18:05 Longford 19/6/08

[Ballymore]

Left Connolly on time but sat for ages outside Clonsilla initially citing signal failure (or so I heard other people say as I had been asleep!) but eventually the driver apologised that he was taking the train out of service due to technical difficulties with it and we would have to disembark in Clonsilla and wait for the 18:17 Longford train to take us further.

Of course everyone got off at Clonsilla where there was no announcement of further guidance from IR. The next train in clearly stated Maynooth on the front but we all piled on anyway - just in case we got left marooned in Clonsilla.

Once in Maynooth of course all the people not getting off in Maynooth anyway stayed on the train and people started to get on - presumable heading back to Dublin. Eventually there was an announcement made that the next train on Platform 2 would be the Longford train. So we all made our way over there and a few minutes later thankfully the train arrived and we continued on our journey. We got to Mullingar at 20.03 some 47 minutes late - probably not a major concern to IR management in the overall scheme of things but a mjor inconvenience to the put upon commuters once again.

As usual IR were low on the apologies and communications. The screens on platforms in both Clonsilla and Maynooth were blank so we had no idea when next train was due, we just had to wait as usual in the hope that something would materialise.

[Mark Gleeson]

Sounds like the on train signaling equipment went on the blink

We are now keeping track of the exact number of cancellations (trains that don't operate or don't make it to destination) and performance is well below target

In the UK you would be entitled to 50% refund for the delay but not in Ireland where the arrangements suit Irish Rail not the passenger