21 May 07 Cork-Dub 5:15 & Portlaoise-Dub 7:20

[2Funki4Wheelz]

Well nothing's working today.

The Cork train was late for the third day in a row, counting last Thursday and Friday. Announcement in Portarlington station - it was going to be 25 mins late so the Portlaoise train making a stop for us.

Sounds good so far, until the Portlaoise train arrives a few minutes late and spends quite a while at every stop becuase (as we were told as we pulled into Heuston) a 'door problem'.

So still 15 minutes late for work then. Again.

[2Funki4Wheelz]

This isn't improving. 5:15 Cork-Dub has continues to be late, +20 minutes this morning, no announcements from the station until just before it arrived telling us it was late and the Portlaoise train wasn't stopped and whistled by at 7:30. No apologies on the Cork train either.

Got into to Heuston about 9:45. A 90 bus pulled out - mostly empty - just as all the people from the Cork train streamed out. Didn't get onto a Luas (shuttle) until 9.00am.

[StephenM]

Originally Posted by 2Funki4Wheelz

Got into to Heuston about 9:45. A 90 bus pulled out - mostly empty - just as all the people from the Cork train streamed out. Didn't get onto a Luas (shuttle) until 9.00am.

Thats good going, going back in time.

[2Funki4Wheelz]

Morto, the commuting's melted my (limited female) brain

8:45, clearly. It just felt like 9:45.

[Mark Gleeson]

A bit of research reveals the issue traces back to about 5am

Owing to Irish Rails weird train planning, the first suburban services from Carlow Kildare and Port Loais are sent from Dublin empty at 5:05, 5:55 and 6:05 respectively. To add some entertainment there are a few freight trains to be overtaken on the way

We know the Carlow train which serves Kildare at 7am is turning up consistently 15-20 minutes late that implies it is reaching Carlow up to 30 minutes late. If the train to Carlow is late leaving Dublin its not unreasonable to assume the 7:20 from Port Loais also arrives late from Dublin (its due in at 7:03), this then results in a scramble to move all the trains around so the 5:15 from Cork can get through

If the trains spent the night in Carlow and Portlaoise it wouldn't happen

[2Funki4Wheelz]

Thanks for the info Mark. It's a shame becuase this service was running brilliantly for ages, I've even a few posts when it was getting into Dublin early regularly.

It's continued to arrive late since too. That Carlow train need a kick up the backside.

[Mark Gleeson]

This is complicated stuff, I've only recently got my hands on the full timetable still need to do further analysis.

Think its got something to do the KRP works

[AndrewMc]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

We know the Carlow train which serves Kildare at 7am is turning up consistently 15-20 minutes late that implies it is reaching Carlow up to 30 minutes late. If the train to Carlow is late leaving Dublin its not unreasonable to assume the 7:20 from Port Loais also arrives late from Dublin (its due in at 7:03), this then results in a scramble to move all the trains around so the 5:15 from Cork can get through

If the trains spent the night in Carlow and Portlaoise it wouldn't happen

It's been a while since I took the 6.30 from Carlow (I'm usually on the 6.10 from Waterford these days). However, when I did, the train usually reached Athy within a few minutes of the set time. (I noticed that between 2005 and 2006 (I think) the departure time from Carlow was the same, but the Athy departure moved a few minutes earlier. I could only figure this was a trick to force Athy people to stop missing the train when it did, very occasionally, actually make it in exactly on time.)

Where the delays usually happened were Cherryville. It was not unusual to reach there in about 10-12 minutes from Athy (13 miles), but, especially if the train stops there, for the last run to Kildare to take almost another 10 minutes after we start moving again.

But it's not just the timetabling, either. It got to the point where we knew before getting on the train whether we'd be late or not. You can tell by how the driver approaches (does he rocket in and hammer the brakes like he should, or does he drift in like he's afraid the brakes are made of €50 notes). This is usually reflected in the way the driver drives out of Athy, from Cherryville to Kildare, and the rest of the way. It even got to the stage where, if you weren't sure from the approach itself, you had a good idea when you recognised the individual drivers in the cab. Some drivers just don't seem to have any sense of urgency. I never detected a pattern based on the loco - you could be late or early with any type.

Cherryville to Kildare takes far too long. It's only 2 miles and, from stationary, can take 7-10 minutes. They can do Kildare-Newbridge, 5 miles, in the same time. And frankly, we get stopped at Cherryville too often. This is a problem on both morning trains.

Hope that helps

[Mark Gleeson]

I could go into extreme details but it serves no point

Key issues are
1. Sending empty trains all over the place at 5am, wasteful and adds a point of failure
2. The timetabling is a recipe for disaster
3. The point to point times in the timetable don't reflect the realities

[2Funki4Wheelz]

Well point 1 above does seem to be the biggest waste ever.

I can see that the train due into Port at 7:06 (the one before the Cork train) is also about 10 mins late on a regular basis.

Points 2 & 3 - somehow they did manage to run everything very smoothly at the introduction of the new timetable which makes it even more frustrating. Surely KRP works don't continue til 5 am? The work around us usually stops at the latest bewteen 2-3am.