16:35 Heuston - Waterford now a 6car
 

For the last two Fridays the 16:35 to Waterford has being a full 6car set. It was badly needed and there is still a lot of over crowing.

Nov 12 - 6car set not (no Premier Car)
Nov 19 - 6car set with Premier Car)

What line has lost a 6 car premier set or have they got the set that was damaged fixed.

18:05 to Portlaoise has been short 3 coaches quite frequently in recent weeks

Why can't Irish Rail get the 16.35 to Waterford on Fridays right. Over the last 3 or 4 Fridays its being 2 by 3 cars. They use a 6 car set every other day (even Saturday) but they don't on the bussiest day of the week, can sombody explain the sense in that. There is 72 less seats when the train is 2 3 car sets together. Every week the service is packed and passengers have to wait for the 17.35 as a result.

have checked IRN's spotter pages and it doesn't look like 22037 (6 car repaired) or any of the new 3-car sets have yet been put back into active service so things are gonna stay tight until then. Additionally 22033 is down a carriage.

As for Waterford, it does seem to have responded well to increases in service, but it's going to be tough to keep that up without putting on more loops, for which there is no money. Is all that demand Dublin-Waterford or could a Dublin-Carlow or Dublin-Kilkenny run soak up some of it (and is there even enough slots for that)?

If it when non stop to Athy it would help but there has being a lot more passengers getting off in Waterford compared to last year.

Serving celbridge, nass and kildare is pointless when they could run a service to Kildare at 16.40 even if it was for a friday only.

22033 may be down a carrage but what makes Friday different to Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur and Sat when there is a 6 car set to operate the service.

22037 its being back with a while it should be ready for service soon, have seen it out on test a few times.

22033 is the engine etc being repaired here in Ireland or are they sending it away? and do we have a timeframe for it to be fixed. The fire was close to 2 months ago.

Engines can easily be swapped in and out. One wonders is there more serious damage.

exactly my point.....

That they removed the carriage from the set implies they couldn't do without the set for however long the damage will take to repair - so perhaps a tender is in the works.

EDIT: Interesting rumourmongering over on IRN, hopefully only spoofing:

Given IE had staff on the production line in Korea, if there was anything serious the train would never have left factory. The trains have been out on the mainline at high speed so there is nothing that serious. For instance all the power sockets need to be replaced, IE bike rack, decals, new CIS software and a whole other pile of modifications to be made. It could be something simple like a defective gearbox, that grounded the early 29k fleet for some time.

The other answer is, if IE 'accept' a train into passenger service they must pay and take ownership. If you had a cash flow issue finding 6 million or so per set might be a problem. So could be a case of wait for the budget etc. Recall how Irish Rail got 36 29k coaches and 33 ICR coaches out of the end of year accounts shake down.

Regardless there is a delay and thats not good.

Good news finally - 22037 is back in revenue service. Hopefully this is a net-up and not simply another 6 car set yanked into the blue shed at Heuston for tinkering.

http://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com...622487_zB6jfhr

16.35 was a 6 car today, hopefully it stays like this after I gave IR a mouth full about it.

The fleet has an 6 extra coaches as of sometime this week as set 37 is back in service.

The difference between a standard only 6 coach and 2*3 coaches is 22 seats, a first class 6 coach is about 6 seats less in total vs 2*3. So be careful what you wish for...

On Saturday it was taken out of service after stones were thrown and shattered the drivers window while operating 17.05 to Tralee. When to Portlaois this morning to get repaired.

IE have sorted out the problem and its now always operated by 22041-22045 sets over the last 6 week or so. They also said they should be changes when the new timetable comes into affect around April (booking system suggest Sunday 15 April) Will they being publishing a draft like last year?

There is no expiry on the current timetable, it will simply roll forward as before.