Iarnrod Éireann - stuck in the middle of nowhere

goingnowhere

Regular passenger on the Kildare route and the trains are actually less than 5 years old

Judgement Day

I'm back!

I found the Feb.2008 of Rail Brief and while not so gushing in its description of the 22k railcars states the following.
Features of the Intercity railcar fleet will include:

Automatic PA and information display systems.
Electronic seat reservation displays for web bookings.
Fully air conditioned.
Internal CCTV system for improved security.
Sleek carriage design.
Advance safety features throughout.

Later on in the article Dick Fearn, CEO of Irish Rail says 'every single rail customer with Iarnrod Eireann will be able to travel on modern, quality trains, designed with the latest customer needs in mind.' One wonders what customer research IE carried out? I can just imagine your average rail passenger telling the researcher that what he yearns for is a sleek carriage design or God help us - electronic seat reservation displays! Any chance of a Hang sandwich??

The article concludes 'Frequency improvements will be delivered across all routes, when all trains are in service by the end of 2008'. Ho, ho, ho....

Dick you're for the birds.

paulm17781

ohnoigotsick wrote: »

so why do you still travel with them ?

I haven't in two years.

I am a customer of theirs too but i am willing to be a little open minded and less condeming when it comes to their job as i also understand the customer service process as well as its difficulties.

You may be willing to take shoddy service from semi-state agencies but I am not. This is nothing to do with being open minded, it is about a simple announcement that makes the world of difference to a customer and is no effort for the staff.

thebman

ohnoigotsick wrote: »

so why do you still travel with them ?

I don't know of an alternative train service in Ireland to Irish Rail, do you?

ohnoigotsick

brim4brim wrote: »

I don't know of an alternative train service in Ireland to Irish Rail, do you?

no but i know of alternative travel.

anyway the person doesn't use them anymore, if others did the same maybe IE would take note and look into why passenger numbers are down.

Ticktactoe

paulm17781 wrote: »

I haven't in two years.



You may be willing to take shoddy service from semi-state agencies but I am not.

I am greatful for the service I receive from them. I have travelled by many means and have to say, taking the train is the best means of all. So if there are problems with the service every now and again Im not going to complain. I have experienced the delays etc but what service is perfect? Looking at it, I get to where i want to go more times than not and do so in a comfortable manner.

thebman

ohnoigotsick wrote: »

no but i know of alternative travel.

anyway the person doesn't use them anymore, if others did the same maybe IE would take note and look into why passenger numbers are down.

So you mean Bus for most people as the only viable alternative means of public transport.

I think I'd rather the buses sort out their problems than the train network.

Oh and passenger numbers are down for train travel by 1% if I remember correctly and I think you'll find IE couldn't give a sh**. They just up the fairs and increase parking charges to cover the difference.

Overall I don't have a problem with them most of the time. Anytime I get a train it is on time or arrives at most 5 minutes late except for signal failures that were occurring a while ago that have stopped since so I'm guessing they fixed it.

My only real problem is the price (no competition/funding) and the frequency of the service (no competition/funding).

I think my problem lies more with the government than IE who seem to be doing a good enough job with the resources they have.

Ticktactoe

brim4brim wrote: »

My only real problem is the price (no competition/funding) and the frequency of the service (no competition/funding).

I think my problem lies more with the government than IE who seem to be doing a good enough job with the resources they have.

I agree with you here. The frequency of the service is a problem on certain routes and this problem lies with funding.:cool:

markpb

Ticktactoe wrote: »

I can imagine LOL! It takes some time to figure out whats going on with the train if there is a break down. Again they figure out why it has stopped 20 - 30 mins have passed if not longer. The passengers know as much as the IR guys. Priority is to cover all safety issues and communicate to Dublin re the breakdown. It is extremly frustrating to the passenger indeed but there is protocol to follow.

Transport for London protocol says that an announcement must be made within 30 seconds of an unscheduled stop. No, they don't manage it all the time but they do try. What makes them so different to Irish Rail? They give a crap.

Passengers don't care that the right falange has fallen off. All they want is an update, an apology and not to be ignored. If you leave someone sitting on a train for half an hour, they'll feel like a mushroom (kept in the dark with crap being shovelled on them from above) and the next time they'll take the car. If you apologise and tell them you'll have more information soon, they'll appreciate that problems happen and they won't mind.

Making an announcement takes 10-15 seconds. If there is more than one member of staff on the train, those 15 seconds aren't going to affect anything.

Kashkai

Ticktactoe wrote: »

I am greatful for the service I receive from them. I have travelled by many means and have to say, taking the train is the best means of all. So if there are problems with the service every now and again Im not going to complain. I have experienced the delays etc but what service is perfect? Looking at it, I get to where i want to go more times than not and do so in a comfortable manner.

I'm sorry but "comfortable manner"????? Being forced to pay €36 a week for a ticket plus €8 car parking for the privilege of standing on a freezing platform for trains that are never on time and then standing, sardine style, all the way into Heuston, to then get the occassional 'Schindler's List' style of document checking (you know, corral them into lines with the black uniformed heavies standing by) is not my idea of comfort. What train do you get as I'm feeling all left out on this 'comfortable manner' of train travel :rolleyes: