Irish Steve
7th Jun 2005, 21:05
Ok, they've got the queues down to about 40 minutes on an early Saturday morning, but at the expense of making the airside security check a nightmare for any elderly or infirm passengers.
They've also removed the centre set down pavement from the departure road, but that's done nothing to speed up the system, at 0530 on Saturday, the queue to get up on to the set down road was back beyond the traffic lights where the "old" and "new" road merge, and not moving that well, so we took the simple way out and walked up to the terminal from the roundabout, and let the person dropping us off avoid the mess. That saved at least 10 minutes, but is only an option for passengers that can get themselves and the bags up the slope, so a non starter for elderly or infirm.
With the centre pedestrian reserve removed, the set down road is now even more dangerous than it was, although the good side of that is certain people are now going to have to find somewhere new to park, as they won't be able to park in the middle any more. For a logn time, there have been people that were invisible to the clampers, at least they can't get away with that any more.
Getting into the terminal at the "1" end was a nightmare, the queue from the EI/BMI check in area was so long, it was blocking the door, and there was only one very restricted access point in the entire doorway that could be used, so even getting in to the terminal was a severe hassle, and that was with hand luggage only, people with any size of hold luggage were struggling to even get in the door.
To give them credit, FR checkin were fast, less than 5 minutes there.
Next hassle now starts
After queuing for about 40 minutes, to get from checkin to airside now requires that passengers remove outer coat, shoes, hats and trouser belt. They all go through the scanner, and arrive the other side. You don't find this out until you are within 10 people of the scanner, so you have to now try to remove these items from a queue that's moving at a slightly faster rate, as it's been split 6 ways.
The passenger now goes through the arch, and has to retrieve their belongings from the discharge chute of the bag scanner.
First problem is that there's a perspex shield blocking a substantial part of it, probably to prevent things being stolen, so even reaching your items is not easy.
The next, and to me more fundamental problem is that there's damn all chairs or seats or even benches for people to use to replace their shoes.
I'm fit, and can cope with replacing shoes without a seat. There are many who cannot, but there is nothing worth talking about to facilitate passengers with reduced mobility, and remember, at this stage, you've also to replace your trouser belt, so moving too far is not a good idea.
There are other issues.
Pre the security scan, there's a barrier system that Disney would be proud of. Only snag is that some of it is not that readily removed in a hurry, either because it's aluminium barriers, rather than the flexible car belt type, or it's the belt type, but instead of being clipped on to the pole, it's been tied, so removing it in the event of an emergency will be a serious problem, and to me, this is a Heatlh & Safety issue that's in urgent need of attention. Trying to get several hundred people out of the area of the queue with aluminium barriers all over the place on the floor will cause injury or worse if it's having to be done in a genuine emergency.
Then you go down to the A pier. We were on gate 2. In that area, there are 3 gates for boarding. Each gate was host to an aircraft at least the size of a 737-200.
For 3 gates, there was a massive queue management system on each, more of the famous aluminium barriers on posts, so that they can "channel" people into the right line for boarding and try to avoid the rugby scrum around the gate door that otherwise develops.
So, there is a massive floor area occupied by barriers, and for 3 gates, about 50 seats. Given that there were 3 aircraft to be loaded, each seating over 110 people, that's a pretty high shortfall in seating, especially if there's close on an hour to kill before boarding.
PA announcements. These might as well have been in Klingon, with the combination of non Irish national accents, and the appalling quality of the equipment being used, 90% of them were a waste of time, as they simply could not be understood.
So, a good while after the famous audit failure that provoked the most recent changes, the situation hasn't improved much in most areas.
Despite the best efforts of the FR staff, the 0620 STN flight was at least 20 minutes late pushing, which looked like it was caused by missing passengers. We were travelling to BRS, 0640, and we got off blocks reasonably close to time.
So, summary.
The check in area is appallingly bad, over congested, the queue management system is dangerous, and the way the queues block the entrance is also dangerous.
The removal of the central pedestrian walkway from the set down road is also not going to help safety, there's even more ways now for passengers and vehicles to get mixed up in unsafe ways, and it's going to be even harder for passengers with reduced mobility to be able to get out of the vehicle in safety, and even more difficult for them to find a cart for their bags, and they'll have to thread their way through many more vehicles without the protection of a dedicated walkway.
At peak periods, they have to try and get a passenger through each scan arch at a rate of one every 5 seconds or so, assuming all the arches are operational and reliable. That's the only reason I can see for inconveniencing people by requiring the removal of things like trouser belts, to reduce the number of "false" positive scans, as they can't afford the time to check people properly in that case.
The removal of so many items of clothing from a passenger who is infirm, can't move very well, and who may also risk the indignity of losing clothing if their belt is removed is an insult and unacceptable.
I doubt that the DAA employ many people with reduced mobility, or with limited lifting capability, or with other restrictions that make it harder for them to deal with Dublin Airport. That's the only reason I can see for some of the supposed improvement that have been made recently. For the able bodied, they may work, though I doubt it. For the rest, I fear that there will be a significant increase in accidents and injury to passengers who are already at a disadvantage.
