Irish Rail has confirmed that morning Connolly route services will revert to pre-August 26th pattern to address punctuality issues, with minor time changes to accommodate extra services.
But what were the initial changes?
In August, Irish Rail announced that, from August 26th, there would be extra services for Galway, Waterford, Wexford, Cobh and Midleton in Co Cork.
Extra Belfast services were also announced, and Dart and commuter times were changed. Kishoge station was to open, and a Broombridge stop was to be added to all Sligo line services.
Customers were warned that departure times were proposed to change on many Dart, Northern Commuter, and Maynooth Commuter services.
Following backlash and reports of congestion, Irish Rail then announced that, from September 16th, time changes would apply to Maynooth, Drogheda and other Connolly routes. These changes included earlier departure times.
Irish Rail apologised to customers for the punctuality performance since the implementation of the new timetable on August 26th, and acknowledged that there were timing issues which led to congestion in the Connolly Station area.
However, shortly after these changes were made, Fine Gael Deputy and Chair of the Oireachtas Transport Committee, Alan Farrell, said all the changes were still causing major issues for commuters due to delays and overcrowding.
Farrell said intercity trains along the Northern Commuter line were no longer serving Pearse Street station for hundreds of commuters from Louth, Meath and North Dublin.
The deputy explained that the timetable change appears to have been introduced to facilitate the hourly Enterprise Service to Belfast, but said that Irish Rail "cannot sacrifice commuters in the process".
So what is happening now?
Irish Rail has admitted that, in accommodating increased services on the Dublin to Belfast route, the changes had a "disproportionate negative impact" on commuting punctuality and overall journey times, and apologised.
It then announced that it is implementing a "number of significant changes" to its timetable from October 14th.
Full details of the changes became available for customers on Monday.
Amongst these, morning timetables on routes operating to/from Connolly Station will revert to the pattern of the pre-August 26th timetable, with minor time changes.
This includes trains which previously terminated at stations such as Pearse, Grand Canal Dock and Bray resuming operation to/from these stations, reducing the need for interchanges in the morning peak at Connolly Station.
There will be revised running times on a number of Belfast services, including changes to times on the 6am and 7am Belfast to Dublin services, arriving to Dublin at 8:23am and 9:20am respectively.
As well as improving punctuality for Commuter services, this is supposed to enable a key gap in the Northern Commuter morning service to be reduced.
Current departure times from Drogheda (with Donabate times for reference) are: 6:58am (7:32am), 7:09am (7:44am), 7:41am (08:16am)
New departure times during the same time window from Drogheda (Donabate) from Monday 14th October will be: 6:55am (7:30am), 7:05am (7:39am), 7:19am (7:55am), 7:36am (8:13am).
Additionally, the proposed 7:50am Dublin Connolly to Belfast will operate at 7:40am, to prevent congestion at Malahide.
Some evening services which currently commence from Pearse/Grand Canal Dock will commence 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 to facilitate the above.
Increased services on the Galway, Waterford and Belfast lines implemented on August 26th will be maintained.
Irish Rail said it recognises the "enormous disruption" the timetable changes had caused to its customers' work, education, childcare and other requirements.
"While changes made on September 16th improved evening punctuality in particular, it is clear that the impact to morning commuting was continuing."
The company said it "deeply regrets" the disruption to our customers’ daily journeys and lives which have resulted from timetable changes since August 26th.
