| Inniskeen |
21-02-2012 09:04 |
Apart from Lurgan to Lisburn, the line north of the border is probably in a better condition than that south of the border. Judging by ride quality and the visibly poor condition of the formation, the worst section of track, by a good margin, is the section between Dublin and Malahide.
The Enterprise service is severely under-resourced with only three sets available for the entire service (seven sets are allocated to the Cork service with 22ks substituting on both a scheduled and unscheduled basis).
Like almost every other service to/from Dublin, journey times have increased in recent years due to timetable padding and an apparent dis-interest in running competitive services. In addition the Enterprise service is further handicapped by poor track layouts, careless scheduling and Irish Rail's perverse slowest train first policy.
The 2900s appear in Belfast about once a week on average, although it is not particularly unusual for the service to be disrupted for several days due to a persistent fault on one of the De-dietrich sets. In periods of extended disruption it is normal for NIR's C3K sets to be substituted, although only a three car set would typically be available at peak periods, Mondays to Fridays. The C3Ks have no difficulty maintaining the schedule and are of a similar standard internally to Irish Rail ICRs.
As yet, no Irish Rail ICRs have operated north of Dundalk although this is likely to change once the tsunami of new ICRs enter service.
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