[06-08-08] Serious delays on northern commuter line

[tigger1962]

according to Irish rail

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This is obviously why the 18.40 train connolly to dundalk has been delayed for over an hour now approx 10 minutes outside Drogheda.. I'm told 2 other trains are affected. The reason given on the train was due to signal failure. I'm told the 19.20 enterprise is also affected by this... strangely enough nothing on the translink website either!

[manja]

spending 4 hours travelling home from work between dublin and dundalk is one thing, but the pure ignorance of the staff on the 7pm enterprise is an absolute disgrace!! could be here all night listing out how incompetent they proved themselves to be tonight but i need sleep.... a complaint first although i doubt it'll make any difference....apparently paul.slowey@irishrail.ie is the person to complain to, although it's the northern ireland staff who i have the biggest grievance against this evening, so its probably someone in translink who i'll need to complain to.... the 'guard' on the 7pm train who was supposedly responsible for communicating to the passengers deserves to be sacked... if you agree i urge you to put this in writing and complain... i KNOW it won't make any difference but i need to feel like i'm doing something, as that ignorant fecker should never be allowed on a train again!!

[tigger1962]

The 18.40 eventually arrived at 21.15. I think its time to start taking the bus! especially since Irish rail can't seem to run a reasonable service on this route!
This was especially a bad day for commuting.. the 09.55? service from dundalk was cancelled and replaced by a bus... the bus left at 10.05 and arrived in Dublin at 11.15... almost as fast as the Enterprise!!

[Mark Gleeson]

Anyone on a enterprise service delayed by more than 30 minutes in entitled to a refund of 25%, rising to 100% by 90 minutes. Those on the 18:40 sadly its 50% at an hour to 100% by 2 http://www.railusers.ie/passenger_in...hp#their_fault

No clue what happened yesterday but it looks like nearly all enterprise services suffered from some class of delay

Generally we get glowing reports about NIR staff, who show significantly more concern for passengers than IE, so this is a surprise. Man in charge in Belfast is Ken McKnight Enterprise Manager - Belfast Central Tel: 028 9089 9400 19:00 is certainly a NIR train

One word of warning when dealing with Irish Rail for the refund clearly specify you are invoking the enterprise charter if you where on a enterprise service since it generally entitles you to a bigger refund

[manja]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

No clue what happened yesterday but it looks like nearly all enterprise services suffered from some class of delay

Mark unfortunately it wasn't just the enterprises but nearly all trains on the line yesterday evening. Apparently something near Dundalk got struck by lightening and all electrics, signalling etc. was down. All we were being told on the train was that there were signalling issues and that we would be back moving in 10-15 minutes, and later 20-25 minutes. It was only on talking to Connolly Station at about 10:30pm yesterday evening that we were told about the lightening etc. Connolly Station provided way more information than the staff on the train could. We were in Drogheda for near 2.5 hours, where there was no indication that we would be there that long - had there been I had three alternatives method of transport home! But because we were being told that we would be delayed 20-25 minutes I didn't want to be asking people to drive to Drogheda for me.

I agree that in general the NI staff are ok. There is one in particular who I have seen often, have not had many dealings with but he seems a pure gent and very professional. It was a pity he wasn't working last night, as I expect that he would have handled the situation a lot better than his ignorant colleague who treated the passengers with nothing but contempt.

[Mark Gleeson]

Thats helps greatly in figuring it out

The 7:35 Dublin Belfast broke down again
Delays of up to an hour on the early morning Belfast Dublin
Throw in another breakdown somewhere of a commuter train and you get chaos in the morning
Throw in some lightning to finish it off

[tigger1962]

claim forms were handed at dundalk, I thankfully wasn't on the train but I did witness the lightening first hand and I have to admit it was quite bad! I figured it did have something to do with the failures

[Mark Gleeson]

Refund is one thing, does give you the feel good factor of actually clawing something out of IE but it doesn't address the usual problem

Everyone was left in the dark as to what was wrong, the usual IE information blackout applied. I find it hard to believe that Bus Eireann couldn't come up with a bus or two.

The modern signaling for all its cost effectiveness doesn't seem to like lightning