Ahem. Transatlantic flights all fly overnight, landing in dublin early in the morning. Not even O'Leary is going to change that pattern. It would be absolutely unfeasible to fly a plane more than twice across the atlantic a day and i doubt he's going to run internal US flights.

Yours, P. dant.

P.s. are you sure there are no I.E. drivers commuting into dublin for their days work from outside? Imagine if there are already a few in places like Arklow, Mullingar etc., driving into dublin for a 6am start. I wouldn't be surprised if those guys existed!

This is the same Irish rail that don't provide services on Sundays on the Kildare line because no-one wants to get the train on a Sunday?

Thats what? A 3am boarding time? :eek:

The flight's shorter from New York (Gander) though..:D

Looks like theres more than one "P. DANT" here.

If (and I repeat if for all the P.DANTs out there) you were to arrive off a New York flight at 7pm in Dublin, your boarding time in New York would've been approx. 6.30am New York time.

As for my original post, replace the transatlantic reference, with "Flight from any fecking place" and get on with it.

Get back on topic or I'll ban you all.:mad:

I dont think they can operate flights against the NAT Tracks, so they have to "go with the flow" as such!

But 9pm is the latest Intercity train in the country (and 8:45 for the Enterprise). Do you think people in the UK would be impressed if they were told the last train from London to Manchester was at 9pm? I should think that "flagship" routes should run until at least 10pm, preferably 11pm, with second-tier routes running until 9pm.

If that means "basket jobs" in the short term until drivers can be trained, that's what we should have.

I know people from Belfast who travel to Dublin regularly and would love to take the train, but they can't because (a) it can't get them to Dublin in time for a 9am meeting, (b) it can't get them reliably in time for any meeting, and (c) if they want to stay for a drink in the evening they have to leave by about 8:15 (yes I know they can't drink and drive when travelling by car, but that's part of the point).

There is a huge factor (certainly for Gorey/Rosslare, Longford/Sligo and Galway bound commuters) which affects the journey time and hence the desire to travel later than the given time.That is that the majority of these routes run along a single track and not twin track like the DART and Much of the other routes.

However, Gorey/Rosslare bound commuters are worst affected by this.This is because they share the same stretch of track with the DART as far as Bray. As well as that many of these DARTs go as far as Greystones which would get in the way of otherwise more frequent Gorey/Rosslare bound trains.This leads me to beleive that electrification of the DART to Greystones was a bad idea as the priority south of Bray should be getting Wicklow AND Wexford bound commuters home from Dublin.Some DARTs would also get in three minutes ahead of Gorey bound trains following a 20 minute gap especially alocated for these trains thereby holding them up.Also Rosslare Europort being a Europort (high priority) is subject to the worst of frequencies with only three trains each way, each day.I know that there are passing loops along this line in a select few stations which requires good signalling and timing.However,I personaly think it is time to double the track along this route and breath life into Wicklow and Wexford especially when towns like Arklow and Gorey are expanding at quite a fast rate.Therefore, people from these areas(especially Kilcoole being skipped by half of these trains) wouldn't be pressurised to leave Dublin so soon.They could do some shopping,unwind or go for a drink and then head home at around 8, 9 or even 10.

I don't know much about the Longford/Sligo and Galway line personally but I have an idea from these forums of how bad their situation is aswell.I live in Dalkey on the south side of the DART route which forms part of the Dublin-Rosslare line and I can say that I feel very sorry for those who travel to Gorey/Rosslare as I can see how infrequent their trains are.

