Quote:
Originally Posted by Emertoff
Just a comment really, as a regular user of either the 6:45 or 7:45 train to Cork, the journey time is supposed to be 23 minutes. The average journey time seems to have crept up by 3-4 minutes almost without anyone noticing, over the last few months.
Maybe, as is the case with the Irish public transport system in general, a few minutes here and there is seen as no big deal, but it's really annoying for anyone has has to get the connecting bus to Cork Airport for work.
There is a big issue with people queueing to get tickets and the trains being held until everyone has one, despite the fact that notices were put up on the platform a few weeks ago saying they were not going to hold trains for people buying tickets. On one occasion recently, the train did leave Midleton until 7:51, which in my view is really not good enough,particularly when there are ticket inspectors on board who could facilitate selling tickets.
Even without this issue, there seems to be a general lag in journey times. This morning November 11, the 6:45 am service arrived at 6:43, left at 6:47 holding for another passenger, and arrived at 7:13, 5 minutes later than scheduled. I am going to take this up with them as it is simply not good enough and would not be tolerated anywhere in continental Europe.
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There really is no excuse for Cobh and Midleton services being unable to maintain the undemanding schedules given the simple operating environment and the comparatively infrequent service.
Mind you are lucky you are not using services in the Dublin area where delays of anything from 15 to 30 minutes are relatively routine due to a combination of poor traffic management, indifferent DART performance, inapprropriate layouts, track circuit failures, bridge failures, overhead line failures, leaves, train failures etc etc
Going back to the subject, it appears that having spent a small fortune to eliminate a 10 mph speed restriction east of Myrtlehill, Irish Rail have reduced the line speed west of Myrtlehill to 10 mph despite recent renewal of both track and pointwork. Again despite new track, new signalling and level crossing elimination the speed restriction bewtween Myrtlehill and Glounthuane is 50 mph compared to 60 mph in the 1980s. I imagine much of the increase in journey time is due to the current really really slow approach to Cork