[Ir Times Letter] IÉ may be getting there

[Navan Junction]

Madam, - It is very easy to criticise Iarnród Éireann for the many things it does to frustrate its customers: old trains, lack of punctuality, poor left luggage service at Heuston station and a management which causes strikes when it tries to introduce new trains.

Well, perhaps some positive comments are due. In general there has been an improvement in the reliability of services and the cleanliness of stations. Of particular note are the new Fast Ticket machines. As the name suggests, these machines are fast but they are also extremely simple and easy to use.

This is not something that is easy to achieve as can be seen from the slow and frustrating Luas ticket machines. - Yours, etc,

TOM SWEENEY, Kandersteg, Switzerland.

[craigybagel]

I think even the most negative users of this board would agree that theres some things IE do get right and we can see positives in their service. Its just their all to frequent f**k ups that piss us of. And some fancy ticket machines dont really make up for it just yet methinks.

[Red Alert]

I was shocked that it took me no time to buy my ticket from Dublin to Cork, yet it probably took me more than 30 seconds to buy my ticket on the two LUASes I took to get there.

[Mark Gleeson]

Irish Rail are not getting there, you would swear Irish Rail have propaganda unit

Remove old clocks Heuston - agreed Nov 2005 - still in place
Upgrade ticket machines to allow Luas transfer - promised 23 March - no progress
Working displays on 2700 arrow fleet - promised Feb 'parts on order' - no progress
Refurbished LHB DART fleet - promised first unit June 2005 - no progress
New map for Dublin suburban fleet - promised Feb - no progress
Kildare Spencer Dock - promised 2004 - now impossible
Hourly Dublin Cork - promised for 2005 - postponed till Dec 2006
Railcar Ballina Branch - promised for 1997 - revised to April 2006 still waiting

[craigybagel]

I know youll know the details better than me but im sure that at least some of the above isnt IEs fault.

[Mark Gleeson]

Originally Posted by craigybagel

I know youll know the details better than me but im sure that at least some of the above isnt IEs fault.

Tis all their fault

Remove old clocks Heuston - IE building no excuse
Upgrade ticket machines to allow Luas transfer - Same level of difficulty as adding a new station, fares matrix already in use
Working displays on 2700 arrow fleet - Known issue since 1998
Refurbished LHB DART fleet - Bad project management
New map for Dublin suburban fleet - Already exists but not printed
Kildare Spencer Dock - Possible is they wanted to
Hourly Dublin Cork - Some delays from CAF, but mostly industrial relations
Railcar Ballina Branch - Units 2751 and 2753 ordered for the purpose

[Thomas J Stamp]

The Luas ticket machines arent that slow, and i dont find them any much different to the IE ones. Using them outside makes the screen hard to see, the fact that there are only two at each stop means long queues as well. Probably just a slower processor, that's all.

anyway, yes there are lots of things IE do right you just have to be in the right place. EG I have no intention of starting up a Templemore/Thurles/Ballybrophy rail users action group because our rail service is pretty nifty.

Pitty about Roscrea and Nenagh though

[James Shields]

I find the Luas machines much slower than they ought to be. They have too many steps to buy a ticket. The DART ones do "feel" quicker. They group the most common options on the first screen, so there's far less messing about. It may be just my perception, but the screens seem to display quicker on the IE machines, but even if they don't there are generally less screens for an average purchase.

And I find the "Please collect your ticket and your change" voice on the Luas machines really annoying - I mean how stupid does it think I am? If the voice was saying something useful, making the machines usable by the visually impaired, then it would be worthwhile, but it doesn't, it just says the same annoying message to everyone in earshot, over and over again...

Like Thomas, I don't see any point is setting up a Drogheda group (though, if anyone is interested in setting one up, I'd certainly take part).. I know exactly what two issues would come up: 1. Car parking at the station. 2. Why are Drogheda tickets so much more expensive than Balbriggan ones? I'd say off-peak train times or proper bus connections would be lucky to come third and fourth.

