[06-02-2009] Tara and Pearse Closed

[zag]

I reckon it was the coffee machine in Pearse froze over . . . A little creative thinking and the PR people could spin that as a 'maintenance machine', sure it helps to maintain the lads afterall, doesn't it ?

z

[ACustomer]

The Website does it again. Just now the Travel alert headline on the IE Homepage says Tara St and Pearse closed or words to that effect. Click on the message for further details and it says they have re-opened. Absolutely unbelievable muppetry!

[MOH]

One colleague who had walked from Connolly to GCD just missed a train, had to wait 20 mins for the next one. He thuoght there might have been one due in between which failed at Pearse. Our driver did announce that our delay outside Connolly was due to a train failure at Pearse - I assumed at the time it was the maintenance thingy, but may have been a separate issue. Would have been about 09:40

[Rashers]

I was going for the 06.35 ex Dundalk to Bray
On my walk to the station someone texted into Q102 say say no trains between Grand Canal dock + Connolly. However, the next AA roadwatch traffice news had no mention of same. In fact, for the next 40 mins none of the traffic reports made any mention of same.
Anyhow, got to the station. Nothing on the displays, and no announcements. Nothing on board either, so assumed it must have been sorted. Around 7.55 we started queueing somewhere around Clontarf road. There was an announcement on board, but it was so low, I have no idea what it was about. Arrived into Connolly about 5 mins late. Still no announcements, but no one left the train, so I assumed all was ok. Waited there for 5 more minutes. There were now annoucements about all services terminating at Connolly, so got up to leave. However, driver announced we would be going to Tara St, so got back on, and away we went.
However, when we arrived there, when I went to the Southern exit and found the gates locked. Not a staff member in sight, and not a single announcment.
Rang Connolly information. They told me the service I was on was not due to run to Tara st, hence no one opened the gates. Walked to the old exit, and got a bus. Had no problem with the rail only tickets.
All in all a bad show, yet again on the basic communications. This incident happened at 3.30am, yet 4 hours later they still had no CTC announcements, no driver announcements, and nothing on their displays. The girl at the information desk agreed there was a communications breakdown with passengers (yet again )

[Mark Gleeson]

What is curious is diesel powered services could have made Tara Street without a problem, at least 2 did, but Irish Rail said nothing in public about that

The back entrance should have been open

The latest information we have is a cherry picker working within Pearse station was the source of the problem

That said I stood on the platform in Pearse at 9:25 and saw nothing, line reopened 30 minutes later

There is no plan, they knew at 6am there was a big problem, the fact the AA didn't know is the fault of Irish Rail. I know of people who walked the whole way from Sydney Parade in as the southside became a car park despite the fact Grand Canal Dock can be fairly easily used a terminus capable of dealing with the flow