Irish Rail Planning To Revert To Old Timetable

Irish rail

Irish Rail has plans to revert to old timetable to avoid commuter disruption. Iarnród Éireann confirmed that the train service in Dublin will revert to old timetable from 14 October.  

With the new timetable, some of the intercity services have been changed and adjustments for tackling the congestion of rush hours are looked into. The knock-on delays on rail routes that go to Dublin’s Connolly Station are handled in the new timetable that is to be launched on 14 October. 

(Also read: Grand Central Station Worth £350m Opening In Belfast)

A few changes were already in place till 16 September. Iarnród Éireann said that they had improved the punctuality factors but “it is clear that the impact to morning commuting was continuing”. 

Irish Rail has acknowledged the intense disruption in recent weeks and apologised to customers for the issues. The spokesperson said that they “got it wrong”. 

“We got it wrong and we are genuinely very, very sorry to our customers, it’s been very disruptive in recent weeks for customers,” he said.

He realised that people were out for their work and important chores and the improper management of the Irish Rail schedules, especially during the evening peak hours, has caused troubles to many. 

He further explained that the amendments made on 16 September did bring improvement in the evening peak hours but issues were still persistent during morning hours. 

Irish Rail’s hints on new plan

Some hints on the new timetable, which is actually a revert to old timetable with amendments, would be launched on 14 October, Monday. The hints include operation routes to and from Connolly Station up to 10 am and will go back to the timetables before 26 August, with minute changes in time schedules. 

The stations where the trains were previously terminated, such as Pearse, Grand Canal Dock and Bray, Iarnród Éireann told that the addition of those stations would reduce the congestion on Connolly Station. 

Another change was that of the Belfast to Dublin route. The timings of those rails, which were 6 am and 7 am formerly, would now be 8:23 am and 9:20 am respectively.

For the same purpose of preventing congestion at Malahide, the suggested new time is 7:50 am at Dublin Connolly to Belfast, now scheduled at 7:40 am.

Similarly, departures from Drogheda were also rescheduled.   

Iarnród Éireann has apologised for the adverse impact on the commuters due to the August timetable and promises that the revision in the old timetable, now to be released as a new one, would help in better accommodation.

Some minor changes are expected in the departure times of Dart, Northern, Maynooth and Phoenix Park Tunnel rails. The facilitators would be open for the Dublin-to-Rosslare train as well. 

The services would be increased on the Galway, Waterford and Belfast lines. Their implementation was on August 26 and was to be maintained throughout the weekend, when the rush hours were more than expected. Hence, the weekend timetable would remain unaltered.  

Irish Rail spokesman, Barry Kenny, expressed the same concerns about the mismanagement earlier and predicted that the recent planned changes would prove to be better for the Irish people. 

Mr Kenny now proclaims that the changes were “too ambitious”. He also defended the decision of Irish Rail to send a delegation of 37 officials to attend Berlin’s transport trade where discussion about railway infrastructure, capital investments and customer systems would be discussed. 

Iarnród Éireann admitted that managing the overall capacity of the area took a lot of time and effort, and despite that, a disproportionately negative impact was witnessed. The impact was greater in the sense of “punctuality and overall journey times, for which we are sorry”, he confessed. 

Full details of the changes will be revealed on Monday, 7 October for people to have a look beforehand and plan their routes accordingly. 

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