Miraculous Punctuality Recovery

[James Howard]

As is normal the difference between pre- and post-Christmas punctuality on the Sligo Line (well as far as Longford anyway) is like the difference between night and day. Every train I was on before Christmas was 10 or 15 minutes late while for the last 2 weeks, every train I have been on is 2 or 3 minutes early at Edgeworthstown.

I've noticed this pattern going back years although the improvement used to happen after the new timetable was introduced in early December. It wasn't as obvious in the evening when we had the old loco-hauled service, but you could still see the pattern in the mornings. It was even noticeable two years ago when we had the freezing January when by rights the service should have been a lot worse in the new year.

Is the reason for this just the clearance of the leaves from the line or is there some productivity reason for it? I has always struck me as a bit weird. Maybe I should just shut up and be grateful that the train is on time now although I have probably jinxed it by writing this post.