[09/07/2013] Severe delays to/from Heuston (second incident)

[laoisfan]

I've just posted off my claim form with a photocopy of my annual ticket.

Most likely they will issue vouchers.

Do they print your name on the vouchers? I was hoping to give them to a friend of mine who typically goes up 1-2 days per week from Ballybrophy. Might save them some money perhaps.

EVERYONE CLAIM!!

Don't let this shower away with this.

Sorry for the all-caps above. I've wrecked this morning (poor widdle me )

[grainne whale]

Originally Posted by laoisfan

I've just posted off my claim form with a photocopy of my annual ticket.

Most likely they will issue vouchers.

Do they print your name on the vouchers? I was hoping to give them to a friend of mine who typically goes up 1-2 days per week from Ballybrophy. Might save them some money perhaps.

EVERYONE CLAIM!!

Don't let this shower away with this.

Sorry for the all-caps above. I've wrecked this morning (poor widdle me )

I don't blame you, I was delayed as well (1 Hour - but only going to Hazelhatch), but nothing like other people, a work colleague who commutes from Thurles, he got a train around 4ish and reached Thurles at 9.25pm.

[laoisfan]

Originally Posted by grainne whale

I don't blame you, I was delayed as well (1 Hour - but only going to Hazelhatch), but nothing like other people, a work colleague who commutes from Thurles, he got a train around 4ish and reached Thurles at 9.25pm.

The thing which really irritates me is that there was no leadership shown here. A year or two ago something similar happened and they started to cancel/merge certain services to reduce the amount of possible delay. Why could they not do that yesterday? Is the place in such a shambles? I was talking to the guys at the ticket validating machines in Heuston and they did not have a clue. Not blaming them per say but the whole thing was like something out of Father Ted.

Can Mark & the other shed any light on yesterday's joke of a service and why they did not merge services out of Heuston?

[Jamie2k9]

Combining services in hot weather and having them way overcrowded isn't a good mix and as a passenger I would prefer to be on less packed trains and stopped.

I still think their is more than meets the eye, as after the machine was moved, and things got moving, then Cherryville Junction was blocked for 40 minutes, Even after all this services were still taking 2hours to get to Kildare with nothing blocking them, it was lather that evening that the signal fault returned.

If they wanted to they could of pushed the track machine to Kildare by the Westport train but no that would be to sensible so that's why I think it was something with the track.

They should of stopped departures from Heuston and had some bus transfers and not back up lines to from Nass to Inchicore.

[laoisfan]

Originally Posted by Jamie2k9

Combining services in hot weather and having them way overcrowded isn't a good mix and as a passenger I would prefer to be on less packed trains and stopped.

I still think their is more than meets the eye, as after the machine was moved, and things got moving, then Cherryville Junction was blocked for 40 minutes, Even after all this services were still taking 2hours to get to Kildare with nothing blocking them, it was lather that evening that the signal fault returned.

If they wanted to they could of pushed the track machine to Kildare by the Westport train but no that would be to sensible so that's why I think it was something with the track.

They should of stopped departures from Heuston and had some bus transfers and not back up lines to from Nass to Inchicore.

I can understand the over crowding....but lets be honest about this....they really don't give a $hit any other time now do they?

They replied to me on twitter and said they did not have the capacity to combine/merge etc.

Not a swipe at you mate :shake:

[grainne whale]

It's just very poor management from top to bottom.

[Jamie2k9]

Originally Posted by laoisfan

I can understand the over crowding....but lets be honest about this....they really don't give a $hit any other time now do they?

They replied to me on twitter and said they did not have the capacity to combine/merge etc.

Not a swipe at you mate :shake:

They may of not had correct capacity after the Kildare problem, trains for work in Portlaose would of being schedule and then this happened in the middle of the afternoon when trains operate to Dublin for the evening peak.

[Mark Gleeson]

Yesterday was just plain unfortunate

The fatality at Kildare earlier put everything out of order to start with

The maintenance train failure occurred mid afternoon (Kildare was its base), single line working was implemented around the train. And this time since the new signalling was in place it was actually do able unlike incidents in the past where trains could not get in to the loop at Sallins

This left a large portion of the fleet south of Kildare, i.e, not able to get to Dublin for the evening rush

The later Cherryville Junction issue was by standards a relatively straightforward issue.

