the busiest weekends of recent years.

Performance was very much a mixed bag with catastrophic overcrowding, particularly on the northern outer suburban services on both Saturday and Sunday with many regular services operated by 4-car 2900s. Additional unplanned and/or unpublicised services were operated often by 8-car sets and in many instances these were lightly loaded due to the lack of prior notice.

The diversion of the M3 Parkway services to Docklands was a great success on Saturday with the station probably handling the equivalent of a month's traffic in one day. Services were formed of 8-car sets with at least one additional westbound service ex Docklands departing at 2000.

Sunday saw two services to Docklands, one from Maynooth, one from M3 Parkway, both 8-car sets and both almost empty as yet again they were largely unadvertised.

The regular Sunday M3 Parkway services were 4-car sets and were for the most part catastrophically overcrowded. These ran to Pearse as on a normal Sunday. Bad mistake.

DART was modestly busy but on the whole DART trains were lightly loaded compared to Maynooth, Drogheda, Dundalk and M3 Parkway services.

The Luas Red line struggled to cope but was running a very frequent service on Saturday and looked to be moving very substantial numbers.

On Saturday the 1035 from Belfast was so full that passengers were still struggling to exit platform 2 in Connolly at 1252, 7 minutes after the train arrived.

There were queues at ticket machines at various locations with unattended booking offices adding to the frustrations of irregular travellers.

As often happens the staff did their best but were badly let down by inadequate planning and poor scheduling.

Matters on Sunday were somewhat complicated by the GAA matches in Croke Park which added to the overcrowding on The Maynooth/Dunboyne services.

There was a special train from Sligo at 0950 formed by 8 2900s - incredibly this train was scheduled to serve all stations from Maynooth to Connolly. Bad Mistake.

A points problem at DunLaoghaire disrupted DART services for about an hour on Sunday afternoon with services suspended between Booterstown and Dun Laoghaire for about an hour from around 1135 to 1235.

[karlr42]

Originally Posted by Inniskeen

Additional unplanned and/or unpublicised services were operated often by 8-car sets and in many instances these were lightly loaded due to the lack of prior notice.

I had to laugh when I saw this tweet from IE

Originally Posted by https://twitter.com/IrishRail/status/239659791302135808

Extra train leaving Balbriggan now (10.45) to Dublin for @dubtallships

Really useless information.

[plant43]

The 1715 Pearse to Drogheda On Sunday was a 4 car 29k and it left so many people behind at Connolly that they arranged to have the 1800 Enterprise make unscheduled stops at Donabate, Rush + Lusk, Skerries, Gormanstown and Laytown. There was also a Translink train (not sure of the model) at Platform 1 in Connolly. Looked like it was going to be an extra service between 1800 and 1900.

The Luas was very full as well, I was attempting to get from Hueston to Busaras to get to Croke Park but there was absolutely no room on any trams at Heuston. About 6 passed by before I went up to James' and managed to squeeze onto one there. This was despite a tram coming about once every 5 minutes.

[dowlingm]

If Line D LUAS had been funnelling people into town and dumping them off for connection to Line A trams (since interlining will not be possible under the current BX-D design) that might have been interesting...

I was reading the boards thread on this but didn't realise just how much of an operational shambles had been going on as detailed above. Very poor show.

[karlr42]

Originally Posted by dowlingm

If Line D LUAS had been funnelling people into town and dumping them off for connection to Line A trams (since interlining will not be possible under the current BX-D design) that might have been interesting...

Indeed, I expect the interchange will make Abbey St extremely busy for much of the day, and cluttered street furniture, private car and bus traffic and non-Luas pedestrians will potentially cause chaos on busy event days like the weekend. In all cases making that transfer to a Docklands bound tram involves crossing the road or Luas tracks, so some risk of accident arises there.

Quick sketch, with interchange passenger flow in blue:



One of the reasons I would have much preferred to see a dedicated mass-transit service like DU or MN get the go ahead than the on-street, shared-running, low-speed Luas line that regularly runs to capacity. I feel relying on buses and trams is poor infrastructure planning when there is no dedicated heavy rail backbone except the Victorian Irish Rail alignments.

[Inniskeen]

Originally Posted by plant43

The 1715 Pearse to Drogheda On Sunday was a 4 car 29k and it left so many people behind at Connolly that they arranged to have the 1800 Enterprise make unscheduled stops at Donabate, Rush + Lusk, Skerries, Gormanstown and Laytown. There was also a Translink train (not sure of the model) at Platform 1 in Connolly. Looked like it was going to be an extra service between 1800 and 1900.

What a farce. The 1300 to Belfast didn't fare much better either - it was held to follow a DART which departed Connolly at 1303 and eventually made it through Malahide at 1331. The previous northbound DART had departed at 1235. Intercity Travel at its best - Irish Rail style.

[Rashers]

Met someone yesterday who tried to get a 10 ish service from Balbriggan to town on the Sunday of the Tallships. Platform was packed, and an already full 4 carriage arrived. Left most passengers behind, especially those with buggies. He said it was even worse on the way in through all stations. Sardines central! As I am sure we have all experienced, a one time user, who asks how do I put up with such a poor service. I tried to explain that normally it is not bad, it is just that Irish Rail cannot cope with big events, or during service failures. Still another potential passenger who will drive in future.