Translink

[gordonthemoron]

Used enterprise and local services around Belfast this past week. Really good. Had been expecting enterprise to be a bit rubbish but it was excellent, nice coaches and a proper buffet. Local Belfast services were good too, new trains, good staff, cheap fares and some nice stations. Perhaps TransLink should bid for mainland franchises?

 

[CallySleeper]

Translink is a public Northern Irish body - all public transport is run by the government. Yes the service is very good but I'm not sure how given it isn't a private company how it would be able to bid for a mainland franchise (or indeed if it would be in the best interests of NI)

 

[TUC]

It's a really interesting question. I remember at the time of bus deregulation in Britain a difficulty arose for local authority owned bus companies who had tendered for work well out of area when it emerged that legislation only gave them powers to operate within the vicinity of their parent local authority. I suspect a similar problem could exist for Translink if it sought to bid for work in GB but i'll see if I can identify the relevant legislation.

 

[GaryMcEwan]

Over the past few weeks, I've had the pleasure of working with a lot of Translink drivers that are over here for the Games. I've never worked with such a well organised group of people.

Translink have been the saviour of the transport side of things, even though they were working for First Games Transport.

Nobody had a bad word to say about them, and head office in NI have been hearing about the good work they've been doing as well. I think few operators over here could look at the way they operate and take some notes...

One or two of the Metro drivers would love to work over here, although they did say they wouldn't work for First...

 

[Thewanderer]

Out of interest why were you expecting the Enterprise to be rubbish?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Out of interest why were you expecting the Enterprise to be rubbish?

I don't wish to speak for the OP, but because it's probably one of the slowest speed inter-city trains in Western Europe (40mph~ average IIRC) and because any form of refurbishment or infrastructural improvement proposal seems to bounce to and fro between the two country's authorities with no-one wanting to commit to it? When you compare it to the new stock in both countries, and the improvements carried out in both (Coleraine-Londonderry line works, Kildare Corridor, M3 Parkway etc) it does seem like a bit of an odd one out.

 

[gordonthemoron]

Previous posts in other threads

 

[fgwrich]

I don't wish to speak for the OP, but because it's probably one of the slowest speed inter-city trains in Western Europe (40mph~ average IIRC) and because any form of refurbishment or infrastructural improvement proposal seems to bounce to and fro between the two country's authorities with no-one wanting to commit to it? When you compare it to the new stock in both countries, and the improvements carried out in both (Coleraine-Londonderry line works, Kildare Corridor, M3 Parkway etc) it does seem like a bit of an odd one out.

Agreed, and the reliability of the 201 Class has been rather sketchy in the past too - although that was largely down to Irish Rail ignoring EMDs advice of not using them to provide Head End Power all the time as well, an issue now resolved in part down to the utilising of Ex IE Mk3 Gen Vans on the Enterprise sets. (They work better on the Mk4 sets as the 'Daffy Duck' DVTs have generators built in)

Having used Translink in the past, I've found them to be excellent too - my only drawbacks at the time were of the track speeds & speed restrictions in a fair few areas but there's been a heck of a lot of upgrading for the New Trains Two programme which has solved a fair bit of it. Fares are cheap and worthwhile, the Ilink is a good smartcard system, buses are very well run and unlike some of our stations, Translink have rebuilt quite a few stations into Rail/Bus Travel Interchanges - Bangor being I think one of the best in NI.

 

[NornIronMan]

Had been expecting enterprise to be a bit rubbish but it was excellent, nice coaches and a proper buffet. Local Belfast services were good too, new trains, good staff, cheap fares and some nice stations. Perhaps TransLink should bid for mainland franchises?

Makes a change for the Enterprise to be in any way decent: the number of tweets in the NI Railways twitter feed (@nirailways) about punctuality or breakdowns likens it to something out of the 3rd World...

 

[MidnightFlyer]

I will admit that all the times I've used Enterprise I can't fault the passenger experience; however it's beginning to look a bit dated internally, and the run into Dublin on occasions is so poor, there's no priority whatsoever over DART so you can easily end up crawling for the final ten miles or so stuck behind an all stations to Bray... To be honest the whole timetable isn't great really, especially bearing in mind how much the trip via road has improved of late.

 

[RochdalePioneers]

Had my first Dublin - Belfast run on Enterprise on Thursday. Liked the trains, liked the views out of the window, but it really is slow. Never felt like we were going that slowly which suggests the track isn't up to much.