Intercity journey experiences

[Mark Hennessy]

Originally Posted by sublimity

Iarnrod Eireann can only blame themselves for the empty seats
They chose to make the line a commuter route in July '04, now they're paying the price.

Long, long ago (well 6 years ) when P11 was first founded, IE wanted to close the line south of Wexford. I think it has been pretty much their policy to neglect this line for a while.

[KSW]

The best journey time on the Rosslare service from Bray to Connolly is without a doubt the 17.40 from Rosslare. The train left Bray at 20.01 and arrived Dun Laoghaoire 20.15 and stormed to Pearse arriving 20.26 then tara street 20.28 connolly 20.30.

So in order for this to become the real Intercity journey time between Bray and Connolly DART services from Bray would leave 17mins before which is ok for the time of night. When the DART arrives at Connolly the Rosslare train would arrive in Pearse. I think if this would apply to Connolly Bray then IE would have a hit on their hands in terms of time, Knocking of at least 14+mins of the Rosslare time.

Bray

Dublin Connolly

08/01

19:43

20:25

0

DART

Bray

Dublin Connolly

08/01

20:01

20:32

0

Railcar

[Donal Quinn]

after a while where things had gotten better on the trains last friday was a nightmare

17:50 to galway, queues in heuston were completely screwed up, people joinoing the wrong queues and when boarding finally started a bout 100 people skipped ahead of those patiently queueing - such a simple thing and IE can't manage it

got worse on the train - a stag party were going mental - pissing off everyone - especially when stag started exposing himself - IE staff did nothing as usual

[markpb]

Originally Posted by Donal Quinn

17:50 to galway, queues in heuston were completely screwed up, people joinoing the wrong queues and when boarding finally started a bout 100 people skipped ahead of those patiently queueing - such a simple thing and IE can't manage it

I got the 17.45 to Athlone and thought the same. The concourse was a disaster, it wasn't obvious which queue was for which train. How come they can't clear part of the floor and install permanent queues, cinemas manage it.

[PLUMB LOCO]

Originally Posted by Mark Hennessy

Long, long ago (well 6 years ) when P11 was first founded, IE wanted to close the line south of Wexford. I think it has been pretty much their policy to neglect this line for a while.

I think you mean south of Arklow! It was CIE policy to close everything south of Arklow and why it didn't happen when NET closed is anyone's guess!

[Jferb]

Originally Posted by PLUMB LOCO

I think you mean south of Arklow! It was CIE policy to close everything south of Arklow and why it didn't happen when NET closed is anyone's guess!

They also planned to close Killarney-Tralee! (Obviously no one in the organisation had the brains to know that Tralee is indeed the largest town in Kerry.) I guess, as far as IE are concerned, one has to be thankful for small mercies!

[Colm Moore]

A friend did Cork-Dublin recently and was happy witht he train and delighted with the attention of the train host - polite, attentive and even brought him right through the train looking for an available power point.


Is there someone new?

[Thomas Ralph]

There's two very good train hosts, Joe and Tommy if I recall the names correctly.

[Sasha]

Few times I saw train host is sleeping while duties. Can they do so?

[Mark Gleeson]

Don't think so, as they are required to be onboard, a sleeping host is as good as no host really, they won't here the driver to host tone on the pa system

[KSW]

Was on the 19.25 Gorey to Connolly last night operated by 22001. Displays all working but the journey was so slow. It took the train 14mins to Arklow(19.39), 21mins to Rathdrum(20.00) another 14mins to Wicklow(20.14), Another 15mins to Greystones(20.29) 10mins to Bray(20.39), 20mins to Dun Laoghaire(20.59) then another 13mins to Pearse Station(21.12). I honestly have to say why on earth are the trains on this line so slow..