I don't know where we start lobbying, but lobbying is needed, before someone is killed by some of these crazy changes.
They've also removed the centre set down pavement from the departure road, but that's done nothing to speed up the system, at 0530 on Saturday, the queue to get up on to the set down road was back beyond the traffic lights where the "old" and "new" road merge, and not moving that well, so we took the simple way out and walked up to the terminal from the roundabout, and let the person dropping us off avoid the mess. That saved at least 10 minutes, but is only an option for passengers that can get themselves and the bags up the slope, so a non starter for elderly or infirm.
With the centre pedestrian reserve removed, the set down road is now even more dangerous than it was, although the good side of that is certain people are now going to have to find somewhere new to park, as they won't be able to park in the middle any more. For a logn time, there have been people that were invisible to the clampers, at least they can't get away with that any more.
Getting into the terminal at the "1" end was a nightmare, the queue from the EI/BMI check in area was so long, it was blocking the door, and there was only one very restricted access point in the entire doorway that could be used, so even getting in to the terminal was a severe hassle, and that was with hand luggage only, people with any size of hold luggage were struggling to even get in the door.
To give them credit, FR checkin were fast, less than 5 minutes there.
Next hassle now starts
After queuing for about 40 minutes, to get from checkin to airside now requires that passengers remove outer coat, shoes, hats and trouser belt. They all go through the scanner, and arrive the other side. You don't find this out until you are within 10 people of the scanner, so you have to now try to remove these items from a queue that's moving at a slightly faster rate, as it's been split 6 ways.
The passenger now goes through the arch, and has to retrieve their belongings from the discharge chute of the bag scanner.
First problem is that there's a perspex shield blocking a substantial part of it, probably to prevent things being stolen, so even reaching your items is not easy.
The next, and to me more fundamental problem is that there's damn all chairs or seats or even benches for people to use to replace their shoes.
I'm fit, and can cope with replacing shoes without a seat. There are many who cannot, but there is nothing worth talking about to facilitate passengers with reduced mobility, and remember, at this stage, you've also to replace your trouser belt, so moving too far is not a good idea.
There are other issues.
Pre the security scan, there's a barrier system that Disney would be proud of. Only snag is that some of it is not that readily removed in a hurry, either because it's aluminium barriers, rather than the flexible car belt type, or it's the belt type, but instead of being clipped on to the pole, it's been tied, so removing it in the event of an emergency will be a serious problem, and to me, this is a Heatlh & Safety issue that's in urgent need of attention. Trying to get several hundred people out of the area of the queue with aluminium barriers all over the place on the floor will cause injury or worse if it's having to be done in a genuine emergency.
Then you go down to the A pier. We were on gate 2. In that area, there are 3 gates for boarding. Each gate was host to an aircraft at least the size of a 737-200.
For 3 gates, there was a massive queue management system on each, more of the famous aluminium barriers on posts, so that they can "channel" people into the right line for boarding and try to avoid the rugby scrum around the gate door that otherwise develops.
So, there is a massive floor area occupied by barriers, and for 3 gates, about 50 seats. Given that there were 3 aircraft to be loaded, each seating over 110 people, that's a pretty high shortfall in seating, especially if there's close on an hour to kill before boarding.
PA announcements. These might as well have been in Klingon, with the combination of non Irish national accents, and the appalling quality of the equipment being used, 90% of them were a waste of time, as they simply could not be understood.
So, a good while after the famous audit failure that provoked the most recent changes, the situation hasn't improved much in most areas.
Despite the best efforts of the FR staff, the 0620 STN flight was at least 20 minutes late pushing, which looked like it was caused by missing passengers. We were travelling to BRS, 0640, and we got off blocks reasonably close to time.
So, summary.
The check in area is appallingly bad, over congested, the queue management system is dangerous, and the way the queues block the entrance is also dangerous.
The removal of the central pedestrian walkway from the set down road is also not going to help safety, there's even more ways now for passengers and vehicles to get mixed up in unsafe ways, and it's going to be even harder for passengers with reduced mobility to be able to get out of the vehicle in safety, and even more difficult for them to find a cart for their bags, and they'll have to thread their way through many more vehicles without the protection of a dedicated walkway.
At peak periods, they have to try and get a passenger through each scan arch at a rate of one every 5 seconds or so, assuming all the arches are operational and reliable. That's the only reason I can see for inconveniencing people by requiring the removal of things like trouser belts, to reduce the number of "false" positive scans, as they can't afford the time to check people properly in that case.
The removal of so many items of clothing from a passenger who is infirm, can't move very well, and who may also risk the indignity of losing clothing if their belt is removed is an insult and unacceptable.
I doubt that the DAA employ many people with reduced mobility, or with limited lifting capability, or with other restrictions that make it harder for them to deal with Dublin Airport. That's the only reason I can see for some of the supposed improvement that have been made recently. For the able bodied, they may work, though I doubt it. For the rest, I fear that there will be a significant increase in accidents and injury to passengers who are already at a disadvantage.
I don't know where we start lobbying, but lobbying is needed, before someone is killed by some of these crazy changes.