Irish Railway Record Society

JOURNAL 172

TRANSLINK - NORTHERN IRELAND RAILWAYS  

ENTERPRISE

The Minister for Regional Development, Mr Conor Murphy MP MLA, advised the Northern Ireland Assembly of the loss of revenue and passenger numbers to NIR due to the collapse of Malahide Viaduct. The figures relate to Periods 6 – 10. Period 6 started on 24 August 2009 and period 10 ended on 24 January 2010.

“A series of discount fare offers were made available by IÉ and Translink to encourage passengers back on to the Enterprise service. The initial discount fares offer lasted until 3 January 2010 and aimed to entice passengers back to the service. Passenger miles increased by 240% from November to December, although this may have partially reflected the Christmas period. Given the success of this scheme a further fares discount scheme was introduced to run from 4 January to the end of February.”

The Minister for Regional Development advised the Assembly of passenger numbers and revenue:

Notes: *                IÉ settlements estimated. Revenue figures are not comparable with previous years as a discounted fare scheme has run since November 2009 and because of Malahide bridge collapse.

In March, the Minister advised the Assembly: “An hourly Enterprise service is not available at peak times because the additional rolling stock required to run such services is not available. NI Railways have been in discussion with DRD and Iarnród Éireann about alternative rolling stock options to support an hourly frequency. To provide hourly service frequencies, the Enterprise train fleet would need to be increased from 3 operational trains to 6 operational trains.  The cost of the additional trains would be in the region of £40m and operating costs would be circa £5m per year, which could be partially offset by the increase in passenger revenue.  These costs would be shared between Iarnród Éireann and NI Railways or passed to the respective departments in terms of increased Public Service Obligations. This is a significant budgetary issue.”

FUNDING

The Minister for Regional Development advised the Assembly of Public Service Obligation support and capital investment in NIR (£m):

“Note that the figures supplied reconcile to the Regional Development departmental accounts and may differ marginally from the figures recognised in the NIR accounts.”

LONDONDERRY LINE

The Minister for Regional Development advised the Assembly of “passenger numbers travelling on all or part of the line section Coleraine to Londonderry”:

These figures exclude School Passes Commuter Travelcards and Monthly Rail Ticket.

“Taking the Derry line specifically, Translink have indicated that levels of standing on Derry line trains were reported as generally in line with the Passenger’s Charter commitment. Currently loadings are similar to the same time last year.  Two Monday-Friday morning trains are busy i.e. the 06:56 and 07:26 Coleraine-Belfast where passengers frequently stand from Antrim to Belfast Central, a journey of some 25 minutes.”

He also advised the Assembly: “On Friday afternoons two trains are particularly busy during term time i.e. the 14:20 and 16:10 services to Derry, with the 16:10 train having been recorded with up to 300 passengers (200 seated and 100 standing).  These numbers are generated by weekly students travelling home in addition to commuters and will frequently result in standing as far as Ballymena.”

In February, the Minister told the Assembly:

“(i) Translink has already commenced detailed planning and design work for the re-lay of track between Coleraine and Derry. Work on the ground is scheduled to commence in April 2012 and will be completed in 2013 subject to normal approvals and procedures.”

“(ii) ... included in the plans for the track re-lay work is the construction of a passing loop between Coleraine and Derry ...”

“(iii) I am aware that Translink has been in consultation with ILEX on their plans to construct a foot and cycle bridge which could directly link the railway with Foyleside. At this time there are no funded plans available for the construction of a new railway station, however, I will consider any proposals brought forward in light of existing commitments, budget scenarios and long term plans being discussed with Translink. Currently Translink is working with ILEX to ensure that the bridge construction remains fully compatible with plans for a new station in the future if this is approved and proves financially feasible.”

He had previously said “With the advances in technology in the field of rail operations, Translink have indicated that it is their intention to explore the feasibility of centralising signalling in the North-West into the Coleraine signal cabin following the re-lay of track between Coleraine and Derry and upgrade of the signalling system. The design and specification of such a scheme have not yet been finalised ...”

