Night trains

Cubassist · 26-05-2006, 19:03

Just wondering what P11's position is on having DART and/or northern/western commuter trains leaving Dublin late night on Thur/Fri/Sat evenings. Surely this makes sense. Think of the reduction on pressure on the Nightlink/Rider services this would bring about.

Derek Wheeler · 26-05-2006, 19:59

Our position is bring it on.

DART did operate a late night service in the run up to last Christmas. However Northern, Maynooth and Kildare lines are still stuck in the dark ages even at christmas. IE management will claim theres no demand. But hey, we all know thats balloney.

One small example of our frustrated work with IE is the case of the last train to Kildare. At a recent public meeting with IE management, we suggested an 11pm departure (currently 10.45 ex Heuston) of this train from Pearse station, serving Tara St and Connolly and running via the Phoenix Park Tunnel to Kildare. Response.....We'll look into it. Result....still waiting, as they hope the proposal disappears off the radar. It won't.

While 11pm is hardly late night, it actually gave people more flexibility to catch the train downtown, without the rushed prospect of Luas or the 90 bus.

Cost to the Irish tax payer....nothing.

Hard pressed resuorces within P11 prevent us from doing more on a bigger scale, with this issue, but we always endeavour to try.

Mark Gleeson · 26-05-2006, 20:11

Just to add to that its trivial to add a midnight DART Connolly Bray simply change the driver to Bray based one

Maynooth really is the big one its needs a post 11pm service. Drogheda has a 11:20

Sadly I don't see IE making any positive moves on this. The reality is mid week its very quiet out there, I'm talking single figures on the 12:30 7N, got to be very careful how to proceed as fares won't come close to paying for it

The biggest success last year was getting IE to charge normal fares on the lare night DART service http://www.platform11.org/successes/#latenight

Cubassist · 26-05-2006, 20:35

Surely there is a demand for a service on weekends though. I'm fairly sure that people wouldn't mind shelling out €7-15 for a train to Balbriggan/Drogheda/Maynooth etc on a Saturday night where a taxi would cost €50+ and a bus would take up to 2 hours in some cases.

The only potential problem that I could forsee is drivers looking for overtime etc.

Mark Gleeson · 26-05-2006, 21:39

Weekdays all suburban destinations should have a service post 11pm, so thats Kildare/Drogheda/Maynooth

Anything past midnight is not a goer unless its Friday/Saturday Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann can prove that

On the fares issue, the Luas is normal fares till 12:30 and remember that means monthly/weekly and annual ticket holders don't have to pay

James Shields · 26-05-2006, 22:28

In Drogheda we only got our 11:20 service last year, and it's been quite popular. While midweek it's fairly lightly loaded, at the weekend there's quite a lot of people using it. It's a great service, and since the train has to get back to the depot at Drogheda, it costs next to nothing to put it on. I think if there was a post-midnight service it would be popular too, and it could probably be done using a train that needs to go to Drogheda as well.

I'm sure if similar services were offered on other lines they would be used too, particularly Thurs-Sat, though obviously it would cost IE to put on such services.

I think the late train from Pearse-Kildare is a fantastic idea. They could probably also do a dawn run, say leaving Kildare 6:15 arriving Pearse 7:30 before the main commuter rush. I guess they're worried it will start people asking questions like "why can't we have this all the time?"

26-05-2006, 19:03	#1
Cubassist New to the board Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 3	Night trains Just wondering what P11's position is on having DART and/or northern/western commuter trains leaving Dublin late night on Thur/Fri/Sat evenings. Surely this makes sense. Think of the reduction on pressure on the Nightlink/Rider services this would bring about.

26-05-2006, 20:11	#3
Mark Gleeson Technical Officer Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Coach C, Seat 33 Posts: 12,669	Just to add to that its trivial to add a midnight DART Connolly Bray simply change the driver to Bray based one Maynooth really is the big one its needs a post 11pm service. Drogheda has a 11:20 Sadly I don't see IE making any positive moves on this. The reality is mid week its very quiet out there, I'm talking single figures on the 12:30 7N, got to be very careful how to proceed as fares won't come close to paying for it The biggest success last year was getting IE to charge normal fares on the lare night DART service http://www.platform11.org/successes/#latenight Last edited by Mark Gleeson : 26-05-2006 at 20:14.

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26-05-2006, 19:59	#2
Derek Wheeler Registered user Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Kildare Posts: 1,555	Our position is bring it on. DART did operate a late night service in the run up to last Christmas. However Northern, Maynooth and Kildare lines are still stuck in the dark ages even at christmas. IE management will claim theres no demand. But hey, we all know thats balloney. One small example of our frustrated work with IE is the case of the last train to Kildare. At a recent public meeting with IE management, we suggested an 11pm departure (currently 10.45 ex Heuston) of this train from Pearse station, serving Tara St and Connolly and running via the Phoenix Park Tunnel to Kildare. Response.....We'll look into it. Result....still waiting, as they hope the proposal disappears off the radar. It won't. While 11pm is hardly late night, it actually gave people more flexibility to catch the train downtown, without the rushed prospect of Luas or the 90 bus. Cost to the Irish tax payer....nothing. Hard pressed resuorces within P11 prevent us from doing more on a bigger scale, with this issue, but we always endeavour to try.

26-05-2006, 20:35	#4
Cubassist New to the board Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 3	Surely there is a demand for a service on weekends though. I'm fairly sure that people wouldn't mind shelling out €7-15 for a train to Balbriggan/Drogheda/Maynooth etc on a Saturday night where a taxi would cost €50+ and a bus would take up to 2 hours in some cases. The only potential problem that I could forsee is drivers looking for overtime etc.

26-05-2006, 21:39	#5
Mark Gleeson Technical Officer Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Coach C, Seat 33 Posts: 12,669	Weekdays all suburban destinations should have a service post 11pm, so thats Kildare/Drogheda/Maynooth Anything past midnight is not a goer unless its Friday/Saturday Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann can prove that On the fares issue, the Luas is normal fares till 12:30 and remember that means monthly/weekly and annual ticket holders don't have to pay

26-05-2006, 22:28	#6
James Shields Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Drogheda, Ireland Posts: 1,275	In Drogheda we only got our 11:20 service last year, and it's been quite popular. While midweek it's fairly lightly loaded, at the weekend there's quite a lot of people using it. It's a great service, and since the train has to get back to the depot at Drogheda, it costs next to nothing to put it on. I think if there was a post-midnight service it would be popular too, and it could probably be done using a train that needs to go to Drogheda as well. I'm sure if similar services were offered on other lines they would be used too, particularly Thurs-Sat, though obviously it would cost IE to put on such services. I think the late train from Pearse-Kildare is a fantastic idea. They could probably also do a dawn run, say leaving Kildare 6:15 arriving Pearse 7:30 before the main commuter rush. I guess they're worried it will start people asking questions like "why can't we have this all the time?"