[22/01/2013 AM Delays on Northern Suburban line

[Rashers]

Arrived this morning at my local station along the Northern suburban line, and to my surprise, no delays due to frozen points.
No announcements from CTC, no announcements from local station staff, nothing on LED displays, and train arrived on time. No announcements from driver (for the entire journey). 8am Drogheda to Bray.
However, once we got to Howth Junction, we crawled all the way to Connolly. Arrived in there 15 mins late. No announcements in Connolly either.
So am I right to assume frozen points? If so where? I thought there was significant investment to prevent this...just curious.
Delays continued till after 11am
Examples of estimated delays into Bray (per Realtime information on IE website):
E104 Howth to Greystones = 12 mins late
P604 Drogheda to Bray = 26 mins late (I think this was about 18 mins late leaving?)
P605 Newry to Bray = 11 mins late
E205 Howth to Bray = 8 mins late
P652 Maynooth to Bray = 15 mins late
E238 Malahide to Bray = 15 mins late
P606 Drogheda to Bray = 11 mins late
E105 Howth to Greystones = 15 mins late
etc. etc.

[longword]

Originally Posted by Rashers

Examples of estimated delays into Bray (per Realtime information on IE website):
E104 Howth to Greystones = 12 mins late
P604 Drogheda to Bray = 26 mins late (I think this was about 18 mins late leaving?)
P605 Newry to Bray = 11 mins late
E205 Howth to Bray = 8 mins late
P652 Maynooth to Bray = 15 mins late
E238 Malahide to Bray = 15 mins late
etc. etc.

I don't know the flight codes, but at Laytown it was announced that the 07:12 Drogheda to Bray was stuck in Drogheda due to points. The 07:00 Dundalk to Connolly ran ahead of it and at Laytown that train was on time. It was a 22k and those don't take well to overcrowding, passengers were being left at the platform a few stops later - or holding out for service past Connolly. I wasn't watching too closely but that train to Connolly was delayed, due to a Malahide DART I think, and arrived Connolly more than 15 mins late.

[Mark Gleeson]

Add in a DART which sat down just off the platform in Portmarnock

Every year, the second we get some cold weather the points freeze and chaos ensues

Strange the guys in Belfast have no problems, they installed point heaters there is lesson in that somewhere.

[Inniskeen]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Add in a DART which sat down just off the platform in Portmarnock

Every year, the second we get some cold weather the points freeze and chaos ensues

Strange the guys in Belfast have no problems, they installed point heaters there is lesson in that somewhere.

This morning's DART and northern commuter services were a mess due to various points failures compounded by operational ineptitude.

The 0700 from Dundalk (2 x 3 x ICR, with perhaps 900 passengers) left Malahide at 0808 but was held outside Howth Junction to allow the 0802 from Howth to run ahead. Given that the nearest southbound train was then just approaching Connolly this nonsense resulted in a further gratuitous delay of almost 15 minutes to an already miserably slow service.

[longword]

Originally Posted by Inniskeen

The 0700 from Dundalk (2 x 3 x ICR, with perhaps 900 passengers) left Malahide at 0808 but was held outside Howth Junction to allow the 0802 from Howth to run ahead. Given that the nearest southbound train was then just approaching Connolly this nonsense resulted in a further gratuitous delay of almost 15 minutes to an already miserably slow service.

With the complexity of trains crossing tracks, I've often wondered if they work access to Howth Junction and Connolly a bit like an airport runway, with landing slots - specific time windows - assigned to services. Miss your slot (that Dundalk train was definitely late to the junction) and you're left circling until they can squeeze you in somewhere.

[Mark Gleeson]

You miss the slot, you get fitted in in line with the published priority order. EU regulations set down rules about this and it has to be followed.

DART is assigned priority as its close to 40% of Irish Rail's business and there is little scope to recover if a delay occurs, so holding a train in Howth Junction will mean late arrival Bray which in turn ripples back

There was further DART cancellation of Malahide Dun Laoghaire service so that Howth DART had to run as planned or else cause serious build of commuters