Farce at Heuston last night

bullrunner

Did you hear the one about the 18.35 to thurles leaving Heuston last night?No..well let me tell you the story.....


The train pulled into the station (platform 7) at 18.30, the gate was opened and people were let on. At 18.40 we were told that there was a technical fault and the train would be delayed...we're sorry..blah blah.

about 10-15 mins later another announcement was made asking all the passengers for x,y,z stations to get off the train and make their way to platform 2 to board another train. We got there...but there was no train! So we waited until another announcement (which was at around 7.05) asked us to go back to platform 7 and our train would be waiting there for us. When we got there the gate for the train was now closed! We were made wait for another 25 minutes to get back on the train. In this time I was speaking to a CIE representative (who I later was told was Micheal Mulhutton, head of customer services). I was on my way to wait for the 19.45 train ...but was told (at 19.30) that the first train was now boarding and would be leaving in a few minutes. So having been told that I now got back onto the train thinking it was going to leave. But no..19.45 came and went (along with the other train I could have gotten)...just after 20.00 we were again told to get off the train and this time to go to platform 6 and get on the train that was arriving (a brand new train that must have been sitting in the depot somewhere). So we all got onto this train...and we were followed on by the people who were waiting for the 19.00 train to Cork.

Then at 20.25 the people going to stations up to newbridge were again asked to get off this train and make their way from Platform 6 to Platform 1 and board the 20.35 train.

So..2 hours after we supposed to leave Heuston we finally did.:(

But to add injury to insult , :eek: when I was asking the head of Customer Services why we were being asked to walk around the station for a non-existant train on platform 2, he denied that there was an announcement asking people to go to platform 2!!! This despite the fact a couple of hundred people walked over there!!

Do you think CIE should refund me my train ticket????

threebeards

bullrunner wrote:

Do you think CIE should refund me my train ticket????

Whether they should or not doesn't really matter because you know as well as I do that you'd be as well off pulling your....hair out, as waiting for a refund from CIE!:D

MarkoP11

Since the delay was more than two hours you are entitled to a full refund of the single ticket value i.e half a return or a proportion of the annual ticket

Text messages flooded in last night it appears the 19:00 train broke they rolled in a replacement (which was also a new train and the set of the 21:00) and it died. Finally a older train, which needed a clean arrived and finally left sometime after 21:20. There was total confusion over what was going on and the usual lack of any useful information. The 18:35 to Thurles also died

Since IE won't put the form online
http://www.platform11.org/passenger_info/forms/delay_refund_intercity_heuston.pdf

The speed at which the refund is issued varies but you should get it within 3 weeks, thats the agreed standard and if they don't its a reason why IE should not get a increase since they have signed an agreement with the DoT

The manager in charge is Steve Murphy, and all complaints to Customer Relations, Southern and Western, Iarnrod Eireann, Heuston Station, Dublin 8

And if you feel the urge 01 7034499

You won't find that anywhere on the IE site, which figures

enterprise

You are quite entiltled to a refund as it seems the problems were in the hands of IE.

Next time your in Heuston ( I assume you are a commuter) pick up a refund form from customer service desk, fill it out and send it in.

bullrunner

MarkoP11 wrote:

Since the delay was more than two hours you are entitled to a full refund of the single ticket value i.e half a return or a proportion of the annual ticket

Text messages flooded in last night it appears the 19:00 train broke they rolled in a replacement (which was also a new train and the set of the 21:00) and it died. Finally a older train, which needed a clean arrived and finally left sometime after 21:20. There was total confusion over what was going on and the usual lack of any useful information. The 18:35 to Thurles also died

Since IE won't put the form online
http://www.platform11.org/passenger_info/forms/delay_refund_intercity_heuston.pdf

The speed at which the refund is issued varies but you should get it within 3 weeks, thats the agreed standard and if they don't its a reason why IE should not get a increase since they have signed an agreement with the DoT

The manager in charge is Steve Murphy, and all complaints to Customer Relations, Southern and Western, Iarnrod Eireann, Heuston Station, Dublin 8

And if you feel the urge 01 7034499

You won't find that anywhere on the IE site, which figures

Thanks for this MarkoP11 ....very helpful. I will be ringing Steve Murphy later on to make a complaint.

