Irish Rail to amend new timetable following complaints

Changes to Irish Rail’s new timetable including amendments to services on the Maynooth and Drogheda to Dublin lines are to be announced on the company’s website from Wednesday.
The changes will be implemented from Monday, September 16th.
The changes follow complaints of overcrowding and a lack of punctuality on some services since the new timetable was introduced on August 26th.
In a statement on Tuesday Irish Rail said it had experienced “some issues impacting punctuality performance in the first two weeks of the implementation of the new timetable.”
It said these were “notably arising from congestion in the Connolly Station area affecting commuter routes feeding into Connolly.”
The statement said the company apologised to its customers.
In advance of Wednesday’s announcements Irish Rail said the changes “will involve time changes mainly of between three and seven minutes on a range of services on the Maynooth and Drogheda lines, with some minor changes on other routes also.”
Irish Rail said “having analysed these issues, and liaised with the National Transport Authority, we will implement a number of timing changes from next Monday 16th September which will assist in improving punctuality for our customers.”
“As with all major timetable changes, we closely monitor its implementation to identify any issues which arise which may impact service performance,” the company said.
“We look forward to delivering improved punctuality, and again apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused over the past fortnight,” the company added.
The new timetable also provided for increased services on the Dublin to Galway and Dublin to Waterford routes as well as Cork Commuter routes while also making provision for an hourly service to Belfast dur to start in October.
Rail Users Ireland said while the additional services on the intercity routes were welcome and “working well” there had been “widespread delays” at Dublin Connolly.
Spokesman Mark Gleeson said “commuters have been vocal in their dissatisfaction about delays, changes where trains were direct previously, overcrowding and poor and conflicting information.”
“There are always winners and losers with timetable changes, the least commuters can expect is that the timetable as printed is delivered. This is before students return to college and the dreaded leaf fall season [where falling leaves affect the traction of wheels on tracks] has not yet started.”
“Commuters are rightly worried delays will get worse in coming weeks,” Mr Gleeson said.
“We have not seen such repeated delays or such widespread passenger anger in many years,” he said.