[craigybagel]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Tis all their fault

Remove old clocks Heuston - IE building no excuse
Upgrade ticket machines to allow Luas transfer - Same level of difficulty as adding a new station, fares matrix already in use
Working displays on 2700 arrow fleet - Known issue since 1998
Refurbished LHB DART fleet - Bad project management
New map for Dublin suburban fleet - Already exists but not printed
Kildare Spencer Dock - Possible is they wanted to
Hourly Dublin Cork - Some delays from CAF, but mostly industrial relations
Railcar Ballina Branch - Units 2751 and 2753 ordered for the purpose

Fair enough but is it fair to blame IE when Siemens take forever doing a simple refurbishment job or if the unions compllain about the trains being the wrong colour? Im no fan of IE at all myself but im just trying to play devils advocate as these boards and those at boards.ie have a habit of getting very "Anti CIE"

[Mark Gleeson]

It reeks of poor management plain and simple

We know Irish Rail played dirty with Siemens one of the first coaches sent out hadn't been in service for over a year and had many parts missing

To put conext on this the contract for construction was let Jan 1981, the first unit arrived 14th Feb 1983, 25 months and that included design, we are at 17 months currently. normal this kind of thing takes 5-7 months for the first batch. The date keeps getting revised.

The CDE union problem is well known it could have been sorted out a lot earlier

[James Shields]

Originally Posted by craigybagel

Fair enough but is it fair to blame IE when Siemens take forever doing a simple refurbishment job or if the unions compllain about the trains being the wrong colour? Im no fan of IE at all myself but im just trying to play devils advocate as these boards and those at boards.ie have a habit of getting very "Anti CIE"

Frankly, yes. These things would not be allowed to happen in a private company. There is a lack of "the buck stops here" mentality. The DART refurbishment may be somewhat out of IE's hands, but would a private company send their money-making assets away without a watertight contract stating when they were coming back, and what penalties would arise if they did not?

I don't think the majority here are anti CIE or anti RPA as such. Generally both receive praise when it's waranted. What we are is "anti stupidity", and when we see something stupid, like not using the Phoenix Park tunnel, or making trams too short, I think it is right that we point it out.

[ccos]

I get the feeling that IE's refusal to reopen passenger services thru the Pheonix Park tunnel and along the Navan-Drogheda route may not be so short sighted.

If the tunnel was reopened in advance of at the very least construtcion starting on the interconnecter, the liklihood is the interconnecter would be shelved by some future government and what was to have been an interim measure would become permenant. Ditto for the Navan-Dublin railway, permenantly via Drogheda would end up being the outcome there also

[Mark Hennessy]

If the tunnel was reopened in advance of at the very least construtcion starting on the interconnecter, the liklihood is the interconnecter would be shelved by some future government

I have wondered that myself.

[Red Alert]

What's the deal with these clocks? Do they not work? Otherwise i'd say the more the merrier (as long as they're synchronized!).

The LUAS machines think that everyone is new to dublin, so they make you do the same annoying thing again and again. Also a lot of people are used to putting in the money first (from using vending machines) and they don't let you do that.

[Mark Gleeson]

Originally Posted by Red Alert

What's the deal with these clocks? Do they not work? Otherwise i'd say the more the merrier (as long as they're synchronized!).

There not synchronised thats the problem, there is no shortage of clocks. Management agreed to removed them, they are still up

[2Funki4Wheelz]

Didn't know where else to post this exciting news.
The analogue clocks in Heuston were working today!

Giant white faced beauties that have been up since the roof was finished and have only been right twice a day for the last few months. There's one half way up Platform 5 and I think there's another somewhere else.

[Mark Gleeson]

So great we have 3 different clocks with different times

The departure board ones (red) which are correct
The old green ones with are not correct
The new old style clocks which will undoubtly be wrong as well

Its a well held princple in the business that if you set two clocks to be the same the times they display will grow apart

[MrX]

I don't find much difference between the RPA/Luas ticket machines and the Irish rail ones.

Neither are particularly fast, but they're not particularly bad by international standards either. They both work quite well to be fair.

I find the major problem with the Luas machines is that they could do with a few shortcuts from the "homepage" for common tickets.

In general the frustrating bit with the Luas machines is that they invariably have queues, there aren't enough of them and people tend to fumble with change. In general, IÉ has more machines at busy stations and has the option of purchasing tickets from the ticket desks too.

RPA needs to install far more machines at stops like Stephen's Green and Jervis and Abbey.

[2Funki4Wheelz]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Its a well held princple in the business that if you set two clocks to be the same the times they display will grow apart

Why don't they just get the radio controlled ones? That's how my alarmclock works - even in the sticks.

[Mark Gleeson]

The red coloured ones are sychronised to an atomic clock

The green ones can be up to 40 seconds off

Lets just see how long it is before the clocks go wrong