MarkoP11

The number is the customer services office, even I don't have the office numbers of senior managers

Bear in mind they only deal in written complaints, phone and email are not counted and not recorded, you must make it in writting

Best tactic is to get a refund form from the desk in Heuston, or print it out and enclose it with a letter of complaint

Last night was very complex since it appears two trains failed, 18:35 to Thurles and the 19:00

Irish Rail claim they respond within the 3 week deadline when we all know they don't, if you don't want a fares increase we need evidence of poor service so let us know info@platform11.org so we can build a list

jjbrien

I cant see why IE should get an increase in fares. They have put their fare up every year. They cant say this year its because of fuel prices when we know they have fallen.

Red Alert

does anyone know what trains failed - the new cork one or are the Mark 3's doing the Thurles run?

bullrunner

it was an old train to Thurles at 18.35 that broke down (also broke down last friday!)...but the Cork train that didnt run was a brand spanking new one...dont know why this didnt run ...i dont think they gave a reason!

MarkoP11

The 18:35 to Thurles, Mk3 push pull set suffered a technical fault
The 19:00 to Cork, Mk4 suffered a brake failure of somekind declared failure
The 21:00 to Cork, Mk4 suffered a brake failure declared a failure

Mk4's where 4005 and 4006, there are 3 seperate issues with the brakes reported, parking brake release/enable, false activation of the fail safe owing to mismatch in air pressures and mechnical failures. Got at least 5 failures I know of since June, Mk3 on the other hand I have 2 for a fleet more than twice the size

A Mk3 set was then found and left at 21:20 ish

Ham'nd'egger

It would seem that quality testing of rolling stock by IE is a thing of the past, given the regular issue with brakes on the Mk 4's. Issues like this up till 10 years ago seemed to have been weeded out a hell of a lot better then they are today. Bring back the Cravens, that will sort it all out!

John R

Hamndegger wrote:

It would seem that quality testing of rolling stock by IE is a thing of the past, given the regular issue with brakes on the Mk 4's. Issues like this up till 10 years ago seemed to have been weeded out a hell of a lot better then they are today. Bring back the Cravens, that will sort it all out!

Up until 10 years ago most of the stock bought were proven versions of builds running on other railways. The Mk3s had been used for 10 years on BR and the few kinks they had were well ironed out by the time CIE bought them. The only part that caused failures with regularity were the doors, the only major difference with the CIE stock.

They have been mostly lucky with the MU stock, apart from the Alstom Dart and 2700 DMU the rest have been very trouble-free.

These CAF coaches seem to be apalling though, considering they are just rolling stock there is no way they should be causing this level of failures.

DerekP11

Despite what some people here think about IE, they are a joke. For many years they have been making poor choices that are totally unproven and not up to the job. Think Enterprise and Head end power.(Freight loco) Think MK4 with a freight loco. I won't go on. This has nothing to do with lack of investment. Its more to do with covering the ass of a very poor mechanical dept. and subsequent decisions.

So while many here criticise the style and or agenda of P11 and its, "god forbid, criticism of Irish media", don't forget that the people running your railway are economic with the truth and continue to make half arsed attempts to conceal it. The new Inter city railcars will work. But remember that your "premier services" Cork and Belfast will still be operated by 11 year old locos, that are not designed for the job they do and were not designed to work with rolling stock designed and built in Europe, no matter what IE think. Techno heads can rant all they want, but the facts are clear. Head end power on the Enterprise is the locos fault. Parking brakes on the MK4s is also the locos fault, because of a non-uniformity issue between train and loco.

Despite what the "techno heads" may say, the word from IE drivers is that the 201 class locos operating the new trains and most other trains, are pieces of sh**e and not up to the job. Apprently on the Cork line, they take forever to reach 100 mph, (sometimes they can't) which is why timings are out the window.

Regardless of all this, Im quite sure that someone is waiting in the wings to tell me that Im wrong and P11 are just anti IE for the sake of it. Anyway, take this info as you want it, as on the P11 board, the issue about this farce is concentrating on the "comeback" for passengers. At the end of the day, they are all that matters. Thats the point of it.

corktina

thats very interesting. So what IE need to do is buy a fleet of passenger locos and confine the 201's to freight, scrapping all the older classes...

WHY didnt they buy Pendoinos or voyagers in the first place?

