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IARNRÓD ÉIREANN ARE set to amend its new timetable following substantial delays after the introduction of the new schedule.
The amendments will kick in from Monday and come as a number of commuters have complained over lengthy wait times and busy services since the new timetable began on 26 August.
Fianna Fáil Senator Lorraine Clifford Lee last week said the new timetables had significantly impacted commuters along the Northern Commuter rail line in Dublin, serving Rush & Lusk, Balbriggan and Skerries.
One email sent to the Senator following a public consultation, and seen by The Journal, detailed “constant” delays, increased travel times and impacts on commuters that need to travel into the city centre during the weekends.
A spokesperson for Irish Rail said that services has experienced some delays in the first two weeks of its new timetable, noting that these were due to congestion on lines in the Connolly Station area.
Irish Rail apologised to customers who have been impacted.
To tackle this, the service said, slight changes will be made to the new timetable on the Maynooth and Drogheda lines, where congestion has impacted the most. The changes will be between three and seven minutes on a range of services, it 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,” it added.
Last week Senator Clifford Lee said there were “large gaps” in the timetable, particularly during peak times where commuters travelling to and from work and college needed to catch connecting services, such as Dart or bus services.
“The stated aim of the new timetable is ‘to improve punctuality across the network, ensuring a more reliable service for daily commuters’ but according to commuters on the Northern Commuter Line, it has done the opposite,” she said.
The Senator said that commuters had detailed that there were now fewer services, delayed trains and overcrowding on carriages as a result.
“People need to be encouraged to use public transport wherever they can,” she said.
“This new timetable means North County Dublin commuters are being disincentivised from using public transport and those with no other option face using an inconvenient and below par service.”
One email to Clifford Lee sent by a commuter on the Northern Commuter Line said:
“Everyday since the new timetable there has been a delay on either end of my commute. This had made me late for work multiple times, even though I plan ahead with the timetable provided.”
The commuter details that she has given herself extra time on either end of her commute to make sure she is on time for the train and has found, on a number of occasions, that the service was delayed or late to arrive.
An early morning services was also scrapped on weekends on the Northern Commuter Line as part of the new timetable. The email by the commuter claims that the replacement services does not align with employees who may start work at 8 or 9am.
Irish Rail has apologised to any rail user who may have been impacted by the delays caused by the new timetable and said it looks forward to the issue being resolved with the amendments, set to begin on Monday.
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is it not gnp that matters or me being stupid
Correct a rise in GNP is a sign of growth in the domestic economy.
think GNP in Ireland is 20% less then GDP
GDP takes into account foreign companies operating here and GNP takes into account Irish companies operating abroad. I think thats the main difference.
One of the reasons why we’re in such a mess.The more money sucked out of the economy the greater the fall in GNP.
GNP = GDP – Factor Income From Abroad.
A more illuminating differentiation:
GNP = the total income earned by domestic citizens regardless of the country in which their factor services were supplied.
GDP = total value of goods and services produced in the domestic economy, calculated according to the returns received by the factors of production owned by the residents of the country, irrespective of citizenship.
It’s all from the likes of google eBay and itel and that my friends never touches Irish soil, god bless america
GDP includes multinational companies…GNP strips out the multinationals…GNP is a much truer measurement of irish economic output..:)
so i’m at a loss here. is this good news or bad news, or just a different shade of bad news? I suppose it means that we have a lot of foreign investment, which is kinda good…but then again, it doesn’t seem to be effecting our GNP, which i suppose is bad. maybe it’s all just news and I don’t have to categorise this one.
Do you FEEL any richer?
It like relationships, its always more complex than it first appears.
It’s good to see that Multi nationals are doiung well but awful concerning to see that domestic SME’s etc continue to be in free fall. SME’s account for over 90% of our private sector employment.
We are in danger of making Multi-nationals the new construction industry.
Bloody Enda Kenny!
More treacherous incompetence!
Leslie these figures are not published by the Dail
15% unemployment, how can this be so! there is plenty of money in the economy, it can’t be all doom & gloom – Fergal :-)
perhaps our truth tellers in dail eireann are not giving us the true facts Ferg.
Its the opposite Fergal too little money in the domestic ecomony.GDP includes all the profits made by multinationals whose money is repatirated to their home country.
Take for example google. their profits come from out side Ireland anyway and then they pay staff who spend it here. We also tax their profits albeit abit more tax would be good.
Sad thing is in economics is that the economy can grow with unemployment staying high. What this effectively means is that Ireland punches far above its weight for a nation of its size. nnAlthough GNP is a more accurate reader of economic health Ireland’s is still rather healthy per capita but still declining unfortunately. nnLeslie this has nothing to do with the dail!
I was shocked at how low the wages are in other countries. I was talking to a bank teller in Portugal and he informed me that he was on €650 per month. Significantly less than of dole for a 36 hour week. Major purchase items such as cars seemed even more expensive over there….
true, but then the cost of living is way less then ireland. while this doesnt necessarily include the basic commodities such as food or clothing it covers just about anything else.
rent / luxury goods from cigarettes to computer components or television sets for example.
i can only speak from my own personal experience of course.
i build computers as a hobby and i cannot recall the last time i bought so much as a cable in ireland, which is a shame as i think the economy could certainly do with encouragement to leave money in the country.
but if items are 1/3 the price in other countries like germany, the uk or holland, i dont see how ireland can be competitive in the eu market.
this is the age of e-commerce. amazon, ebay and alike expand the markets beyond local and national borders.
not good news anyway most of it is repatriated we need the money to stick around here
have your say