Transport

‘We got it wrong’: Irish Rail to revert to old Dublin Connolly timetable after commuter disruption

Company apologises to commuters for longer journey times due to timetable change on Dublin routes on August 26th

Irish Rail said introduction of the new timetable will restore morning service patterns. Photograph: Anze Furlan
Irish Rail said introduction of the new timetable will restore morning service patterns. Photograph: Anze Furlan
Sarah Slater
Thu Oct 03 2024 - 15:41

Irish Rail is to scrap new Dublin commuter train timetables, which were introduced last August, due to punctuality issues which resulted in stinging Government and public criticism.

The company said it “deeply regrets” the problems the revised timetable caused since August 26th on northern lines travelling to the city as well as on the Maynooth commuter and other routes.

Changes will include a restoration of the pre-August 26th-morning timetable pattern on all routes to and from Connolly, with some minor time changes.

The new timetable had increased some intercity services but led to congestion and knock-on delays on routes that feed into Connolly Station.

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Some amendments had been made to the new timetables on September 16th after passengers complained about delays but old timetables will now be reintroduced on Monday, October 14th.

The national rail operator said it recognises the disruption to “our customers’ daily journeys and lives which have resulted from timetable changes” since August.

“In accommodating increased services on the Dublin to Belfast route, and managing overall capacity in the city centre area, the changes had a disproportionately negative impact on commuting punctuality and overall journey times, for which we are sorry,” said Irish Rail.

The company said the introduction of the new timetable will restore morning service patterns, and rebalance the timetable to improve punctuality and end-to-end journey times for commuters, while accommodating improved frequency on several intercity routes, including the Dublin to Belfast route.

Irish Rail spokesman Barry Kenny acknowledged the company got it wrong.

“We are genuinely very, very sorry to our customers, it’s been very disruptive in recent weeks for customers. People build their work, their education, their childcare around their travel with us and we have let them down. We’re sorry for that. The changes we made on September 16th did improve the situation in the evening peak but the issues were continuing in the morning,” he said.

Mr Kenny said the timing changes simply “were too ambitious”.

Asked if the new hourly Enterprise service from Dublin to Belfast, which is understood to have caused disruption and congestion for commuter trains, would be reversed, he replied: “The extra train from Belfast to Dublin known as the Enterprise, will still leave Belfast at 06.00 hrs and arrive in Dublin Connolly at 08.23 hrs — a full eight minutes longer than its previous journey time. This will allow for the service to slot in between two commuter train times whereas before the two commuter trains went in advance of the Enterprise.”

[ Irish Rail sends 37 senior officials to Berlin trade fair as it faces anger over delays caused by new timetables ]

Mr Kenny also defended the decision by Irish Rail to send a delegation of 37 officials to a transport trade fair in Berlin. The event covered all aspects of the rail industry in terms of infrastructure, fleet, capital investments, and customer systems, he said.

“There is no other place where you will have this scale of industry representation ... so the people who went to this were primarily the technical specialists and programme leads across our portfolio of capital investments and things like that,” said Mr Kenny.

Those who attended were not the people who would have been co-ordinating the timetable, he added.

The most significant timetable changes from Monday, October 14th, will be on morning schedules on routes operating to/from Connolly Station (up to 9.30am to 10am, approximately) which will revert to the pattern of the pre-August 26th timetable, with minor time changes.

This includes trains that previously terminated at stations including Pearse, Grand Canal Dock and Bray resuming operation to/from these stations, reducing the need for interchanges in the morning peak at Connolly Station along with all morning Phoenix Park Tunnel services operating to/from Grand Canal Dock.

There will be revised running times on several Belfast services, including changes to times on the 6am and 7am Belfast-to-Dublin services, arriving in Dublin at 8.23am and 9.20am, respectively. The company says this will improve punctuality for commuter services as well as reduce a gap in the northern commuter morning service.