There is a 16:30 Connolly Gorey in the staff timetable (not the public one) but it doesn't run, lack of trains August at the earliest before it runs. There is plenty of capacity beyond Greystones, morning service is not bad, that said its hardly what I'd call busy compared to Drogheda or Maynooth. Rosslare line is the least used in the coutry, Westport and Sligo (both of which are 3 trains a day or where) carry significantly more passengers. Difference is the bus is way faster to Rosslare and always will be. Also been a significant decline in foot passengers on the ferry thanks to Ryanair and no duty free. That said Wexford will have 5 trains to Dublin in the next few years

We have looked at the situation in detail and later trains hinge on
1) extra train mileage, extra cost - avoid
2) having the trains in the right place the following morning - no extra train sets
3) staff to drive - cant stay overnight

For 3 destinations its possible to get 1 and 2 but not 3, two more we can get 2 and 3 but at the cost of extra mileage, the others hit a problem with trains to run them. If we can devise a situation where all 3 are statisfied you win and IE are in a corner, Currently they just refuse on grounds of demand, if you can show that its cheaper to run the service compared to not running it you win.

Any improvement on the Rosslare line hinges directly on having drivers based in Gorey, thats the reality we must accept, of course this not unexpected IE should have taken steps 3 years ago to sort this issue out

Stephen M - there are some "counterflow" flights so it's quite feasible: AA142 and VS26 for example leave JFK in the morning about 8 and arrive at Heathrow about 8pm - they are less popular because you "lose" that day.

As for Gorey etc - I suppose the real mistake was not so much electrification of Greystones so much as the failure to provide a second track - and moving that track further inland. But that would have been harder for Lowry to sneak through so we got the cheapass solution.

Would Waterford (base) -Wexford - Dublin service fix the Gorey situation without the need for a Gorey base?

Mark there is one problem with the use of buses.They don't have on board toilets on them.If the passenger is lucky the particular bus might have one fitted in.That said some bus drivers don't allow for the use of them for some strange reason.However this is not a problem with commuter trains.Sometimes the Journey can be as long as 4 or 5 hours on the Bus due to traffic jams and during this time there is bound to be someone wanting to go.Passengers should be able to commute in comfort.That is why trains should be used more on these routes.

I was on the last train to Dundalk last Thursday,
leaves Dublin at 11:20pm and arrives in Dundalk at 12:36am

Last train to Wicklow from Dublin leaves at 6:37pm and arrives in at 7:35pm
Last train from Wicklow to Dublin leaves at 9:07pm and arrives in at 10:12pm

Now which direction at this time would more customers want to travel?

you may notice it takes less time to travel Dublin Wicklow in rush hour than Wicklow Dublin off peak.....

I guess though IE's market research shows that what annoys customers the most is people dodging fares.... more than no trains, crap service, carriages that stink of urine, carriages that are too hot/too cold

an idea for a later longford service
 

Any thoughts on this idea for a 9.00pm pearse-longford service

as it stands:
there are 3 evening longford commuter services (not incl intercity)

5.15pm connolly-longford (arr longford 7.08pm) 8-car 29000 set
stays in longford overnight

6.00pm connolly-longford (arr longford 7.42pm) 4-car 29000 set
runs back empty to connolly

6.17pm connolly-longford (arr longford 8.23pm) 8-car 29000 set
stays in longford overnight

2 8-car 29000 sets are rquired for morning services

so the idea is:

run the 9.00pm pearse-maynooth as an 8-car 29000 set and extend it to longford. This could arrive in longford about 11.20pm and could stay there overnight. As it stands the 9.00pm pearse-maynooth is a good service and picks up good passenger numbers especially wednesday-saturday. they could do well from having a late night service to enfield,mullingar,longford etc

The problem is though you lose the return service of the 9pm pearse-maynooth: the 10.10pm maynooth-pearse. so what you would do is run one of the eight cars back in service at a time so it could arrive in maynooth around 10pm and run that in service as far as connolly. what you would have left in longford would be 2 eight-car sets for morning service.

you can organise staff arrangements ie change at a certain station etc.

so what do you think?

when you consider that you can get a train to Cork/Limerick at 21.00 any day this seems a bit mad ted.

Again, the big hpoe is that the 22000's will free up capacity. Not on our figures they wont, though.