Read All About It

[gothwalk]

In exciting news this morning, Iarnród Éireann have announced upgrades to the DART service, to come in to effect in 2005. Work must take place between now and then to allow for these upgrades. "Ah, sure, we'll just shut it down at weekends," says Peter Cuffe, DART Upgrade Programme Manager for Iarnród Éireann, "sure nobody uses it then, and won't they all stay at home for Christmas?"

Comments

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

Hmm. They need someone to fix their ASP code...

[ailbhe]

Argh. Grr. *bark* *bark*, in fact. What about people in wheelchairs? The DART's a lifesaver for some wheelchair-bound people, for whom most buses are not a viable option.

(Of course, I'm really annoyed on my own behalf, because travelling by bus will be a bitch when I bring my baby to visit my mother, and I get queasy on buses a lot of the time anyway and I bet it's worse pregnant. But the wheelchair thing is also a real problem, I bet).

[sshi.livejournal.com]

And while there are rather more wheelchair-accessible buses here these days, there's nothing like the number needed. According to the Indo (irishrail.ie seems to be dead in the water), there will be extra buses on the 46A and other coastal routes, but I have a fair idea of what Dublin Bus considers enough extra buses and it ain't anything near what will be needed, considering they don't have anywhere near enough to begin with...

I can't believe that this decision was made last January and that we're only being told now. Four days notice is not enough. I'm with gothwalk on this one - the whole thing is just an enormous farce. Actually, public transport in this city is an enormous farce, full stop.

Gah.

[mr-wombat.livejournal.com]

Well, apparantly we were all told in march and how dare we be getting cross.

To be honest, I can't see a better way to do it than shut down the southside for nine months and the northside for nine. Realistically the weekend is the only time to do it too. Not that I believe for a moment that it'll be done that quickly.

I do question the sanity of doing it now though, the DART has been shit for years, surely another four or five months wouldn't be too much to ask, just to get us through the silly season and everything it entails.

doing it

[cheerfulcynic.livejournal.com]

at all is something I think is good. The disintegration of the UK rail network through neglect is not something we want to mimic.

But...

4 days notice? If I worked there, I'd have leaked that.
Why didn't they do Tara St. at the same time instead of having it shut for the last few months?
What is wrong with working on it at night?

Re: doing it

[sshi.livejournal.com]

You have to pay your workers extra to work at night, I believe, so the project costs more...

Re: doing it

[cheerfulcynic.livejournal.com]

You have to pay them extra at weekends too. Sunday pay was at least double when I last worked in that area.

[mr-wombat.livejournal.com]

It's as much the people as the busses, I think I'm about the only person I've ever encountered on the number 10 who offers their seat to the elderly or otherwise in need.

[ailbhe]

Very few of the big routes my mother uses to get into town - 46A, 45, 84, 7, 7A - have wheelchair-accessible buses except as a freak accident.

Shame I don't know anyone in the PHAB club any more; this needs some insider publicity.

Re: doing it

[mr-wombat.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression they were working around the clock: 48 hours or more over the weekend.

I'd query the wisdom of not having them working during weekday nights if they're so concerned with a speedy resolution.

[ailbhe]

People in wheelchairs can't get on the buses to find out whether or not the people are nice. And I feel queasy sitting down.

But yes, it'd be nice if people offered each other seats from time to time.

[bastun.livejournal.com]

Flamin' typical.

And what's up with the roadworks? Half the city is dug up, but you rarely see anyone actually working on the roadworks. Surely in any non-residential area, they should be working round the clock.

But no, that'd cost too much. Much better to string it out so we all suffer and businesses lose money...

[mr-wombat.livejournal.com]

In the majority of cases yes, wheelchair access is a distant dream. The irony is that all the busses in donnybrook are wheelchair enabled but I have yet to actually even SEE someone in a wheelchair in the area thanks to either decent programs or good old fashioned cash for buying special cars.

[mr-wombat.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering how much cash the various businesses have lost out on because of all this crap. I know I avoid town like the plague these days, the bottom of grafton st is about as far as I get and even then it's only to go to Game and then head home.

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

I cross the city from Pearse or Tara Street stations to a spot behind the Ilac Centre every week for SCA fighting practice - I'll be doing it this evening. O'Connell Street is a mess, and Abbey Street... well, if I had a business there, I'd shut it down until they're done. It must be costing them more than they're turning over to just keep the lights on.

Re: doing it

[(Anonymous)]

Regular improvement definitely a good thing but even on the decrepit UK rail network it wouldn't take 4 hours to travel the 100-odd miles from Dublin to Rosslare. 40 minute delays on a journey that already takes a ridiculous 3 1/4 hours! And I don't imagine there are any plans to upgrade that line. Pity the carless tourists that arrive into Rosslare ferry port in the next few months.

Lor