Timetable Padding

[James Howard]

On Friday, I caught the 1715 Connolly - Longford at Maynooth which is a train I very rarely get as there is a faster train that leaves 10 minutes earlier. However, it did serve to highlight just how ridiculously padded the Longford/Sligo timetimetable is. I didn't notice what time we left Maynooth, but by the time we got to Enfield, it was 5 minutes early and it actually left early.

We arrived in Mullingar a full 15 minutes early where we had to wait for an up-train. We left Mullingar about 3 minutes late and again, by Edgeworthstown we was 4 or 5 minutes early. I never noticed the speed being excessive at any point - indeed at some points we were dawdling along.

The thing is that the current timetable is an impediement to a lot of people commuting. Few people are as mad enough to stick more than a couple of years of 3 hours per day on the train. Given that this line has had millions poured into it over the last 10 years, it is rediculous that there has been no journey time improvement with the exception of one morning service being replaced with an express. There is obviously huge potential for improvement if a 29k can beat its timetable by 20 minutes.

[Mark Gleeson]

This is a classic example of the single track pinch point, you can't move until the guy in front has moved and the train going the other way has past

Its like the classic movie math question if a train leaves Dublin at 4pm at 50mph and another leaves Sligo.....

Double track to Mullingar is desperately needed

[cullenswood]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Double track to Mullingar is desperately needed

I am assuming there is nothing about this in the planning stages and realistically it would be at least 10 years before a double line would be built?

[Mark Gleeson]

It was built as 2 tracks originally so no planning is required to put the second track back. Clonsilla Maynooth was done in serious hurry when the Luas project stalled and the EU money had to be used somewhere

It would be a low cost project start at Maynooth and work out as funds available

[Kilocharlie]

IE is not alone in timetable padding. I travelled in Switzerland and UK recently and there is ample evidence of padding in both places. It is quite noticeable that the dwell times in stations, even small ones, is longer than typical IE stops. I've seen dwell times of 5 to 10 mins or more at major stations. When you have long dwell times, it is easy to keep to schedule. Having said that IE do this too; for example recently the 1805 Heuston-Portlaoise was 5 mins early in Kildare and sat there for the 5 minutes.

Swiss railways work like clockwork with many, many interdependent connections and precise passing on single tracks, so time keeping is very important. Without padding this would probably be impossible to maintain.

I suppose the question of IE is that, even with the padding, why do so many trains run late?

[Colm Moore]

There are a lot of crossing movements between Maynooth and Longford, especially in the evening and if one goes wrong it can all go very bad.