Irish Rail plans for customer feedback process

Date: 11/01/2011
Posted by: Darragh

I welcome the plans by Irish Rail to bring in a new public consultation process regarding changes to its schedules.

I have been in close contact with the senior officials in Irish Rail in relation to the Main Line service running from Balbriggan to the city centre as well as the DART services serving the constituency. It’s crucial that commuters have confidence in the public transport alternative to the car and that the service on offer is reliable.

The issue of greater public involvement in the consultation process is extremely important and it’s something I have raised on a number of occasions with the company. This new process will give customers more of a say in timetable changes before they are formally adopted.

Irish Rail has confirmed to me that it will be using this process for all major schedule revisions in the future, with draft schedules for Connolly Station routes, including Intercity, DART and Commuter, to be published in the coming weeks. This will include services to and from Balbriggan, Skerries, Rush and Lusk, Donabate, Malahide and Portmarnock and I would encourage commuters to examine the revised schedules when they are made available and give their feedback.

The last timetable change was last year and I received a number of complaints from commuters on the mainline trains affected by it but I hope that this process will deal with the anomalies. I would also encourage people to get in contact with me regarding any proposed changes by Irish Rail to let me know how they would impact on them.

Irish Rail says it is looking for the widest possible level of feedback in the process and a response form for customers to express opinions on the proposed changes will be available at the time on www.irishrail.ie. Customer feedback will be taken into account before a final timetable is adopted and the company says suggestions that can’t be included will be kept for reviews in the future.

Improving the service for commuters in Dublin North has been a significant part of my work as a local TD for the area. I welcome this long awaited increased level of engagement between Irish Rail and its customers. I will continue to engage with the service providers and commuters to maximise the services on offer to the community.