Lawless happy with new rail times for Kildare stations
Minister Lawless as a commuter
Minister James Lawless has engaged with Irish Rail with concerns in relation to the recent changes to the Kildare railway services whose new timetable went live on Monday (26 August)and is more than happy with the results.
“I met with Irish Rail on this and some flagged changes including the switchover in Connolly that will now feature on some services,” he said.
“Irish Rail have worked with me on it, and taken into account the many submissions, and have minimised the number of services affected, leaving just two trains in the morning and five in the evening which are affected with the changeover,” he confirmed.
According to Irish Rail: “Specifically to this route, two trains in the morning (06:55hrs from Newbridge, 09:09hrs from Newbridge) will terminate at Connolly, and five trains in the evening peak will commence from Connolly (16:16hrs to Hazelhatch; 16:51hrs to Newbridge; 17:08hrs to Hazelhatch; 18:10hrs to Hazelhatch; 18:32hrs to Hazelhatch).
“This is out of a considerable number of services on the line,” according to Minister Lawless.
“I also pushed to insure it had the most limited impact on commuters so it will be a ‘platform to platform’ service, meaning you connect to the train opposite when you changeover, rather than running all over and under the station concourse to find your connecting train,” he explained.
“They have also worked to reduce the connection time to four minutes for all but one service which is enough to not risk missing your link but similarly smooth enough to minimise any resulting delay”.
“One of the goals of the new timetable is to tackle engineering issues in the city centre which meant that many trains were delayed on the old timetable and did not meet advertised times as it was. “Trains were often up to 15 minutes waiting outside the stations before they could allow passengers off the train, and these changes will ease the congestion particularly at Connolly station.
“Another significant result of these changes is to double the capacity on the new services, and this should make for more breathing space on the peak hour trains.
“It also facilitates the upgrade of the Belfast services to an hourly one and in general an extension of further services all around the city area and surrounds.
“Finally, I have stressed the desirability of a weekend service through the Phoenix Park Tunnel and while that will not be introduced in this timetable it is in the plans for the following revision in 2025.” Again from Irish Rail: “Arising from customer consultation on the draft timetable in May and June, engagement with Minister Lawless, and review with the NTA, connecting times in all instances bar one have been reduced to four minutes”.
“This is facilitated by the two morning Phoenix Park Tunnel services terminating on Platform 4 at Connolly, allowing level access to the adjacent Platform 5 for the connecting service; and the evening services starting from Platform 7, allowing level access for the adjacent Platform 6 for the connecting service. T “his is with the exception of the 18:32hrs service which is a six-minute connection, for a Platform 7 to Platform 4 connection”.
