Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
IRISH RAIL ANNOUNCED today it would be returning to its pre-August timetable after schedule changes caused major disruptions and delays for passengers.
These changes will come into play from Monday 14 October and will restore the morning service patterns and balance of the timetable from before it was changed on 26 August.
The transport authority apologised to commuters, saying it deeply regretted the inconvenience caused to their daily journeys and lives following the prior revamp of the service schedule.
Irish Rail’s announcement comes a day after Minister for Housing and Dublin TD Darragh O’Brien posted a video message criticising the changes. He told his social media followers he had pushed for change.
Posting a video on X, he said he had been speaking with senior management from Irish Rail and that he alerted them to the “very serious feedback” had had received from commuters.
O’Brien explained: “The last few weeks have been really difficult for rail and Dart users in north county Dublin.”
He went on to say he had “pushed for changes to be made to improve the service” and promised people a plan with “major improvement” to the timetable, especially at peak times, was on its way.
Details of that plan – that is due to start in two weeks time – arrived this morning, with more information expected to be released on Monday 7 October.
While it mostly reverts back to the schedule that was operating before changes made on 26 August, there are some revisions to be aware of:
A new rail timetable was launched on 26 August in preparation for the expansion of inter-county services but resulted in a large number of services being delayed and carriages being overcrowded.
Last month, the service altered the new timetable slightly, to no avail. For the first time in decades, train punctuality dropped to below 80%.
The root cause of these delays was due to congestion, Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell told The Journal last month, after many Dublin North Rail Line services, that previously terminated at Pearse Station, are now completing their journeys at Connolly Station in the city centre.
With reporting by Muiris O’Cearbhaill
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Who are the senior managers here who designed a complete disaster? Surely they should have modeled it and had a trial. But no. No accountability, no no managers fired, just keep paying the massive salaries to the top managers.
@Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson: At least the quickly recognized that it wasn’t working .It’s only when things like this are put into practice that it becomes apparent that it is in error . No need for sacking anyone .
@Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson: the issue is they use unreliable data to come up with these changes. That whole ’95% of Trains arrive on time* *on time being within 10 minutes’ nonsense needs to go. They sat down and looked at the old timetable that on paper looks accurate but the reality is different and then based their new one off tweaking the old one. They need to use actual data, use the service itself for a few weeks to get the real timetable, and then adjust.
@Eugene Comaskey: you obviously haven’t been using dart or train into Dublin the last few weeks. Thousands of peoples work days and businesses affected as a result. A professional would not have let this happen. We pay for professionals and the take the corresponding high salary commensurate with the responsibilities, and then the do a complete amateur job. No accountability or consequences.
@Derek Power: no specialist manager knew to use real data to model the timetable? That’s just brain dead.
@Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson: joke
@Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson: Sacking people for making a mistake isn’t always the answer. If I did that at work, everybody would be sacked despite working for a successful company. Yes, a trial should have been done yet it is not the end of the world. Knee-jerk reactions are not helpful. To take what you said to one of two logical conclusions – you sack X and Y from the same company with the presumably same attitude you don’t like takes over or, alternatively, you sack X and Z comes in from outside without a clue. Fresh blood is good but so too is experience. Few people ever hit the ground running.
@Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson: we must hang them out by the bollix
@Eugene Comaskey: that is the definition of incompetence
No wonder the city is at gridlock capacity. Public transport is completely unusable for most working people .
Is there any public service that is actually functioning as it should ?
@Darren Moore: There is, it’s in Italy!
@Ciaran Enright: in Switzerland it works pretty well
@Darren Moore: The tax office.
@Darren Moore: NO
@Darren Moore: revenue
@Darren Moore: Yes, most of them. I got a DART home recently – everything was fine, footpaths in my neighbourhood are being improved. I’m being consistently taxed the right amount, I applied for a passport on a Friday and got it in the post on a Tuesday. Most things work well. Enough with the hyperbole.
@Ciaran Enright: ah ah.. Italy May be Better in some cases but look at the disaster with train delays happened there just couple of days ago.. a train 20 mins late is still on time in Italy.
I got in the Grand Canal Dock train, it was 8 minutes late and I was standing up pack like a sardine. The train frequency is not realistic to people’s need. And they still want me to stop using my car to go to town… I will not, I gave them a chance and it’s just terrible.
@J Ven: Exactly it….and if you’re disabled, carrying bags or equipment it’s literally, impossible.
@J Ven: and still many f**kers try to squeeze on their bikes and scooters at peak time
@Hibernicus: shouldn’t be allowed. Banned on the Tube in London and subway in New York
@Alan OConnor: Bikes are already banned on Irish Rails during peak hours (Mon-Fri 7:00am – 10:00am / 4:00pm – 7:00pm) you only use the two designated bikes spots and nothing else. If you see anyone with a bike within these hours you’re entitled to tell them to leave the train and if not, call security via the intercom.
Piss up and brewery spring to mind…..
Do Irish Rail and the OPW have a MOA to cross hire talented colleagues?
@Padraic O’ Sullivan: As far as I know, a Moa is an extinct, flightless bird
So…they took 2 rail lines laid at around the time of the famine in a city with 300k people…never in 160 years developed them to 4 lines- 2 long distance 2 suburban, as with every city without exception this end of the Hindu Kush…because Ireland is a diddly eye Potemkin land governed with the mentality of Tuam parish council 1934…replete with the bog backward extras from The Quiet Man…who did nothg in a century coz we arr only Irish and can’t have things…and then tried to run both intercity at hourly intervals and suburban at 15 mi intervals on the same famine rails. Ara sure gaway outta dat. Sure won’t the Metro be along by 2150
@John Sullivan: Only, the metro will be powered by a bunch of horses after they are removed from their Horse and Carraige rides around the city center!
How much was wasted on the Consultants.
@Kevin Rea: over 200mil and counting
It’s simple really 2 tracks too many trains.
@paulie: listen, I got caught up in the fiasco on the dart line outside Bray a few years back. Heading for the airshow and people on the tracks etc… The whole thing was a total shambles and the incompetence I witnessed that day by IR staff was just staggering. God help us if a train ever derails or anything, they are staffed by idiots that stand around doing nothing when there is chaos unfolding all around them.
In fairness,they tried something that they thought would work and it didn’t. They admitted they had made a mistake and reverted back to the original time table.
@Sean Buckley: can’t get fairer than that now
Not enough rail lines in key areas means that it will always be maxed out. No major changes in infrastructure for decades. This coupled with unions means that we will always have delays. Over 200 million spent transport reporting and consultancy without any new transport infrastructure started/in progress/delivered. We are unable to start/complete major (and minor) projects through our public bodies bar a couple of outliers.
It is a horrendous joke.
so what research were those changes based on?
They couldn’t run a bath …
No panic Eamonn Ryan with sort it out
Why is minister for housing sniffing around this? Do we not have a transport minister
@uXGdMXx5: because it mainly affected his constituents
@uXGdMXx5: Because he is from Malahide and has seen the chaos around the new timetables . In fairness he deserves a bit of credit for the changes that are about to made .
People opposition to changes, and also another election ploy, they buckled under pressure.
Finally considered running some trains through to Dunlaoghaire and Bray where they have additional platforms – should help a bit
If trains could fly they would make a mess of it.
have your say