Enterprise fleet refurbishment

[Inniskeen]

The 0735 was a four car ICR and was appears to have been delayed significantly at both Newry and Portadown.

The return 1035 from Belfast did not leave until 1120 as a 9-piece with the rear 4 cars being locked off and detached at Drogheda. The train was 59 minutes late leaving Drogheda and was further delayed at Malahide while a DART limped onto the south-bound platform. There were no other trains in the vicinity of Malahide but yet it was found necessary to obstruct a service now running almost an hour late rather than run the DART to the empty northbound platform. Still such nonsense can always be attributed to Low Rail Adhesion if anybody bothers to ask !

[EnterpriseUser]

It was hard to see as all the passengers were corralled on the platform while the train sets were connected and the doors were tested. (I was at the very front to board the "A" carriage) I have to say I was both surprised and impressed as service resiliency has never been a feature of the Enterprise service. I was even more surprised that a full catering service was available (this crew are Dublin based). The 22000 set has worked well, operating three round trips a day with superior acceleration to the DD sets and while not as comfortable work well: if we ever achieved the nirvana of an hourly service a 22000 five carriage set in addition the the DD sets would be perfectly acceptable.

[Jamie2k9]

It was hard to see as all the passengers were corralled on the platform while the train sets were connected and the doors were tested. (I was at the very front to board the "A" carriage) I have to say I was both surprised and impressed as service resiliency has never been a feature of the Enterprise service. I was even more surprised that a full catering service was available (this crew are Dublin based). The 22000 set has worked well, operating three round trips a day with superior acceleration to the DD sets and while not as comfortable work well: if we ever achieved the nirvana of an hourly service a 22000 five carriage set in addition the the DD sets would be perfectly acceptable.

Crew probally got a hotel for the night, will be surprised if they were bused to Dublin.

[Inniskeen]

Yes the ICRs have worked well on the Belfast line and would be the obvious candidate to operate additional services. They do perform better than than the 201s on the De-Dietrichs in the same manner as they are operational superior to the 201s on the Cork Mk4s. Comfort wise they are certainly way better than Mk4s but inferior to the De-Dietrichs and the refurbished Mk3s used by UK operators.

[EnterpriseUser]

The crew did go to Dublin on Friday evening on the bus transfer passengers due to go to Dublin at 2115. The IE Enterprise service is only catered from Dublin so if the crew had stayed overnight in Belfast catering would have been very limited. What really impressed yesterday was how effectively IE/NIR managed the situation overnight.

[Jamie2k9]

IE shouldn't need to provide an 22 for extra services as NIR were able to come up with 4 sets? to cover the refurb. I'm sure if they tried hard they could keep one for Dublin and if needed have no stopping between Newry-Connolly. First class will not be enough of a reasons in my book as extra services would be worked outside of the peak services were demand will be next to nothing.

In theory it would be possible to increase usage of the current 3 sets to increase form 8-9 services per day but it would require big changes and while I think it would work well generally provided customer feed back agreed.

Belfast - 06.00/07.15/09/15/11.30/13.00/14.30/17.00/19.15/21.00
Dublin - 06.30/08.45/10.00/11.45/14.15/16.45/18.15/19.45/21.30

Based on block time of 2h15, many scheduled for 2h10 or less now with an average of 30 minute turnaround similar to now.

Would give early arrival at either end and better evening options out of Dublin.

Only issue maintenance as the same set would be in Dublin all the time however depending on how much servicing they receive you could really cut Saturday to 8 and work Sunday around a set swap.

[berneyarms]

Originally Posted by Jamie2k9

IE shouldn't need to provide an 22 for extra services as NIR were able to come up with 4 sets? to cover the refurb. I'm sure if they tried hard they could keep one for Dublin and if needed have no stopping between Newry-Connolly. First class will not be enough of a reasons in my book as extra services would be worked outside of the peak services were demand will be next to nothing.

In theory it would be possible to increase usage of the current 3 sets to increase form 8-9 services per day but it would require big changes and while I think it would work well generally provided customer feed back agreed.

Belfast - 06.00/07.15/09/15/11.30/13.00/14.30/17.00/19.15/21.00
Dublin - 06.30/08.45/10.00/11.45/14.15/16.45/18.15/19.45/21.30

Based on block time of 2h15, many scheduled for 2h10 or less now with an average of 30 minute turnaround similar to now.

Would give early arrival at either end and better evening options out of Dublin.

Only issue maintenance as the same set would be in Dublin all the time however depending on how much servicing they receive you could really cut Saturday to 8 and work Sunday around a set swap.

I suspect that it would be more likely to move to a fixed two hourly pattern using three sets, and then augment it with 3 22k sets to go hourly.

Bear in mind that with the proposed 10 minute DART frequency paths will need to be standardised going forward.

[Inniskeen]

DART already follows (for the most part) a fifteen minute interval schedule departing Connolly northbound at 09, 24, 39 and 54 which leaves potentially unobstructed fast paths northbound at 05, 20, 35 and 50. Despite this Irish Rail insist on scheduling Enterprise departures at 1100 and 1900 which means that if the DART is 3 or 4 minutes late it is leaving a mere two minutes ahead of the Belfast service. The 1100 and 1900 frequently take 38 to 45 minutes to reach Drogheda, a performance that barely matches the clapped out steam trains of the 1950s.

The ten minute interval DART service will ensure that all Enterprise services will have de-graded paths. Similarly all longer distance northern line and south eastern line commuters beyond Greystones can expect longer journey times. In addition the potential for delays and congestion will be significantly magnified to support a service expansion which the very limited and inflexible infrastructure will struggle to support.

[Jamie2k9]

First set back today and Im told the 11.00 has broken down or at least encounter issues.

Irish flag internally displayed.....not sure how wise that is!

[Mark Gleeson]

Its dragged itself out of Ballbriggan but looks like it won't get much further

Its past Mosney now, but ain't moving quickly at all

[Mark Gleeson]

Looks like it going to be cancelled at Drogheda and passengers on the 10:57 Pearse Dundalk which will run through to Belfast

47 minutes late at Drogheda so will be at least 1 hour late by Belfast if lucky

Refunds http://www.railusers.ie/passenger_in...hp#their_fault

[Mark Gleeson]

Word is a traction motor fire and its 206 again which went puff earlier in the year.

Unclear if a train swap occurred or not, as you can isolate a traction motor and continue

Was well over an hour late out of Dundalk

[Mickey H]

arrived Belfast 88 minutes late. It was 208 not 206

[Jamie2k9]

Latest is a flat wheelset on 208, full set continued to Belfast.

[Mark Gleeson]

Broke down again this morning. C3K took over

[Commuter12345]

I have a question. Has the leg room between seats been reduced because of the new seats on the Enterprise? It seems like if two people of 5’10 or above are sitting opposite they are constantly moving their knees just not to be touching. There was never much space on these trains but for anyone over average height while even sitting up straight, this is downright uncomfortable.

And as for the new Wi-Fi. Oh dear.

[citizens7]

Does anyone else find the new seats on the refurbished Enterprise trains extremely uncomfortable ?

[Commuter12345]

Yes and the legroom is much less.

[Mark Gleeson]

Hate to point this out but they are the same seats, no change in spacing.

Just new seat covers.

[EnterpriseUser]

Mark: which train service is the refurbished Enterprise set operating. Is it 0800, 1405 ex Belfast and 1100 and 1650 ex Dublin? The timetables have not been changed. Many thanks.