On time the irish Rail way

R

Ron Burgundy

Registered User
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752
Irish Rail have posters up all over heuston at the moment boasting about 95% of their arriving on time......

BUT

According to them if a train arrives 10 minutes late it is still on time
 
bond-007 said:
That is standard on railways the world over.
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In the UK it is 5 mins for commuter services. 10 minutes is allowed for longer distance journeys. 10 mins grace for dart and commuter services is very generous.
 
Don't Ryanair do something similar with their statistics, allowing 55 minutes for a 40 minute flight?
 
I'd have thought that there were far more factors outside of an airlines control, meaning contingency was more of a necessity.

Iarnrod Eireann control/own almost all aspects of their service - the stations, the trains, the tracks, signalling, points, all other trains etc so have far fewer outside factors that could adversely influence their service. Some still exist e.g. bridge hits, rock slides, leaves on the tracks...but not sure what the frequency of these events would be.

The thing that really annoys me on the DART service is where a train is left waiting for a driver changeover at the train depot just before/after Clontarf Road.

Or when they blame delays on the late arrival of another train, as if they have no responsibility for the 'other train'.
 
Graham_07 said:
Just as well given the prices. I still haven't recovered from last intercity fare
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I always thought Irish rail prices were crazy.
But, I recently took the train to Nice in the South of France.
It was an 8 hr journey.
Second class compartment.
Seats were dirty.
No trolley service.
Lots of argy bargy about exact seat booking.
Fare €160!!!!!!! (€260 if I had gone 1st class)
The friends I was meeting got to Nice cheaper and faster than I did and they came from Ireland.
 
Well, I find they are rarely on time. Am often waiting more than 10 minutes for trains so find the whole 95% thing hard to swallow. As do I find the Sunday service.

Was coming back on Sunday and only had one train every 2 hours. I live on the Northbound commuter line, where lots of other people live and use the train. One train every 2 hours does not a service make.

And don't get me started on St Patricks Day when they sent the smallest train possible to bring the increased loads of passengers into the parade. The Drogheda train was full at Rush and Lusk and passed by hundreds of disappointed families all set for the parade. I was never so disgusted by the lack of foresight as I was that day.
 
The obvious solution is to just do away with timetables completely. That way they could have 100% efficiency.

Just say the train will be there on, say, Tuesday and as long as it turns up you're laughing. Can't believe no one's though of this*.





*idea is now the intellectual property of me. I will be producing a whole series on RTE regarding this issue and other handy hints at turning around the country before hanging up my boots and standing in an election for the highest bidder.
 

Or they could take the Dublin Bus approach and only have the time the train leaves the terminus on the timetable. No arrival times, so you're never late
 
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