8:15 service Midleton-Cork. I got on in Carrigtwohill with about 4 or 5 other passengers. There was about 30 on it from Midleton. Grand total of 3 cars using the car park in Carrig!

The 08:15 to Midleton was delayed this morning. 5-6 cars in the north car park at Midleton station.

My brother is on the 11:45 to Cork, he said it is very busy.

Is there a reason why Cork-Glounthaune and Glounthaune-Cork takes longer on Midleton services than on Cobh ones?

And for that matter, is there a reason why Cork-Glounthaune is faster than Glounthaune-Cork regardless of which service you're on?

Padding is added at the end of the journey.

Andrew Roche from Irish Rail (Cork) was at Midleton station this morning. He was telling my mother that she could have bought her ticket from Midleton to Limerick online. Just checked there, it still says €0 when you click on "Check price".

I got the 06:45 to work this morning. about 20 passengers in total into Cork. About 12 boarded at Midleton, 1 at Carrigtwohill the rest at Glounthaune & Little Island.

TVM on platform 2 was operating this morning. TVM on platform 1 has something like a screensaver on it?

The PIS was telling everyone "The next train on platform 1 is the 06:38 to Midleton", displaying: 06:45 Midleton CallingAt: Littleisland, Glounthane ,, Carrigtwohill" <-exactly as I wrote it.

Train 2 was the 06:45 to Cork, but no mention of it.

Are these programmed @ Midleton station or from Mallow?

The "next train on platform 1 is the 06:38 to Midleton" arrived at platform 2!

The feeder bus (number 5) connects beautifully from the Cobh/Mallow/Dublin trains. During the day, there is a xx:20 departure which connects from the Midleton train. In the morning, there are 07:10, 07:40, 08:10 departures of the bus from Kent. Not great for Midleton customers, when the Midleton train arrives in at 07:08, 07:38 & 08:08! For the past few mornings my train has arrived in at 07:10 = bus gone. Next bus is at 07:30.

I am writing to BE Cork to see if anything can be done about this as I cannot imagine there are many passengers on the services I mentioned above (07:10, 07:40, 08:10) from Kent to City Center / Patrick's Street. It would be better to defer them by at least 5 mins for the possibility of passengers, especially when the colleges start!

Another thing that I will include in the letter is the question as to whether the Monthly City Bus/Suburban Bus/Cobh Rail will also include the Midleton line. The TVM at Midleton includes the weeky tickets for Cork City Buses, Cork City/Suburban Bus & the City Bus/Suburban Bus/Cobh Rail.

FYI: 6.50 return from Midleton to Cobh.

You can't book to Midleton currently, Irish Rail seem to think you can but you can't, yes the seat reservation people are aware of this now.

Even when it works you won't be able to start from Midleton until the TDM/TVM integration software thingy is finished as you can't collect a ticket in Midleton yet

The TVM's appear to run some class of windows, but really its becoming a bit of a running joke the machines should work all the time, both of them.

Forget the platform displays until the signaling system is completed they won't work

All departures in Midleton should be off platform 1, it allows a faster arrival and departure

There is certainly a combined bus and rail ticket which includes Midleton

Hi Mark,

do you what that ticket is? I'll ask about it at Kent this evening.

Finbarr.

No idea, there is certainly a Mallow - Cork weekly bus/rail ticket which is code 120

Staff in Cork have been briefed with the new codes for Midleton (station = 068) so I'd assume they will know

Cool, will ask them about it this evening! I know about the Mallow one as I used to get that from time to time, BUT as usual, NO FRICKEN ADVERTISING!!!!!!! to tell us about it!!

Update from Midleton (07.08.2009)
 

All trains will be departing from platform 2 until further notice due to the TVM on platform 1 being out of action.

PIS now informs passengers of this.

Booking office was not staffed yesterday evening when I got there, so will ask about the combi-ticket when I am there next.

Finbarr.

Midleton
 

Hi Guys,
pardon my innocent question but what do you mean when codes are mentioned, like 120 and 68?

Dave.

Every station has a station number, so instead of typing "Midleton" into the ticket machine, the ticket clerk can just type "068".

I presume a similar thing happens with the ticket type - single, return, child, student, etc.

Given the lack of training in Irish Rail from time to time passengers encounter booking office staff who cannot issue the ticket you want since they lack the various codes.

Knowing the code yourself while a pain in the neck can be helpful. Its rather sad when passengers have to tell the clerk how to issue tickets!

Someone really needs to save Irish Rail from themselves

So in Cork, no Midleton on the TVM
Attachment 1055

All stations with M
Malahide
Mallow
Manulla Junction
Maynooth
Midleton
Millstreet
Monasterevin
Monkstown
Muine Bheag
Mullingar


Thanks to one of our team in Cork for this gem

z

The Cork actually will make an operating profit so it can't be criticized on the funding basis

z

Midleton and Carrigtwohill have been added here:

http://www.irishrail.ie/home/maps/in...=620&width=540

http://www.irishrail.ie/home/maps/co...490&field=from

I finally got to use the service on Saturday.