LARNE LINE

The Minister for Regional Development provided the Assembly with passenger journeys on the Larne line:

INFRASTRUCTURE AND SIGNALLING

Stations Platform 1 at Botanic was extended to facilitate 6-car 3000-class trains. Work took place on Sundays and at night to minimise disruption to passengers.

Many platforms are less than the 143m required to accommodate a 6-car 3000-class set. In 2001, fifteen platforms were extended to accommodate 6-car sets as part of the introduction of the first phase of new trains. Translink has advertised for a contractor to construct extensions to platforms at a number of locations. There are currently 18 stations / halts where extensions to the platforms are required, which requires extensions to 34 platforms. However this list may be reviewed on the finalisation of the C4K timetable.

Procurement NIR has advertised for the twelve Autoballast wagons to replace the existing manually operated fleet. Contract award is projected “during autumn 2010” with delivery “no later than December 2011.”

ROLLING STOCK

111-class On Thursday 29 April, 112 hauled failed 228 from Belfast to Dundalk and from Dundalk to Inchicore next day where both received attention. They departed platform 6 in Connolly at 11:47 for Inchicore. After attention in Inchicore, 112 was used on pilot duties in Heuston and Connolly on Thursday 13 May. It was also used to haul a failed “201” + Mk IV set empty from Newbridge to Dublin Heuston. This was the set of the 06:30 Cork-Dublin. It was subsequently ‘tested’ on Tara Mines trains and returned to Belfast on Tuesday 18 May.

3000-class Set 3001 has been overhauled, repainted and returned to service. The interior has not been overhauled. Set 3021 was the next set for overhaul. Set 3004 was also out of service in York Rd, but ran to Inchicore on Thursday 14 January for wheel turning. It returned to Belfast on the same day. On Tuesday 2 February, CAF 3011 arrived in Dublin Connolly at 09:15 en route to Inchicore for wheel turning, returning the same day.

IÉ has cleared the class to travel between Connolly and Heuston / Inchicore and into the up sidings at Fairview. The lead unit must be equipped with CAWS and IÉ train radio, except where a set is required to replace a failed or unavoidably delayed train. Nos. 3001-06 are so equipped.

Procurement In March, NIR advertised for a cleaning contractor to provide train cleaning personnel, covering all cleaning locations in Belfast, Portadown, Coleraine, Bangor, Larne and Londonderry to cover the existing 132 passenger vehicles and replacement 4000-class when delivered. The contractor will be required to provide personnel to cover 7 days/nights per week for 364 days of the year. The contract will be for 3 years with options to extend for a further 2 periods of 1 year each.

PERFORMANCE

Cancellations The Minister for Regional Development advised the Assembly that there were 292 cancellations out of 13,300 services operated on the Portrush branch for the period 29 January 2009 to 28 January 2010. “However, only 119 of these cancellations are considered to be within the control of Translink. This gives a reliability figure of 99.1% for the Portrush line for this period against a passenger charter target of 99.2%.

Total Number of Cancellations = 20

Number of Bus Substitutions = 272

“Translink point out that it is worth highlighting the following issues arising from this table:

“With any failure of the train set on the Portrush branch an engineer or replacement train is required to be sent from Belfast. This ultimately results in service disruption and for a bus substitution to be implemented. Any failure of the Class 3000 units in the Coleraine/Londonderry area also requires the set to be removed from the Portrush branch and operated in place of the failed unit. Covering the Portrush branch with a bus substitution is considered the most effective means of minimising the disruption to services on the Derry line. The Class 450 trains operate to an agreed maintenance schedule, however because of the age of these trains faults will inevitably occur.

Targets Independent monitoring of Translink performance in autumn 2009 showed that NIR exceeded its punctuality target with 97% of trains meeting the target. Overall passenger satisfaction rating was 77.8%.

Copyright © 2010 by Irish Railway Record Society Limited
Revised: August 28, 2010 .