Blush_01

I was given the wrong ticket when travelling home about 3 years ago (I know, I know, almost ancient history) and was told at the train I couldn't use it. I went back and was told I couldn't exchange it for the right one, I'd have to buy a new one, and submit a refund application. Filled in the form, sent off my ticket and a photocopy of my student travelcard (just to be nice and helpful) and have heard nothing since. I rang customer services for weeks and heard nothing, they rarely answered the phone and then played "transfer-the-customer" for an hour or so, until I'd get p*ssed off enough to hang up when they did answer. After three months I cut my losses and left it, as it was less than €30 (almost a day's wages for me at the time, but that's an aside.) What really pissed me off was I was in Heuston about a fortnight and someone had been given the wrong ticket, she went up, explained what had happened, and there was no problem at all with giving her a new ticket! I have no faith in CIE's ability to resolve problems with their customers what so ever.

OP, sorry to hear about your frustrating to-and-fro.

What really irritates me is that there is always one of the brand new trains parked in Limerick Junction, just sitting there. I don't know if they alternate, or if it has just been sitting there for the past 18 months or so, but every single time I get the train it's there. And then there are problems in Kent, so the train is delayed by 10 minutes, 25 minutes, 3 hours... you really wouldn't want to be in any kind of a hurry.

Red Alert

Yes, you can be sure IE will want to cut up the 071's which are more reliable than the crap 201's ASAP. More ass-covering.

D'Peoples Voice

bullrunner wrote:

The train pulled into the station (platform 7) at 18.30, the gate was opened and people were let on. At 18.40 we were told that there was a technical fault and the train would be delayed...we're sorry..blah blah.

about 10-15 mins later another announcement was made asking all the passengers for x,y,z stations to get off the train and make their way to platform 2 to board another train. We got there...but there was no train! So we waited until another announcement (which was at around 7.05) asked us to go back to platform 7 and our train would be waiting there for us. When we got there the gate for the train was now closed! We were made wait for another 25 minutes to get back on the train. In this time I was speaking to a CIE representative (who I later was told was Micheal Mulhutton, head of customer services). I was on my way to wait for the 19.45 train ...but was told (at 19.30) that the first train was now boarding and would be leaving in a few minutes. So having been told that I now got back onto the train thinking it was going to leave. But no..19.45 came and went (along with the other train I could have gotten)...just after 20.00 we were again told to get off the train and this time to go to platform 6 and get on the train that was arriving (a brand new train that must have been sitting in the depot somewhere). So we all got onto this train...and we were followed on by the people who were waiting for the 19.00 train to Cork.

Then at 20.25 the people going to stations up to newbridge were again asked to get off this train and make their way from Platform 6 to Platform 1 and board the 20.35 train.

This is hilarious, it reminds me of the today fm gift grub sketch "Naked Camera" where Jay sets up Irish politician Michael D. Higgins candid camera style in Dublin Airport. Funny thing is, it's so expected of our civil/public servants, that it no longer even gets mentioned in the media anymore.

Still though it must be said, IE have come on leaps and bounds in the past few yrs, before they wouldn't even inform the customers, who pay a lot of money for their tickets, of what the hell is going on.

happydance

I was on the Thurlus one as well, awful night.

But when we got transfered to platform 6 did anyone else go into the 1st carriage? the door was open so I just hopped on, and let me tell you it was a different world! it was called "city gold" which I presume is 1st class, and you can see the money wasted!

the seats were massive-3 in a row instead of the usual 4, the seats RECLINED, everyone has a littly reading light and what appeard to be a radio built into the seat. there are curtins, and little fake granite tabletops. it's like a plane. Now I know that it costs more to travel in it but it's not that much more! I really just felt that it's us the normal commuters who pay most of the fares so it shoudn't be put into stupidly fancy carriages! I mean the longest train journey can't be more then 4 hours!

Solair

A return trip by CityGold to Cork is €107.00. It's significantly more expensive.

The service is aimed at business passengers and has been running on the Cork line since the early 90s.

You get a reclining seat that's a lot wider, in-seat audio, a much larger table which is meant as a work space, socket for your laptop, reading lamps and you can order meals to your table (you pay the price on the menu though they're not included)

I doubt it's money wasted to be quite honest as the regular services are usually full. I would guess that City Gold is actually quite profitable. I don't think they've really been advertising the fact that CityGold coaches are available on all of the new trains though. On the older Orange MK3 cork trains they were only on certain trains.

The Enterprise (Belfast train) has a simlar setup "First plus"

There are a lot of business people using the Cork-Dublin line who expect those kind of services to be available. Otherwise, they'll just fly.
It means you can spend 2h45mins - 3 hours productively.

You'd find similar carriages on equivilant UK and European routes too.

That outlines the service : http://www.iarnrodeireann.ie/our_services/citygold.asp as is on the MK3 orange cork fleet.