Temporary timetable change from June 3rd

[Mickey H]

Changes to departure times on some Rosslare line services from Tuesday 3rd June

Iarnród Éireann will have amended service times on the Rosslare line from 3rd June 2014 until 31st August 2014 to provide greater connectivity for those returning to Ireland by ferry through Rosslare Europort.
•The 17:55hrs Rosslare Europort to Connolly service will be deferred until 18:35hrs Monday to Saturday.
•The 17:36hrs Connolly to Wexford service will depart at usual time but there will be an extended journey time between Gorey and Wexford with an arrival time of 20:27hrs into Wexford Monday to Friday.
•On Sundays the 17:40hrs Rosslare Europort to Connolly service will be deferred to 18:35hrs.

[haddockman]

It should be a permanent change.

[Traincustomer]

Originally Posted by haddockman

It should be a permanent change.

+ 1

[ciaram]

The same change has been brought in again for this year (from 5th june) but with no notification on the IE website. I only noticed when going to book a return journey and realised the times were somewhat off..

[Traincustomer]

It ought to have been mentioned on the IÉ site.

It was notified on the Irish Rail Wexford Station, Irish Rail Gorey Station, Irish Rail Arklow Station & Irish Rail Wicklow Station Facebook pages.

Further related discussion in this thread:

[Traincustomer]

Reminder: from Tues 1st Sept, evening Rosslare Europort to Dublin train departs at 17.55hrs as summer schedule ends

Source: IÉ Twitter feed

[comcor]

What is the objection to making this change year-round?

Up to Arklow, the line has to be active anyway to support the 18:38 from Dublin.

From Greystones to Dublin, it is open for DART services.

Is the cost of keeping Arklow to Greystones open that high?

TBH The Wexford line needs later service, both to and from Dublin. 18:38 is very early for the last train out of Dublin. Only Waterford suffers from a similarly early departure.

[James Howard]

The last Sligo train isn't a lot later at 1905 particularly when you consider that Longford and especially Mullingar are very busy commuter destinations.

Irish Rail really need to explore adding later services in general. With the student accommodation issues in Dublin, Irish Rail could serve an important social need and make a bit of money by running later services to a 2 hour trip radius from Dublin. Not to mention that long-suffering long distance commuters like myself could manage to have the odd pint with our work-colleagues.

[Jamie2k9]

What is the objection to making this change year-round?

Up to Arklow, the line has to be active anyway to support the 18:38 from Dublin.

From Greystones to Dublin, it is open for DART services.

Is the cost of keeping Arklow to Greystones open that high?

TBH The Wexford line needs later service, both to and from Dublin. 18:38 is very early for the last train out of Dublin. Only Waterford suffers from a similarly early departure.

I think the 17.36 from Dublin is delayed by 10+ minutes to facilitate the service and perhaps with lower commuter traffic in summer IE feel it's acceptable but no so much during the winter.

It would be good to get an idea of numbers connecting to Stena Line as I can;t see it been massive.

As for evening departures the Waterford 18.35 service is nothing short of ridiculous especially on Friday afternoons where there should be a later service. I accept demand will be low other days. They have a 20.15 to Carlow which returns to Heuston at 21.35. I often question the need for the 21.35 service as it carries low numbers and then another unit runs empty to Carlow the following morning to form the 06.30 service.

Would much prefer the 20.15 extended to Waterford and fill the morning 3 hour gap which may even take pressure of the 07.50 service if it departed Waterford at 09.00. Capacity on the 07.50 is changed almost weekly most of the year from 5 to 6.

They run the 16.15 as a 3 coach on Fridays however they have since cut the 07.25 down Saturdays to 3 coaches usually 6 instead and join them for the 11.00 up on Saturdays and have the option to run a 10.40 service at busy times as well. If there was more of this it would be good for passengers and their pockets.

The last Sligo train isn't a lot later at 1905 particularly when you consider that Longford and especially Mullingar are very busy commuter destinations.

Irish Rail really need to explore adding later services in general. With the student accommodation issues in Dublin, Irish Rail could serve an important social need and make a bit of money by running later services to a 2 hour trip radius from Dublin. Not to mention that long-suffering long distance commuters like myself could manage to have the odd pint with our work-colleagues.

I generally agree in principal however I can see from IE's point of view that they would bleed money. One example is the 19.35 to Galway where 3 coaches is more than enough but it's operated with 7 because the rest are required next day. If they run late services they need to bring the capacity back to Dublin so really in most cases viability is based both ways unless they can move capacity around which for Sligo is not easy at the minute.

Then again the 17.15 to Longford could be scrapped and moved lather to around 20.00-20.30.

I am looking forward to the new timetable to see what they do but can't see later service.

[haddockman]

Originally Posted by comcor

What is the objection to making this change year-round?

Up to Arklow, the line has to be active anyway to support the 18:38 from Dublin.

From Greystones to Dublin, it is open for DART services.

Is the cost of keeping Arklow to Greystones open that high?

TBH The Wexford line needs later service, both to and from Dublin. 18:38 is very early for the last train out of Dublin. Only Waterford suffers from a similarly early departure.

The Rosslare Line signalman is on duty in Greystones until the last DART departs so it is all a red herring.

In the past it could be argued that keeping signal boxes open late cost money but this is not the case now.

[berneyarms]

As already alluded to the issue is probably the impact on other services and extended journey times.

With the revised departure time of the evening train from Rosslare, the 17:36 service from Connolly has to wait for 15 minutes at Gorey for the up service to pass (normally it's only 1 minute).

The journey time from Rosslare is also extended as the 18:35 from Rosslare has to wait for 14 minutes at Arklow to allow the 18:38 ex-Connolly to pass.

I would suspect that the impact of these delays is viewed acceptable during the summer but not during winter.

Unfortunately, due to the 30 minute DART service to/from Greystones the abililty to path services on the Rosslare line is exceptionally limited, as there are only two windows each hour in which they can operate.