Changes to the Irish Rail time table described as “nothing short of disaster” for north Dublin commuters were directly linked to the initially planned opening of the Grand Central Station, an Oireachtas committee heard on Wednesday.
Management were quizzed as to why the decision was made to change the timetable on August 26, just ahead of the schools returning and an otherwise post summer increase in footfall.
Chief executive Jim Meade told the transport committee the decision was made with the National Transport Authority (NTA), and had been linked to the opening of Belfast Grand Central station.
It was planned to have the hourly Enterprise service out of the new station on that date. Translink later announced an hourly service from Lanyon Place to Connolly, with a bus connection to Newry but this did not happen. The hourly service will now start on October 29.
The company decided to reverse course and return to what was in place before August 26 following more than a month of packed platforms, overcrowded trains and delayed journeys, particularly across the north Dublin routes.
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.”
Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell said he was among those affected by the timetable changes.
“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.”
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,. It was a disaster in north Dublin.”
