6 car first class set on Kildare local
 

Yesterday I travelled on the 1335 ex Heuston local service which was 22032 and the second time I have encountered a 6 car first class unit on these services.

Why do Irish Rail feel it necessary to waste resources in this manner? Heuston was FULL of three coach 22K sets doing nothing

Last year, almost all Newbridge services were operated by 6 car premier sets.

How do you know what those 3 car sets were doing? Perhaps they were scheduled on light load regional services after yours departed?

Have used that service a lot and its nearly always a 1 class set.

The 1135 ex-Heuston, 1230 ex-Newbridge and 1335 ex-Heuston is generally a first class set. I'm not sure why.

All the other commuter services are operated by 3 car sets (and have been for a long time despite what m3parkway might think).

Possibly just based on set availability?

On the regional routes what demand there is on 1st class is mostly on trains that arrive in Dublin before 11am or depart from Dublin after 4pm.

Rather it sending it back on a long route where it would be out of place to operate a late service from Dublin, maybe it's handier to have it do a few runs to Kildare.

Presumably, if there's not officially 1st class service on it, anyone can sit in the 1st class carriages on the run.

Anyone can sit in first if first is not shown in the public timetable

A mk4 set is used on a commuter service from Mallow to Cork for the last 5 years

The 22K first class is pretty much false advertising. There is no real difference apart from an air of exclusivity.

I presume the use of this set is as a result of how the services line up but this is ridiculous when they are sending 29Ks to Sligo. There also seems to be a 3 car 22K in use on an outbound M3 parkway service most mornings for some time. I also spotted one arriving into Docklands at about 1805 this evening.

Hopefully with a few more 3 car sets coming on, we'll see the end of 29Ks to Sligo and maybe even a regular 22k on the 1805 to Longford. Some of the 29Ks are beginning to look quite ropey and could really do with a bit of interior refurbishment - particularly the flooring which is coming up and becoming a serious trip hazard on a few cars I've been on.

Four new sets on line as of today I believe - 13 to go plus 2 yet to be delivered I think.

As far as I know 22033 has not returned to service yet...Anyone know whats going on?

I just remembered that too. Still stashed in Inchicore last I heard - including the 5 working cars.

If you see anything like this, feel free to mention it to the driver and follow it up with an e-mail.

Would it make any sense for some 22's on Kildare to swap with some of the 29s from sligo? Sligo is a lot longer to be sittting on a commuter :eek: Or would it cause rostering problems?

The 22000s need to be on the Kildare commuter services, so that they don't delays intercity services on the two track section.

There should be enough 22000s to cover all Sligo services. I get the impression few of the services are now commuter sets.

Dubhaltach

22s have been heading Connolly side but have been displacing 2800s from Drogheda which have been sent to Athlone, Waterford and Limerick, those in turn due to replace 2700s once familiarisation training is complete. Drogheda is nearly out of 28s though so presumably some changes may be imminent when the next sets are released from testing.

In the timetable, there was no difference in timing between 22K and 29k running to Kildare; both were allocated 44 to 50 mins for all stops. Today with only 22Ks the time is still 44mins..