Early running

[Duncan]

Trains on the Nenagh line have a maddening habit of running up to FIVE MINUTES EARLY - in both directions. This should be a hanging offence in any railway service but it's especially serious on a rural line with only one or two trains.

It has been common for years on the down trains, I guess because train crews don't really expect anyone to board after Ballybrophy. Not that's any excuse!

However, since the recent timetable revision to the morning up train, it has extended to the up train too.

Locally, we've brought it to the attention of local management - and also to MD Dick Fearns - who have both assured us that it won't recur. But it does.

Does the same thing happen elsewhere on Irish Rail? I imagine it would be virtually unknown on busy lines or at staffed stations - but do other rural service users have the same problem?

Feedback - ideally with exact times - would be useful.

NB City-dwellers visiting their country cousins might be as good a source of data as country-dwellers. It seems to be very hard to get most of the few rail users around here to care very much! They'd rather grumble than support an official complaint.

[KSW]

It clearly states on the passenger booklet or something like that to do with IE -> NO TRAIN SHOULD LEAVE A STATION THAN THAT OF THE PUBLISHED TIME

[Mark Gleeson]

This is a growing problem as the journey times get ever longer

Nenagh Limerick is now 60 minutes, it used to be only 39 minutes in 1973!

It is a serious offense to leave early and it cannot be tolerated, it will be denied by Irish Rail but there can be no excuse

[MOH]

I've been on DARTs fairly regularly that have left a station a minute or so early.
Nothing like 5 minutes, but even 30 seconds early can leave you waiting 20 minutes for the next train. And as KSW said, the passenger charter clearly states it should never happen.
It happens a few times a month that I've noticed, and obviously I only tend to notice it when it's at my station.

[Colm Moore]

Just to check, were the Nenagh branch timetables changed in April, such that the morning departure to Limerick is now 10 minutes earlier.

Were these trains actually running late, not early?

Originally Posted by Todays's Railways UK, July 2009

Earlier Nenagh trains

Since 20 April the new Nenagh-Limerick commuter service, introduced last September, departs ten minutes earlier (at 07.45) in response to regular late arrivals since the service started. Departures from the intermediate stations at Birdhill and Castleconnell are also ten minutes earlier, and the train now arrives in Limerick at 08.45.

Journey planner and timetable confirm 0745, old timetable said 0755 http://www.irishrail.ie/your_journey/printed_timetable_pdfs/2009/Dublin%20Limerick%20via%20Nenagh%2009.pdf

[Duncan]

I am well aware of the new timetable, Victor. I'm the guy who keeps the station noticeboard up-to-date at Cloughjordan since the adoption of the station was approved!

(And to respond to MOH, there is no excuse for early running on the DART either - but there's a divil of a difference between waiting 20' for the next train and waiting TEN HOURS. There's also a divil of a difference between missing a train at a station equipped with electronic information boards and missing a train at an unstaffed station. In the latter case, you might wait 15 or 20' before concluding that you must have missed it - then perhaps calling Roscrea or Nenagh to check.)

The summer has seen regular correspondence between me and IR mgmt about early departures from Cjn

To be fair, Mark, IR have not attempted denial. They have also assured me that the staff responsible have been reminded in no uncertain terms of the importance of timekeeping - and that early departures will not recur.

I though I would delay further postings until the outcome was clear.

Guess what? Trains are still leaving Cloughordan early, as often as not.

However, let it not be said that IR mgmt are totally impotent! There has been some improvement.

Trains do often wait a couple of minutes now, so that leave a mere 2' early instead of 4' early. To my mind, this smacks of game-playing between train crews and mgmt, with f*** all regard for passengers - the game being "What can we get away with?"

A common actual schedule now is that the 0750h to Dublin arrives Cjn at 0745 or 0746 and leaves at 0748. Why they will not wait the extra 2' is a mystery! Sheer bloody-mindedness is the most likely explanation.

This train must also be leaving Nenagh early to arrive Cjn so much ahead of time. (It must be tempting to do so because of the timetabled delay there, to allow the train to divide, to form the commuter service back to Limerick. Not that that's any excuse!)

A natural result is that it also arrives at Roscrea early. However, it doesn't usually get to leave there early because the station staff refuse to hand over the token for the Roscrea-Ballybrophy leg until the train is due to depart. I've even seen a bit of a pantomine going on between the parties - with train crews looking pointedly at their watches, while the man with the token solemnly keeps shaking his head at them. More game-playing!

Perhaps Michael O'Leary is right about CIE being more of a job creation scheme than a public transport system!

[Colm Moore]

I wonder if this is the good old problem of the signalling system (or any other random part of Irish Rail) being on a different time setting to reality.

[Duncan]

Irish Rail as a whole has little connection with reality. It is a parallel world, an alternative universe.

More seriously:
a) The Nenagh line is still under local control (I use the term 'control' loosely), with good old-fashioned semaphores and signal boxes, block-and-token etc, so I would doubt that it operates to any coordinated timebase.
b) So, the accuracy of timing may well depend on how careful staff are to check their watches against radio/TV time signals - and on whether mgmt ever bother to check that they do.
c) Consistent early running, over a period of months, is unlikely to be due to inaccurate clocks - whether central or local, official or personal.

[Traincustomer]

Yes, I've come across instances of early running on the 1546 ex Limerick Junction in Co. Wexford on the South Wexford line from Waterford.

I think scheduled timings may be somewhat too slack on certain sections.