Reduced peaktime DART capacity due to driver issue
14 October 2013
Some DART services are operating with reduced peaktime capacity today due to a driver issue.
Peak time DARTs normally operate with a mix of 8-carriage, 6-carriage and 4-carriage trains. The effect of this issue will be that most DARTs will operate as a 4-carriage train, and a small number will operate as a 2-carriage train. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.
This is due to a refusal by drivers to carry out a coupler check before DART trains leave the depot to enter service.
This check verifies that an electrical connection is complete through the train when multiple DART units are connected together. This is to ensure that doors are correctly interlocking.
The check is temporary in nature, as a modification is to be carried out to the fleet which will address the issue. Drivers had been carrying out the check since its introduction last month. However, following SIPTU indicating, outside of agreed procedures, that it would no longer cooperate with this check, they are not being carried out by drivers today resulting in shorter trains.
Should this issue remain unresolved, it will continue to affect morning and evening peak DART services.
source:
http://www.irishrail.ie/cat_news.jsp?i=4929&p=116&n=237