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Correction: This article had originally stated that this was the first Saturday this has taken place.
PLANNING ON HEADING anywhere by train from Dublin today?
Expect delays.
Iarnród Éireann will be carrying out improvement works on its Dublin to Cork line, and this in turn will have a knock on impact on services to and from Dublin’s Heuston.
Most regional services in and out of Dublin pass through the station.
These works will continue to take place on Saturdays throughout the summer.
Iarnród Éireann / TwitterRevised timetable for services to/from Heuston today, Sat 16th April due to line improvement works. Full info: https://t.co/f8y4OjhjHG … …
— Iarnród Éireann (@IrishRail) April 16, 2016
What will change?
On the Saturdays when the work is carried out the Cork to Dublin service will operate once every two hours and run with a higher capacity on the service – a reduction from its hourly service.
The same will also happen on the Dublin to Limerick service, connecting to and from all Cork services at Limerick Junction.
The Tralee – Dublin service will also run every two hours, connecting to and from all Cork services in Mallow.
On the affected Saturdays, the 9.20pm Heuston – Cork service will split at Limerick Junction, with coaches taking passengers onwards to their destinations in Cork and Limerick.
The 8.55pm service from Cork to Heuston will travel to Portlaoise by train and take a bus transfer the rest of the way. This interruption affect passengers on the 9.05pm service from Limerick to Dublin also.
There will also be delays on services between Dublin and Galway, Westport, Waterford, Portlaoise and Kildare.
What will this change?
In a statement, Irish Rail has said that it hopes the investment will allow trains to run at consistent speeds of 160 kph on the stretch between Hazelhatch and Portlaoise.
This will benefit train times for services running to Cork, Kerry and Limerick.
Works will not be taking place on Saturdays of major events or during peak tourism and sporting season in August.
Travelling through by train today? You can check what delays to expect on Iarnród Éireann’s website here.
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The following is a real tweet from Irish Rail yesterday which sums up their passive approach to customer satisfaction:
“Standing is allowed on our services but over crowding is not desirable”
Sure no one travels at weekend anyway
Michael, I have to say what a shocking and misleading headline regarding your going by train. Expect delays. Some facts to the real element of the story. – Trains aren’t delayed. A temporary timetable is in operation during selected Saturdays and some Bank Holiday Sundays in 2016. A temporary timetable does not equate to delays. – This is the fourth weekend of 2016 that the work has taken place. Not the first as you have claimed. – These essential works will allow Iarnrod Eireann to raise sections of line speed from 90mph to 100mph over several sections and also ensure the reliability of sections which are already at 100mph. A more accurate and truthful headline would have been “Travelling by Train today? Check the schedules”
On a Dublin-Tralee trip a few years ago, I set my GPS to record the maximum speed reached. 96.4km/hr!
Speed limit was 100km a few years ago
Maximum speed is 100mph and has been since 1994. Sure the GPS wasn’t set to MPH?
On the train at the moment past works @ Kildare but all is running smoothly
Smacks of the BBC reporter standing at Calais in the ’50s declaring ‘The continent is cut off from Britain by fog’.
Belfast Dublin line as slow as the 1950s despite al the waffle of politicians.
Public transport is for losers.
*Saturdays
I expect delays everyday ! The whole system is a joke
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