"DART performance standards"

[MOH]

Thus reads the heading on the latest set of punctuality posters on DARTs and in stations.

Aside from the fact that rather than publish these regularly they seem to do them at random, picking the best recent 4-week period with the least trains that ran over 10 minutes late, the heading makes no sense.

The poster shows statistics. It's got nothing to do with standards, though such statistics could be compared against a previously published set of standards. Except that I don't know that I've ever seen detailed performance standards specifically for DARTs ever displayed on-train or in a station.

I'm probably just nitpicking, although it does seem to indicate that Irish Rail literally don't know the meaning of the word 'standards'.

[Mark Gleeson]

The four week periods are actually fixed and in line with the industry standards. Now of course our definition of late bears no resemblance to Irish Rail. 5 minutes is the international standard.

In the case of DART its very hard if not impossible to make targets due to the sheer volume of trains operated. They would have to cancel 4 trains every weekday for 4 weeks to fail the targets.

Obviously we are interested in simpler more practical things, such as booking office opening hours, maps on trains, working PIS systems, security and so on.

Of course it means nothing if penalties don't exist

[Mark Gleeson]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Now of course our definition of late bears no resemblance to Irish Rail. 5 minutes is the international standard.

I might be seeing things but this months poster says within 5 minutes 90. something%

Question mark still applies as to how the standard is calculated, the whole city centre thing

[Thomas Ralph]

Yes it says they are now going to work off a 5-minute standard instead of 10 for "on-time". This is apparently due to passenger feedback.

Still begs the question as to where the train has to arrive at on time. Is it the terminus? Connolly? Pearse?

[Mark Gleeson]

Question is does it include all trains, the charter only states peak hour targets

Wow its 90%, in Belfast its typically 95%+ as in 1 in 20 trains delayed by more than 5 minutes, its 1 in 10 in Dublin

[shweeney]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Question is does it include all trains, the charter only states peak hour targets

Wow its 90%, in Belfast its typically 95%+ as in 1 in 20 trains delayed by more than 5 minutes, its 1 in 10 in Dublin

are you surprised? I'd have thought it was less than 90% just from experience, and thats with the ludicrously padded timetables they currently operate to. Still at least they're moving closer to a reasonable definition of "late".

[Mark Gleeson]

They did pick the 4 weeks where Greystones was missing for a while which really helps the numbers

Its still not clear what is recorded and how

[ColmmacO]

What ever about changing over to 5 minute performance standards, the following is proven true whatever way you look at their stats.

On the commuter services, it was something like 95% of services on time (ie within 10 minutes of stated arrival time)

I read that as IE admitting that 5% of all services are more than 10 minutes late (or don't arrive at all).
Personally I think thats a disgraceful amount.

Lies, Damn Lies....

[hoopsheff]

its only within 10 mins of scheduled arrival time at their final destination!

I dont think they take into account trains that are cancelled (i'm open to correction on this though)

[Mark Gleeson]

The classification as cancelled only seems to apply if

1. The train didn't actually run
2. That someone noticed
3. Irish Rail couldn't blame someone else

If a train skips a station, doesn't reach its destination or breaks down enroute the train did run but to the passenger it was cancelled and would be classified as cancelled by any normal railway

Case in point was the 16:55 Greystones Howth yesterday, it ran but didn't stop at Blackrock and several other stations, but will it be recorded as cancelled?

We have seen 100% reliability published only to have a list of cancelled trains

[Mark Gleeson]

New found honesty within Irish Rail shows the on time 5 minute standard for the DART to be a shocking 77.18% for Nov 2 - Nov 29 2009

Based on independent data we have collected this figure is a fair representation of the performance. The previous month was 94% or some such fictional number, so either the service was much worse last month though it was not really or someone in IE is using the real numbers. Perhaps they are worried about the numbers we have been given since Nov 2?

Results for December are in the sub 85% bracket currently

[Mark Gleeson]

So here are the real numbers

We got 80.35% but we couldn't record times anywhere but Connolly.

During times of disruption outside Irish Rail's control, those trains are excluded from the statistic. All DART services 7 days a week are considered. The December numbers will record northbound at Connolly and southbound somewhere south of Connolly unless the train is terminating at Connolly. Due IT restrictions in IE Greystones arrivals cannot be recorded accurately

[Mark Gleeson]

After some tweaking to our systems we are getting ever more accurate data. Arrival times at Greystones are still estimated in favour of Irish Rail and thus under represent the delays

Results for
Nov 30th - Dec 27th 84.78% (3547 services recorded) *
Dec 28th - Jan 24th 77.52% (3470 services recorded) #

* We estimate this to be approx 3% overestimated due recording restrictions.
# December 30/31 are excluded due Merrion Gates incident.

[Mark Gleeson]

Results
Feb 1 - Feb 28 - 82.09% - 3869 services recorded

Exclusions due engineering works at DL on Feb 21, plus morning of 26th due technical failure. Level crossing incident at Lansdowne a week back as well

[eoinc]

This is be calculated by arrival time at the final destination. So if a DART leaves Howth, gets delayed, arrives late to the city centre stations, but makes better time on the way to Greystones and ultimately arrives less than 10 minutes late, it is recorded as having run on time.

But the number of passengers travelling from Howth to Greystones is probably very small.

What if IE recorded the punctuality of DARTs based on their arrival times in the city centre? What would the figures be then?

[Mark Gleeson]

The figures at the stations are end to end punctuality

The numbers reported to the DoT are extremely strange and don't count Sundays or Saturdays

It is highly unlikely that a DART to make up time en-route