After the trainleft Gorey the announcements said L&G IE Welcomes you onboard this is the 20.05 from Enniscorthy to Dublin Connolly serving.... Then leaving Rathdrum an announcement said this train will be departing in approx 2mins(20.03) Im guessing as the train was set to 20.05

In my option the train from Gorey to Bray should take 1hr exactly rather than 1hr to Greystones. Then Bray to Connolly roughly 30-40mins.

[MOH]

Gf travelling to Westport today with a group, went through a whole rigmarole earlier this week trying to get her booked into a seat beside her friends who had already booked.

Of course they boarded the train at lunch time to find a girl asleep in 'their' seats, no indication anywhere of reserved seats, and a general free-for-all.

Still, it meant they all got to sit together anyway, which is good.

This is the same line on which two years ago I had to ask two people to move out of our reserved seats, who then sat opposite us, and when I complained to the ticket inspector that the seats hadn't been resreved, he told me in front of them that it's impossible to book seats on that line, which was a bit embarrassing. And a lie.

Seriously, why do they bother with a seat reservation system at all?

[roamling]

they should use the reserved seats system in a way that you display on what part of the journey the seat is reserved, e.g lets say "Castlebar-Dublin"...than somebody boarding the train in Westport is aware that this seat might be occupied later in the journey.

[Mark Gleeson]

Thats the theory, to see it working is a different thing entirely

[MOH]

Originally Posted by roamling

they should use the reserved seats system in a way that you display on what part of the journey the seat is reserved, e.g lets say "Castlebar-Dublin"...than somebody boarding the train in Westport is aware that this seat might be occupied later in the journey.

That's the big problem with them not marking the seats, and the reason I asked two people to move last time despite there being loads of other free seats around. Because while I could easily have sat somewhere else, then I could end up with someone getting on at an intermediate station and turfing me out of their seats.

Miffed to that booking online incurs a €2 booking charge, not much point if you don't get the seats you've reserved.

[Mark Gleeson]

If you book and get no seat you can claim your fare back, been there done that and got my refund.

You can avoid the 2 euro with a laser card, I'm assured the bugs with laser cards where resolved ages ago

[on the move]

Originally Posted by PLUMB LOCO

Yes, the current Dublin/Rosslare Harbour service is partially suburban and this needs to be addressed. There is a good case to be made for making Greystones the first stop out of Dublin and the last stop in the Up direction. Why should inter-city passengers have to put up with commuters sitting all over them once the train reaches Bray in the Up direction or until they reach Bray in the Down direction. It makes the whole 'inter-city' experience wholly unpleasant. It doesn't happen on any other inter-city service.

You can't blame commuters for skipping DART stops by using the Rosslare service. But the route is so slow, because south of Bray, it's all single track, so there has to mad waiting times at stations waiting for train coming from the opposite direction. This is 2009 not 1909.

In fairness the service has improved. As recently as 1993, steam trains used to operate the line.

[PLUMB LOCO]

Originally Posted by on the move

You can't blame commuters for skipping DART stops by using the Rosslare service. But the route is so slow, because south of Bray, it's all single track, so there has to mad waiting times at stations waiting for train coming from the opposite direction. This is 2009 not 1909.

In fairness the service has improved. As recently as 1993, steam trains used to operate the line.

In what respect has the inter-city service on the DSER line improved? Commuter carriages instead of inter-city carriages, no buffet car, slower timings......

Don't get your point about commuters skipping DART stops. Of course commuters will board any train that they can, I used to myself, but if the train no longer stops at Bray, Dun Laoghaire etc the option is not there.

What has 1909/2009 got to do with anything?

Your point about steam trains being to operate the line until 1993 is rubbish so why put it in? Incidentally, the RPSI (Railway Preservation Society of Ireland) still run occasional steam trains on the route - is this what you mean?

[Mark Hennessy]

Does anyone know if the seat reservations are applied on the Enterprise?

I plan to take advantage of the very good online booking day returns IE are offering in the next few weeks.

[Mark Gleeson]

Don't tell anyone its only 20 euro day return...

Getting there is no problem, its the getting back since Translink don't understand standard class reservations

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