Connolly Side Services - Draft Timetable
 

Its up

http://www.irishrail.ie/contact_us/c...e_comments.asp

Major changes on Rosslare line and Maynooth/M3 services otherwise not much changed

Not exactly radical for Longford commuters. The only change I can see is the 1805 down train now takes 2 minutes longer which isn't exactly progress. Still I'll forgive them if its a 22k consistently.

I guess this is more to do with statistics than anything else. This train was making things look real bad for a couple of months after Christmas where it was consistently 11 or 12 minutes late 3 or 4 days a week.

Northern Line details
http://www.railusers.ie/forum/showth...2749#post62749

the old reggie perrin solution. the train which is 12 mins late every day gets a timetable change of an extra 15 mins so it automatically becomes 3 mins early every day.

Overall, as a Clonsilla user, I am happy with the plans for the new timetable. A general approx 30 minutes frequency with most going to connolly is a massive improvement over even now where you could be waiting upto an hour!

Finally common sense with trains now generally stopping at all stations. Its great to see m3 trains going to pearse at the weekend!

My usual gripe with the last sunday train outbound (and inbound) and i have highlighted it in my mail to irish rail, the 20:45 should be pushed back to 21:00 with an additional service at 22.30

I will try to do a review of Maynooth line and post it later

DART wise no change really between Howth Junc and Bray/Greystones

Some resorting of the order between Malahide and Howth such that Northern line trains always follow a Howth DART to ensure least delay

Rosslare changes significant, some trains removed, some extended, but clear effort to integrate with ferries

Agreed for the morning arrivals into Rosslare and evening departures out of Rosslare.

However the 1755 departure from Rosslare leaves very shortly before the 1800 Stena arrival and a while before the 1845 Irish Ferries arrival. As Irish Ferries don't do Rail & Sail through Rosslare, if it just waited 30 - 40 mins for the Stena arrival it would make more journeys possible.

And nothing to get you to Rosslare in time for the morning departures either!

Course there is, it's called Bus Éireann route 2 :rolleyes:

To be fair there is no business case for a 5am Dublin Rosslare train as it would be solely for ferry passengers

There are some pathing issues with the 17:55 train but it needs to be later 18:55 would be the latest really (Irish Ferries don't do sail/rail through Rosslare) so it needs to connect with Stena Line

Problem is a massive 8 hour gap Dublin bound appears if you do that

A 5th return service is expected in 2012 so something could be done there to even things out

If there was meaningful services, might they?

Leaving aside the current lack of integration at Rosslare I think the key reason for no SailRail on this route is that Pembroke Dock station is some distance from the Irish Ferries terminal (approximately a mile). There used to be SailRail on this route some years ago. Furthermore the Pembroke to Rosslare sea passage is half an hour longer than Fishguard-Rosslare. Following on directly from this is the fact that trains to/from Rosslare have a greater need to connect with the Stena Line sailings to/from Fishguard due to the Fishguard route offering an integrated and ease of transfer facility (ferry & rail station same building - ship literally overshadows the terminal-station).

Fishguard has trains connecting both to and from the daytime & overnight conventional ferry (Stena Line) to/from Rosslare seven days a week.
Additional trains are to be introduced to Fishguard this September. Whilst primarily catering for the population of North Pembrokeshire one train each way will offer a connection into the seasonal Stena Express to/from Rosslare.

Holyhead which has a far superior level of train service daytime doesn't even offer an overnight train to London (one would have to wait around from after midnight till 0425).

The Pembroke-Rosslare ferry (Irish Ferries) now facilitates two coach routes between Britain and Éire - the longstanding Eurolines Route 890: Cork-Waterford-Wexford-Cardiff-London and the very recently launched Megabus Rosslare-Carmarthen-Swansea-Cardiff-Newport-Bristol-London route.

However there is a proposal (in the public domain) to move the ferry operations to Milford Haven (also rail connected) which would offer a shorter sea passage and presumably a better rail connection.

I was hoping for better integration of the Dublin-Maynooth train and the Dublin to Sligo train. I feel that the 18:37 ex connolly should be timed better to suit the 19:05 train to Sligo i.e 5 minute wait for the train going west of Maynooth. This then could be repeated for all the services west of Maynooth. There is always seats on the 19:05 train when the first stop of Maynooth is cleared. With the current economic climate you'd feel it would be time to open the pheonix park tunnell to commuter traffic and have services running from Kildare to Maynooth integrating with the M3 services. The reason I bring this up is that with the trains that are now going to be out of service they could be put to use on Kildare-Maynooth to see is it a viable service

jscaLes1: your post mentions integrating "Kildare to Maynooth" trains with other rail services, by using the Phoenix Park Tunnel. Even by using the tunnel, it is not possible to run from Kildare to Maynooth (except via a reversal in Connolly). If there is a demand for public transport between Kildare/Newbridge and Maynooth, I would guess that a bus service would be hte natural choice.

Likely implementation date for new timetable
 

Just wondering what the implementation timeframe for the new timetable is likely to be. If the process mirrors that of the "Heuston side" services I'd say early-October.

Start September is probably most likely, that was a traditional change time in days past.

4 weeks consultation, 4 weeks revision and 4 weeks notice, June/July/August

Seems reasonable.

I'm struggling to see the radical changes to the Rosslare line, little to no change to the key commuter trains as far as I can see!

07:33 Dublin Rosslare now departs 9:40, several minutes faster
07:50 Rosslare Dublin now departs 7:20, better connection to ferry arrival
16:30 now departs 16:37 operates to Rosslare connection to ferry

13:30 and 18:30 depart 7 minutes late but arrive Rosslare same time

Morning Rosslare change Enniscorthy Dundalk is now a direct train no change

Would the 1925 and 2128 arrivals into Rosslare from Dublin form the 0535 and 0720 departures the next morning, or are there a lot of empty trains running back and forth to Dublin in the evening and in the early morning?

The 16:37 and 18:37 stay the night in Rosslare and operate back as the 5:35 and 7:20. There are drivers based in Rosslare