Daily service cancellations

[ACustomer]

Over the past few weeks (since about mid-July) the Iarnrod Eireann website has had almost daily cancellations of DARTs (2 to 4 services), Cork-Middleton and Cork-Cobh (4 to 8 services) and GCD-Hazlehatch (4 to 8 services). There have been occasional Cork-Tralee cancellations also.

What is going on? Shortage of rolling stock? Shortage of drivers? The usual reason given is “operational reasons” which could be just about anything. IE seems to be incapable of delivering on its timetable, which I presume it is contracted to do by the NTA. Is the NTA aware? Does the NTA care?

In addition the number of out-of-order lifts has reached epidemic proportions, and all we get are lame promises to address the issue. Finally, is it my imagination or have severe delays due to signalling faults got much worse recently?

Overall I get the impression of an organisation which has become much more sloppily run in recent years. Perhaps that’s because we have no effective minister for transport. The train performance statistics for recent weeks should be revealing.