Rail Users Ireland Forum - Multiple Gripes from a noob

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Inniskeen (Post 65539)

In my experience the quad tracking on the Cork line sees comparatively few overtaking movements. In the outbound direction there is only one scheduled overtaking movement on Mondays to Saturdays and two on Sundays. The train overtaken in each instance is the 1855 from Heuston and the overtaking services are the 1900 to Cork (daily) and 1905 Tralee (Sundays).

Slight correction to the above. There appear to be two more overtaking moves outbound from Heuston. The 1725 Heuston/Limerick overtakes the 1715 Heuston/Newbridge and is then held for several minutes at Hazelhatch to allow the all stations Newbridge service cactch up and overtake.

This clever piece of operation, along with scheduled time wasting between Kildare and Portarlington, adds between 12 and 15 minutes to the journey for passengers travelling to stations between Kildare and Limerick.

Nice to know that expensive infrastructure is being effectively exploited !

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inniskeen (Post 65834)

More often than not, the 1725 just dawdles down the fast line at 40-50mph to avoid pausing at Hazelhatch for too long.

Either way it is delayed by 12-15 minutes over what could be achieved if either the 1715 left at 1720 or the 1725 left at 1720. Why don't they do this? Maybe the 1725 would arrive too early at the Junction and have to sit there for 15 mins??

Even if that were the case, the majority of passengers would have 15 minutes chopped off their journey.