Waiting times for some off-peak services on Irish Rail’s Northern commuter line are set to increase from 30 minutes to 40 minutes, from late August.
Irish Rail said it is planning to move the frequency of off-peak services from the current standard 30 minutes to a 20-minute gap followed by a 40-minute gap.
The changes follow a public consultation undertaken by Irish Rail and the National Transport Authority, which saw passengers opt for some longer off-peak waiting times, in return for a number of trains serving Grand Canal Dock, instead of terminating at Connolly.
What Irish Rail describes as “significant timetable changes” will also provide for an hourly service on the Dublin to Belfast route and improve service punctuality, by improving traffic flows in the congested Connolly Station area.
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The option favoured by “the vast majority” of passengers, according to Irish Rail, provides for:
- An hourly Dublin/Belfast service with journey times ranging from two hours and eight minutes to two hours and 12 minutes
- The frequency of off-peak, daytime Drogheda to Dublin commuter services moving from one train every 30 minutes to alternating 20-minute and 40-minute gaps
- Every second Drogheda/Dublin off-peak and daytime commuter trains serving Grand Canal Dock
- Off-peak daytime Dublin/Drogheda commuter services journey times ranging from 57 to 59 minutes
- Two services per hour in the evening peak to commence from Grand Canal Dock
An alternative option rejected by a majority of those who took part in the public consultation would have seen the frequency of off-peak daytime Drogheda/Dublin commuter services remaining at one train every 30 minutes. This would have involved a longer journey time for some trains including the Belfast to Dublin trains. Just one service per hour in the evening peak commences from Grand Canal Dock.
Irish Rail spokesman Barry Kenny said while waiting times on some trains from Drogheda would increase to 40 minutes from the current 30 minutes, “the collolary of that is that waiting times for some trains would reduce from 30 minutes to 20 minutes”.
A spokesman for Rail Users Ireland said the new timetable which comes into effect on August 26th was “a compromise that will have to be addressed again when new trains come into service” due in late 2025.
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