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IARNRÓD ÉIREANN HAS apologised for delays caused by recent timetable changes on the northern line into Dublin.
The changes took effect from 26 August and were made in advance of a new hourly Enterprise train service from Belfast, which is not yet fully operational.
Passengers were advised that departure times were proposed to change on many DART, Northern Commuter and Maynooth Commuter services in order to accommodate the extra Enterprise services.
The Enterprise is the cross-border rail service that connects Belfast and Dublin.
Earlier this month the new timetable was further altered to alleviate delays but to no avail. For the first time in decades, train punctuality dropped below to 80% in recent weeks.
The hourly service from Belfast begins at 6am but it is not yet known when trains will be able to run from the new Grand Central Station in the city.
The new €400 million Belfast transport hub officially opened on 9 September, having welcomed its first passengers the previous morning.
However, only buses are operating from the new station and rail services have yet to commence due to upgrades on the tracks.
Translink, Northern Ireland’s public transport service, said train services will commence once the company has the relevant safety certification.
It means rail passengers travelling from Belfast to Dublin board a bus to Newry, where the journey then continues to Dublin via train.
Those travelling from Dublin to Belfast also have to disembark the train at Newry, where a bus takes them onwards to Belfast.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Prime Time last night, Barry Kenny, the corporate communications manager of Iarnród Éireann, acknowledged that the new changes “haven’t been working the way it should have been”.
“We are sorry to our customers for what has happened,” Kenny added.
He said further changes will be made to the timetable in the coming weeks and that he is speaking to his northern colleagues in Translink on the issue.
"We are sorry to our customers... we will be making further changes to address this... in the next couple of weeks."
— RTÉ Prime Time (@RTE_PrimeTime) September 26, 2024
Barry Kenny of Iarnród Éireann apologises to rail users for delays caused by recent timetable changes on the northern line into Dublin.#rtept | @RTENews pic.twitter.com/YQL1Q04xRu
He also said that the 6am Belfast service, which currently starts out with a bus to Newry, is “having a disproportionate effect on commuters”.
Kenny said this 6am service from Belfast is “light enough at this point” and only serves hundreds of passengers.
Elsewhere, Minister of State Joe O’Brien said the changes have “very negatively on the commuter service, increasing journey times significantly for commuters in the towns of Balbriggan, Skerries, Rush, Lusk and Donabate”.
The Green Party TD for Dublin Fingal recently wrote a letter to Taoiseach Simon Harris, Tánaiste Micheál Martin and Transport Minister Eamon Ryan outlining his concerns.
He said the changes have resulted in a “problematic 30-minute gap at the peak morning period where there is no commuter service”.
“This not only leads to a significantly decreased level of service but existing services have been concentrated over a shorter time causing capacity issues on some trains and long delays,” added O’Brien.
He said these issues are “in addition to the frequent delays due to congestion at Connolly Station with customers missing connections to other transport services”.
O’Brien added that it is his understanding that the northern commuter line needs to be cleared at peak times in order for this new Enterprise service from Belfast to run on schedule”.
He added: “A delay or cancellation of the 6am Belfast service would go some way to alleviate some of these issues, while the Enterprise service is important, the knock on effect on Dublin commuters is unacceptable.
“It’s important to note that the previous first service out of Belfast was 6.50am.”
He noted that the Enterprise service from Belfast is currently starts out as a bus service, with passengers boarding a train in Newry.
“In my 20 years using the commuter line I have never seen such a poorly implemented change and would request an immediate intervention to resolve the ongoing issues,” said O’Brien.
“To sum up, we are simply trying to squeeze too many services onto a single train track,” said O’Brien.
“I believe it’s not wise to try to squeeze additional services into a line that is already at capacity especially ones that seriously disadvantage regular users and potentially discourage people from using the train for their regular commute.”
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Jus run the Belfast train to Malahide.
Those passengers can join the Darts and other diesels to continue to Dublin.
Problem solved.
How t f can people not think of this?
More overpaid, unaccountable Public “So Called” Workers.
@Paul: it would hardly be an express then would it.
@Kieran Fox: it makes no sense to cripple the commuter capacity of the greater Dublin Area to run an Orange express for a couple hundred nordies ya dope!
@Paul: Your plan is more passengers on the already overloaded Dart and commuter services!
@Paul: no, the problem wouldn’t be solved, it would just worsen the already overcrowded commuter trains and Dart
“Must be nice to have a train”
- Everybody in Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan, Tyrone and Fermanagh
@John Paul Gallagher: who are you again?
@John Paul Gallagher: It is and they all had one but they went bust!
Eammo will get it sorted
@noel donohue: Unfortunately ‘doing’ anything in transport is not party policy
https://jrnl.ie/6498515
And the vast majority get away with fines or suspended sentences, that’ll teach ‘em
All the outrage cos northsiders can’t get to work on time, I’d have thought those trains be empty as well anyway.
@Joe Beirne: clever ! Naat. They’re jammed in the mornings in the past to a dangerous point.
@Joe Beirne: Did you ever live in Portmarnock and try and get the train in the middle of nowhere. All of the hassle of the Metro and it could have been so much easier by building the LUAS out to the airport, nah, that’s commkn sense. The Northside in industrialised, the Southside isn’t but yet they got the LUAS and they’lm get the Metro as well, priorities?
@Joe Beirne: Most ridiculous comment I’ve seen in a long time on here and that’s saying something! So nobody lives on the northside who has to commute to work?? M0ron.
@Joe Beirne: yeah, shows your ignorance
@Brian D’Arcy: The Luas is Northside and is going further out. The Metro is going very far out on the northside.
The Luas to the airport was not possible, simple as that!
As regards no many people living on the northside of the city. Go onto Google maps and have a look!!!!!
Waffle and nonsense! If the timetables are altered it does not follow that trains running to the new timetables are delayed.
The only hard information is that the timetables were rejigged in August to accommodate a new service that is not yet operational!
@Padraig O’Brien: it’s almost like Iarnrod Eireann didn’t know the capacity of their existing train lines into and out of Connolly before they changed the timetable. This issue will never be resolved to anyone’s satisfaction until additional lines are put into Connolly station.
@Kieran Fox: How are you going to do that? As Irish rail have been trying to work that one out for many years!
I was hoping to get the 6.50am service out of Belfast to get me into Dublin for 9am but even the Belfast train is are getting delayed going into Dublin now. There was 20mins of sitting on the tracks outside Connolly last week waiting for a platform to free up.
@plavin: The problem will always be the simple, fact we have the second oldest train lines in the world. It was built for their use not the projected use in the 21st century!
We have two tracks across the river. So we have a massive bottleneck. From both sides.
When Mayor Street opens, that will help considerably.
It’s pretty clear the NTA doesn’t care about people it should be dissolved! This Distribution of responsibility and Zero accountability just is not working for commuters.
@Cormac McKay: True but they are untouchable. They have to support of the minister and they are doing his bidding, so nobody can complain.
All makes sense when you see the board!
Has there ever been a more incompetent set up than Iarnrod Eireann, huge salaries for Management, yet they oversee an absolute disastrous service. It’s constant apologies & off the scale failings, even the train service in some Third World countries is better than what these people run. None of the Management have any shame, just like the RTE cronies, they are there to extract what they can personally, they couldn’t give a toss about the service or it’s customers/commuters. Nothing is working in Ireland, everything is a disaster & Iarnrod Eireann are symptomatic of that failure.
have your say