Dart Delays Hit A 13-Year Slow

Bright lights, big city…

t won’t exactly be earth-shattering news for those who do their daily commute from Greystones train station but the Dart has been hitting record lows of late.

When it comes to delays, this year looks set to be the worst on record since 2010, when there were 9,1010 such incidents.

As of November, 2023 looks set to beat that record low, with more than one in seven Dart journeys running at least five minutes late.

And those relying on the Rosslare trains aren’t faring much better either, it seems, with an Irish Rail survey of 1,652 this month putting the need for an increased service on that line top of the list. An increase in weekend Darts to Greystones was also a big demand.

When it comes to the 2023 Dart delays, it’s estimated that 15.4% have arrived behind schedule up to November, with the last two months recording the lowest proportion of on-time journeys of any month since Iarnród Éireann began keeping monthly records. For November, fewer than 70.8% of trains avoided delays, whilst the month before saw 68.9% arrive on time. Up until October 2023, that rating had never fallen below 80%.

Having been introduced in 1984 and today serving 31 stations, the Dart+ upgrade – currently going round and around in An Bord Pleanala – would see the service increase to every 10 minutes between and Malahide and Bray on a weekday, with times for poor cousins Howth and Greystones remaining somewhat less frequently.

As to the drop in reliability over the past two months, an Irish Rail spokeswoman pointed to ‘factors outside of Iarnród Éireann’s control‘, such as ‘road vehicles striking level crossings or bridges, weather impacts, trespass and emergency service incident response‘.

You can check out the new Greystones Dart timetable here.