Same this morning, no doubt IrishRail haven't noticed or they would be running a relief ! Amazing they bother running a service out of Dundalk at all.

1035 and 1320 are a C3K today. The 0735 ex Dublin set failed in Belfast

1405 ex Belfast expired at Clongriffin today. I'm told it took until 1800 to get the train towed into Connolly

Yes 1405 terminated at Clongriffin and blocked the line for a little over 1½ hours. DART service suspended between Clongriffin and Malahide.

1650 to Belfast and 2005 return was an ICR. The 1800 and 2050 to Belfast were 3 x C3K.

Is there not a loop at the station?

A northbound one - not southbound.

I see, so they built the station for 4 platforms but only have 3 available. The Southbound is a critical piece of infrastructure that really needs to be put into operation as soon as possible.

The 0735 has failed and there is a ?29K? replacing it

Surely trains should be able to terminate in Clongriffin on platform 2, allowing both northbound and southbound trains to pass?

James

Unfortunately Irish Rail missed the opportunity to create a really useful facility at Clongriffin which would have gone some considerable way towards allieviating the operational disaster that is Malahide.

It appears there are now plans to rip out some of the connections immediately north of Howth Junction and thus further reduce operational flexibilities. Admittedly had a proper layout been installed at Clongriffin in the first instance, the connections north of Howth Junction could have been removed without any loss of operational flexibility.

TBH if it continues then perhaps it's time for the NTA to look at the problem and force adequate operational flexibility on major sections of track into PSO contracts or have a fine for every period services are suspended for train/signal issues.

Are with in a situation the sections been removed are life expired and IE are not spending the money renewing them or is it just operating a simply system where when things go right it's fine but when they don't everything stops.

The 0735 ex Dublin has been 40/50 late yesterday and today due to "rail conditions" Also the 0645 ex Belfast has failed somewhere as there is a ?29 on the 0930 ex Dublin

The 0735 ex Dublin has been at least 30 minutes late every day this week. Today's train is 40 min late as I write this

Unfortunately, it's leaf season.

Have the DD a poor braking system in comparison to other fleet even in the worst leaf fall conditions more than 15 minutes would never really bee seen on the network and given a much higher % of N Line receives regular Sandite treatment with more less daily to Howth J and once weekly to Malahide combined with most likely daily runs at Belfast end.

In comparison no runs have taken place on Heuston side....

Something more to this delay one would expect and have inbound been impacted to the same level? There has been little if any major commuter delays caused on the same line so far!

Isn't leap-slip going to naturally be a lot worse on a loco hauled service than with units? Far fewer driven axles. I can remember the locos having terrible problems years ago leaving Mullingar going down where the 22Ks have no bother whatsoever now. We often used to have to reverse towards Dublin to take a run at it and this could regularly add 20 or 30 minutes to the journey when there would be no problem at all going up.

Probably do but I don't believe it the total reason behind the delay. Like I said we see no such problems to other DD services or at least the same levels of delays. Could argue it for Mark IV but delays are no where near the 07.35.

On Saturday night the 2050 ex Dublin was TWO HOURS late into Belfast, engine trouble after Dundalk

Yesterday 1605 ex Belfast and return was a C3K and this morning there is a 22K on the 0735 ex Dublin

On the new DD today and whoever designed made your typical mess that you come to expect from NIR.

Chairs are nice however for a man who is only average height my knee's hitting off the table combined with the bar in the middle (why not the end?) and square heating system on the ground. You are squashed in and I have never been on a train where you have to drag yourself across two seats to stand up unless you want sore legs getting stuck between the seat and table. It's the most cramped train so well done for achieving that. Chairs up to high which has the tables to low and to big for the space they are packing you into. The bus and even a Ryanair flight have far superior leg room and for a lot less.

Toilets, buttons work when they like, no lighting to indicate open/close, I mean it's basic design flaws.

Very strong lighting.

On the plus side WIFI was miles ahead of IE and NIR actually use heating on their trains, of the 4 trains today all had good heat. I would barley recall 4 times in the last year when it was cold and IE activated the heating.

The ICR's put them to shame, a small improvement to seating and they would be even better.

AFAIK the seats are the same old seats just new covering and padding on them.

they were once very dark/90's contemportary inside, they must have gone the other way now.

i enjoyed the DD's more than any other train in the fleet back in the day. I find there is a seat lottery on ICR's now, the board bewteen the frame and your backside can move out of position and within 10 mins you can be uncomfortably numb (if you draw the unlucky seat).