Changes to the Irish Rail timetable have been described as “nothing short of a disaster”, with the head of the organisation admitting the move did not work out.
Last week, Iarnród Éireann announced it would be returning to its pre-August timetable after changes made to its schedule caused major disruption for passengers and commuters.
The changes will come into effect from Monday and will restore the morning service timetable that was in place before August 26th.
The revised timetable led to packed platforms, overcrowded trains and delayed journeys, particularly across the north Dublin routes.
There were also concerns about platform safety safety and bottlenecks, especially at Connolly Station.
Iarnród Éireann chief executive Jim Meade told the transport committee on Wednesday that the decision was made with the National Transport Authority (NTA), and had been linked to the opening of Belfast Grand Central station.
Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell said he was among those affected.
“I’m sure I’m not alone in being of the view that the new timetable was nothing short of a disaster, both for yourselves and indeed for the traveling public,” Mr Farrell said.
“As of last week, and as a person who uses the train six times a week at minimum, I can say that I arrived into Leinster House or to my home in Malahide on time once while traveling mostly off-peak.
“So the knock on impact of the timetable was profound. I can only imagine what it must be like for somebody traveling longer journeys, and I know some members do commute as well on board your services.”
“Ultimately, I believe it’s incumbent upon your organisation to maintain the existing level of service and to enhance it where possible.
“I think it is clear, certainly on the northern commuter line and on the Maynooth line, that that isn’t possible at the moment. Maybe it will be with some further changes and configurations and signalling.
“I think it’s incumbent of the committee and all the members to recognise that Irish Rail needs a very significant amount of investment in order to meet the demands.”
Senator Lorraine Clifford Lee said she has not had an issue which has generated a higher level of complaints than the rail scheduling changes.
“It was absolutely unprecedented, the volume of contact that came to me and to my colleagues,” she said. “It was a disaster in north Dublin.
“The commuters on the northern line felt completely abandoned. Major housing has been planned for this area, major housing has been delivered in this area, and there are huge demands infrastructure.
“The public transport infrastructure is really, really crucially important. You’ve heard all the complaints, overcrowding, delayed trains, large gaps in the morning without a train, changing over to southbound services was a complete disaster.
“It was actually dangerous in Connolly Station, and it added about 20 minutes on to the to the journey time of commuters, and that’s completely unacceptable.”
Mr Meade told the committee that the company recognised that the changes did not work.
“We overstretched the capacity of the system. We dialled out too much time. We did try and get the quarter, maybe the half gallon into the pint glass on this stage,” he added.
“We don’t have an exact number of the complaints. We do know, in overall terms, the most complaints came from the northern route on that corridor, followed by Maynooth, because we know the Connolly side didn’t work as well as we anticipated.
“It was trying to make the whole system more efficient and add capacity and hands up it didn’t work.”
