Commuters and Irish Rail timetables

Sir, – The recent challenges faced by Iarnród Éireann in attempting to timetable an hourly express Dublin-Belfast service while simultaneously running a frequent local stopping service on the same line underscore the operational challenges of mixing the two types of traffic on a single pair of tracks. Either the frequency of the stopping services or the speed of the express services suffer, and in either case reliability suffers. Such challenges become more extreme as the frequency of the two types of traffic increases.

Of the four main routes into the city from the north, south, west, and southwest, only the southwest line into Heuston Station is four-tracked, allowing express and local services to be operated more or less independently.

The lack of segregation on the northern line meant that an additional morning express from Belfast necessitated an undesirable gap in the line’s commuter service schedule and required an unrealistic level of operational precision, which proved unsustainable amid the usual minor delays. The result was the chaos of recent weeks.

While reverting to the old timetable may provide relief, it will be at the expense of ambitions to introduce fast, hourly Belfast services. It will also be temporary. The DART+ initiative is planned to provide significantly increased commuter service frequency on the Northern and western lines. Regrettably, there are currently no concrete plans to expand the track infrastructure on these routes to segregate these services from the Belfast and Sligo express services. The outcome is entirely predictable. – Yours, etc,