Kent Station was insanely packed because of people trying to get to Dublin for the All-Ireland football semi. But as those kind of things are a one-off, it can probably be forgiven.

Some observations

• Still no non-Cork stations on the TVM in Midleton (i.e. You can't walk up to the machine and buy a through ticket to Dublin, Killarney etc.)
• Almost no cars in the car park in Midleton, but loads parked in the surrounding housing estates (this will gradually become an issue)
• While restored, the station building in Midleton seems to be being used for nothing. Surely there was an opportunity to get a retail unit in there.
• Almost nobody using the service in Carrigtwohill (on the way, one person got off, none got on; on the way back, one got on, none got off).
• A surprising number of people were making journeys from Glounethaune/Little Island to Midleton and back.
• Are there any TVMs in Little Island and Carrigtwohill? As you can't buy a ticket on board or at the station and there are no barriers, the service may as well be free.
• Overall there was about 40-50 on both trains. Not bad as it was a Saturday and the trains I used were against the general flow of passengers.

For the record, the trains I used were the 11:15am Cork-Midleton and the 2:45pm Midleton-Cork.

As an aside, when upgrades are done to the TVMs, is it possible to push the software on remotely or does someone need to go to the machine and do it? Obviously, they must be connected to the internet or some EDI system if they can handle card payments, so the connectivity is there.

Software is done remotely

Its frequently cheaper to buy a ticket to Cork and a ticket from there to Dublin. There was to be a staff presence for the first few weeks at Midleton but it never happened, even though it was advertised internally in Irish Rail

Little Island and Carrigtwohill have TVM's. Glounethaune is currently staffed

This can be a problem. The solution, if needed is to put a time limit on parking or do pay & display and issue bona fide residents with residents permits for the cost of the administrative fee.

Midleton and Carrigtwohill appear to be integrated on the on-line timetable and maps http://www.irishrail.ie/home/maps/co...490&field=from

Just beware of the last connection from Carrigtwohill to Cobh at night - bring a sleeping bag. :)

Although the engineering works that caused the bus substitutions are supposed to be ending this week, the online timetable seems to indicate that it will be going on for at least another week.

Are these related to the Lower Glanmire Road bridge?

And as the train crawls going through the bridge construction site, can we expect journey times to be reduced, even by only a minute, when its done?

Works will continue till at least the end of the month

New signaling has to be installed and commissioned, thats one of the reasons behind the crawl

Any time saving will be offset by the new Dunkettle station if it ever gets built

Midleton Station & Carrigtwohill Station are still not on the TVM's! Got to Kent Station yesterday at 13:45, queued for 16minutes at the booking office due large crowds heading on the 14:30 to Dublin. Missed my train to Midleton, so ended up going to Glounthaune instead to get someone to pick me up!! Its madness with the line re-opened almost 2 months at this stage!

The only time I used it so far, I almost didn't get it because of getting mixed up in the queues for tickets to Dublin. I naively thought I could arrive at Kent Station at 5 past the hour for a quarter past departure and have plenty of time. And yet the ticket vending machines were unused at the time.

I assume the service was quite heavily used over the weekend because of the Midleton Food Festival?

A few extra trains ran, but as always they where not advertised

It must have been, I was not there myself, but a friend of mine lives close to Midletion station and said that a lot of people arriving by train on Saturday (4-car railcar operated on all Midleton services). A bus was provided from the station to the fair as well.

I have sent a letter off to Kent Station about the ticket machines not having Midleton & Carrigtwohill on them! Is mad that they do not have them on it - almost 2 months after it opening!

With all the heads in IE/CIE you would flippin' think one of them has some sort of marketing background! :mad:

I do actually know the guy in charge of marketing :D

Its always a secret when there are extra Cobh line services on Sundays as well. Despite its troubles Cork actually seems to have sufficent independence to actually throw on extra local trains when the need arises. Thats where the problem lies its very last minute its only when we get a call or text to let us know and post on the site does management in Dublin know of the extra trains probably

Have you ever asked him what is with all the secrets like?

Some notice would be perfect like! I was on the 14:15 yesterday and it was well packed for Fota!

Yeah, fair play to Cork for the extra services. Next Sunday is an example of that!

Extra trains is service plannings call not marketing, marketing is fares and ticketing.

The business development manager in Cork likes to go it alone, I know the Midleton Food Festival was on the list of 'you gonna need more trains'.

We do our best to relay the information, but even we don't know all the time. Simplest thing is - if cruise ship in Cobh -> extra trains