Irish Rail scraps new timetable after changes caused havoc for Dublin commuters

IRISH RAIL ANNOUNCED today it would be returning to its pre-August timetable after schedule changes caused major disruptions and delays for passengers. 

These changes will come into play from Monday 14 October and will restore the morning service patterns and balance of the timetable from before it was changed on 26 August. 

The transport authority apologised to commuters, saying it deeply regretted the inconvenience caused to their daily journeys and lives following the prior revamp of the service schedule. 

Irish Rail’s announcement comes a day after Minister for Housing and Dublin TD Darragh O’Brien posted a video message criticising the changes. He told his social media followers he had pushed for change. 

Posting a video on X, he said he had been speaking with senior management from Irish Rail and that he alerted them to the “very serious feedback” had had received from commuters. 

O’Brien explained: “The last few weeks have been really difficult for rail and Dart users in north county Dublin.”

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He went on to say he had “pushed for changes to be made to improve the service” and promised people a plan with “major improvement” to the timetable, especially at peak times, was on its way. 

Details of that plan – that is due to start in two weeks time – arrived this morning, with more information expected to be released on Monday 7 October. 

While it mostly reverts back to the schedule that was operating before changes made on 26 August, there are some revisions to be aware of:

• Morning timetables on routes operating to/from Connolly Station will return to the pre-August pattern – with changes including the resuming of operations for trains that were terminating at Pearse, Grand Canal Dock and Bray.
• Belfast services to Dublin will undergo a revision of their running times – especially the early morning services starting at six am.
• New departure times from Drogheda (Donabate) from will be: 6.55am (7.30am), 7.05am (7.39am), 7.19am (7.55am), 7.36am (8.13am).
• Dublin Connolly to Belfast will operate at 7.40am, to prevent congestion at Malahide.
• Some evening services which start from Pearse/Grand Canal Dock will now start  from Bray/Dun Laoghaire.
• There will be some minor changes to departure times to a number of Dart, Northern, Maynooth and Phoenix Park Tunnel commuter trains and one Dublin to Rosslare train.
• Increased services on the Galway, Waterford and Belfast lines implemented on 26 August will be maintained. 

A new rail timetable was launched on 26 August in preparation for the expansion of inter-county services but resulted in a large number of services being delayed and carriages being overcrowded.

Last month, the service altered the new timetable slightly, to no avail. For the first time in decades, train punctuality dropped to below 80%. 

The root cause of these delays was due to congestion, Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell told The Journal last month, after many Dublin North Rail Line services, that previously terminated at Pearse Station, are now completing their journeys at Connolly Station in the city centre.

 With reporting by Muiris O’Cearbhaill 

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