The only operational issue is that no shuttle service was operated from Hazelhatch to Heuston in the evening and from Newbridge to Heuston in the morning, that's the kind of on the go change that should be automatic. It doesn't help everyone but it gets a significant number of passengers moving to destination and can quickly be shifted to operate through to destination

[laoisfan]

Thanks Mark.

Well I've filled out the Southern & Western refund claim form. Seeing as I am an annual ticket holder (valid until Jan 2014) I've included a photocopy of the annual pass.

[Kilocharlie]

Originally Posted by laoisfan

Thanks Mark.

Well I've filled out the Southern & Western refund claim form. Seeing as I am an annual ticket holder (valid until Jan 2014) I've included a photocopy of the annual pass.

Yesterday evening IR managers were handing out letters of apology and an offer by way of compensation for season ticket holders of a 3-day unlimited Gathering ticket.

They also promised to review procedures and the supply of information to passengers when incidents like these occur.

[Jamie2k9]

They also promised to review procedures and the supply of information to passengers when incidents like these occur.

How many times have we heard that before.

I see no reason why 60 minutes to clear the machine, it failed before 15.00, immediate action would be dispatch a locomotive from Heuston, use single line out of Nass, Inbound line wouldn't of being overly busy and then move the machine to New bridge or Kildare or even return to the loop in Nass. This absolute bulls**t that maintenance staff are on site trying to fix the fault is just causing more problems and getting very little productive done until they realize it can't be fixed. If something fails in the middle of nowhere the probability of it being fixed there and then is very slim.

Over the while we have had:
10.00 to Cork failure at Newbridge, 2 hours to clear.
Westport train failure which too around 3 hours to get another 22k to push it to Newbridge.
Track machine fail south of Kildare which took 3 hours+ to use a locomotive sitting in Kildare to move it.

The management have the brass neck to say we will review procedures. This just blatant lies as they have being saying this for years. DO they think passengers are mugs. This will happen again and the 3 hour and 4 hour delays will not change.

[grainne whale]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Yesterday was just plain unfortunate

The fatality at Kildare earlier put everything out of order to start with

The maintenance train failure occurred mid afternoon (Kildare was its base), single line working was implemented around the train. And this time since the new signalling was in place it was actually do able unlike incidents in the past where trains could not get in to the loop at Sallins

This left a large portion of the fleet south of Kildare, i.e, not able to get to Dublin for the evening rush

The later Cherryville Junction issue was by standards a relatively straightforward issue.

The only operational issue is that no shuttle service was operated from Hazelhatch to Heuston in the evening and from Newbridge to Heuston in the morning, that's the kind of on the go change that should be automatic. It doesn't help everyone but it gets a significant number of passengers moving to destination and can quickly be shifted to operate through to destination

Passengers are very sympathetic regarding fatalities, but signal failure and train breakdowns are a reasonably regular occurrence now.

[Jamie2k9]

Originally Posted by grainne whale

Passengers are very sympathetic regarding fatalities, but signal failure and train breakdowns are a reasonably regular occurrence now.

Wouldn't say breakdowns but whatever signalling we have here is always failing. From living in Europe and commuting twice daily, I never had a signalling problem and this was on partly single line and train crossings were down to perfect timing. Don't know what's different but IE probably went for a cheaper option or the systems they use over in Europe are better than IE's.

It always tends to be the same areas where they happens, so are they being checked often enough, a lot of the time at Cherryville its the points that are the problem.

[grainne whale]

Originally Posted by Jamie2k9

Wouldn't say breakdowns but whatever signalling we have here is always failing. From living in Europe and commuting twice daily, I never had a signalling problem and this was on partly single line and train crossings were down to perfect timing. Don't know what's different but IE probably went for a cheaper option or the systems they use over in Europe are better than IE's.

It always tends to be the same areas where they happens, so are they being checked often enough, a lot of the time at Cherryville its the points that are the problem.

Possibly lack of investment.