Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 9 October 2024
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport
Rail Timetables: Iarnród Éireann
1:30 pm
Mr. Jim Meade:
That is a very good question. We did an extensive public consultation process but in future we will have to highlight key changes such as this. We had good interaction and had a good public consultation, but we did not highlight some of the nuances of the new timetable with the travelling public by corridor. The lesson we have from this is that we will look at future changes in a bit more detail and see how we can raise people's awareness. Some of the issues, for example, the interchange in Connolly Station, were not flagged much, although that one was flagged by some of course. It is about getting the detail out to the travelling public to say this is the timetable and these are the key changes within it and the key things to look at, rather than looking at the whole timetable. Timetabling is an art form in itself, as with any business. We have realised the need, when putting out a full timetable, to break it down by line and route, explain to people how their route is going to change and what to look at on their route and then get feedback from them on it. That is the key lesson we have learned.
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