Forty Miles an hour?

[connollystn]

Hi guys, I find using Iarnród Éireann quite frustrating. I don't understand why it takes almost 2 hours to travel 76 miles [121 kilometres] on the ICR to Longford? In fact, it is often the case that the down Sligo train only travels as little as 20 miles [32 km] in the first hour. Using that service annoys me so much that I've told my elderly widowed mother that I am now reducing the number of times that I will be visiting her. At my age and with an extremely dodgy ticker, can't afford to be spending as long on a train which takes so much time to cover so little distance. Modernisation must have passed the Dublin/Sligo line by?

[hurricanemk1c]

Slotting into a busy commuter railway (assuming you're measuring from Dublin) along with the restrictive single line from Maynooth onwards with time for crossings having to be included

 

Of note is that average time end-to-end has decreased by 15 minutes since 1991, while service level has doubled for Intercity and increased several times over for commuter traffic to/from Maynooth, along with certain sections having more restrictive speed restrictions.

[connollystn]

Last time I used the Sligo service there was a total of 40 minutes of delays for both the outward and inward journeys and then they want us to use public transport? Doesn't make sense to me. Back in the day before motorways etc. the train was you only man but now it has been left behind, way way behind.

[Noel]

49 minutes ago, connollystn said:

Last time I used the Sligo service there was a total of 40 minutes of delays for both the outward and inward journeys and then they want us to use public transport? Doesn't make sense to me. Back in the day before motorways etc. the train was you only man but now it has been left behind, way way behind.

Yes sadly door2door its quicker and more comfortable to drive to Cork, Limerick or Galway on the motorway these days. The Ballybrophy to limerick line seems about 40mph, its torturously slow on the smelly DMU biscuit tins.

[hurricanemk1c]

You can put the fastest, most comfortable trains in the world on the line, and won't make any difference when some idiot hits a level crossing and takes out the barriers, or cuts cables etc. Until the infrastructure allows for it, not a lot can be done, simple as that. I'd love to see how others would construct a timetable with the required number of services on the current infrastructure

Edited October 28, 2022 by hurricanemk1c