"Quiet zones" on the Dublin-Cork train.

Run_to_da_hills

Twice I took the Dublin Cork train recently and sat in the first carriage after the locomotive which is normally reserved as a "quiet zone".

There is a sticker on each window indicating that the coach is a "quiet zone" I.e., non use of electronic devices, mobile phones etc. However it seems to exclude possibly two of the most irritating noises of the lot IE: bi lingual IR announcements and screaming babies.

A quiet zone should mean exactly what it says, i.e. no noise at all. There are heaps of other carriages on this train that parents can seat their noisy kids besides this one coach.

Also if CIE could keep this coach free from irrirating long winded verbal announcements it would perhaps make this zone more of a pleasure to use.

If someone wants verbal announcments they should just move to another coach or else look at the LED display or simply look out the window at the station when the train pulls in as we have done for decades in the past.

coffee_cake

"quite zones"? quite what?

Sounds annoying when you just want a bit of peace and quiet though...

mikemac

I never heard of this before but seems a very simple and good idea.

Most of us have suffered on the train with some person shouting on their mobile phone. Or playing music on mobiles and laptops for all to hear

I'd nearly pay a surcharge if they could manage this.

Run_to_da_hills

feelingstressed wrote: »

I never heard of this before but seems a very simple and good idea.

Most of us have suffered on the train with some person shouting on their mobile phone. Or playing music on mobiles and laptops for all to hear

I'd nearly pay a surcharge if they could manage this.

You can pay a surcharge, its called "Premier Class", however you still have to put up with the PA announcemets and the odd screaming child.

foggy_lad

I usually sit myself in this carriage but the silence is usually broken by some suited numpty shouting on the phone that they are on the train and the signal is terrible. There seems to be no policing of this haven of silence.

Run_to_da_hills

foggy_lad wrote: »

I usually sit myself in this carriage but the silence is usually broken by some suited numpty shouting on the phone that they are on the train and the signal is terrible. There seems to be no policing of this haven of silence.

In the UK and on the continent it is usually enforced by fellow passengers throwing fitly looks.

Victor

Some of the announcements - the safety ones in particular - have to be made.

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

fitly looks.

Rawr!

Carawaystick

http://www.hearos.com/ if it bothers you. either that or figure out a sure fire way to keep babies from crying.

Cookie_Monster

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Twice I took the Dublin Cork train recently and sat in the first carriage after the locomotive which is normally reserved as a "quiet zone".

There is a sticker on each window indicating that the coach is a "quiet zone" I.e., non use of electronic devices, mobile phones etc. However it seems to exclude possibly two of the most irritating noises of the lot IE: bi lingual IR announcements and screaming babies.

A quiet zone should mean exactly what it says, i.e. no noise at all. There are heaps of other carriages on this train that parents can seat their noisy kids besides this one coach.

Also if CIE could keep this coach free from irrirating long winded verbal announcements it would perhaps make this zone more of a pleasure to use.

If someone wants verbal announcments they should just move to another coach or else look at the LED display or simply look out the window at the station when the train pulls in as we have done for decades in the past.

+1 to that! especially the babies :mad:

Victor wrote: »

Some of the announcements - the safety ones in particular - have to be made.

Rawr!

Safety announcements on the train? come on...
other than "don't be a moron and watch where you step as you get off" there really isin't anything they need to announce.

that CCTV one does my head in. :mad:

Run_to_da_hills

Carawaystick wrote: »

http://www.hearos.com/ if it bothers you. either that or figure out a sure fire way to keep babies from crying.

At least with the MK4's rhey have some chance of rocking them to sleep.

Cookie_Monster

Carawaystick wrote: »

http://www.hearos.com/ if it bothers you. either that or figure out a sure fire way to keep babies from crying.

so so so many naughty answers to that one

Run_to_da_hills

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

so so so many naughty answers to that one

Older trains had an isolated guards van.

T Corolla

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Twice I took the Dublin Cork train recently and sat in the first carriage after the locomotive which is normally reserved as a "quiet zone".

There is a sticker on each window indicating that the coach is a "quiet zone" I.e., non use of electronic devices, mobile phones etc. However it seems to exclude possibly two of the most irritating noises of the lot IE: bi lingual IR announcements and screaming babies.

A quiet zone should mean exactly what it says, i.e. no noise at all. There are heaps of other carriages on this train that parents can seat their noisy kids besides this one coach.

Also if CIE could keep this coach free from irrirating long winded verbal announcements it would perhaps make this zone more of a pleasure to use.

If someone wants verbal announcments they should just move to another coach or else look at the LED display or simply look out the window at the station when the train pulls in as we have done for decades in the past.

Calm down the announcement only takes 1 minute to run. Thats hardly causing that much distress.

T Corolla

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

+1 to that! especially the babies :mad:



Safety announcements on the train? come on...
other than "don't be a moron and watch where you step as you get off" there really isin't anything they need to announce.

that CCTV one does my head in. :mad:

Thats a little short sighted on your behalf. There are kids and eldey people also using the train who are unaware of these dangers. How about if an eldery person who has poor mobility slips getting off at an intermediant station and you will be sitting there for alot longer than the announcement

Cookie_Monster

T Corolla wrote: »

Thats a little short sighted on your behalf. There are kids and eldey people also using the train who are unaware of these dangers. How about if an eldery person who has poor mobility slips getting off at an intermediant station and you will be sitting there for alot longer than the announcement

that's why I said other than that one...

markpb

T Corolla wrote: »

Calm down the announcement only takes 1 minute to run. Thats hardly causing that much distress.

I wish it was 1 minute. The last train I took told me about the next station, twice per station, then thanked me for using Irish rail and, before the doors could open to let anyone on, welcomed me to Irish Rail and told me what time the train had left Dublin. In between, I was sporadically informed about CCTV, reserved seats, buying tickets online, changing for other services, when the trolley would be coming around and where I should get the rail-replacement bus to Galway. All this plus was also displayed inside the train in addition to the letter for my carriage and some broken rubbish on the displays (a mixture of assorted ascii letters and a combination of half-English and half-Irish sentences).

Ironically, despite the barrage of announcements, it never once got the destination of the train right.

Run_to_da_hills

T Corolla wrote: »

Calm down the announcement only takes 1 minute to run. Thats hardly causing that much distress.

You must be one of these culprits that is playing a media device with headphones on.

The announcements are a lot more than one minute, they are long winded and also as Gaeilge, they continue throughout the whole journey. They announce station stops in advance, thanking people for traveling with Iarnrod Eireann, warning passengers not to sit in reserved seats, (Even when the train has passed the last schedule stop before its destination). telling people to remove their personal belongings before leaving, etc.

Paley

markpb wrote: »

I wish it was 1 minute. The last train I took told me about the next station, twice per station, then thanked me for using Irish rail and, before the doors could open to let anyone on, welcomed me to Irish Rail and told me what time the train had left Dublin. In between, I was sporadically informed about CCTV, reserved seats, buying tickets online, changing for other services, when the trolley would be coming around and where I should get the rail-replacement bus to Galway.

I'll second that. Announcements seem to occur before and after each station regarding all of the above in both Irish and English (is the Irish a legal requirement or something?). The announcements are recorded in advance and are so slooooow to get through. It's like watching a car crash in slow motion. The cumulative effect of these interruptions takes away somewhat from the pleasantness of the journey, one of the advantages of travelling by train in my book.

Occasionally the driver gets on the speaker and gives some information. The contrast with the automated announcements is striking. They zip through the info at a normal pace and so are far less of an intrusion than the automated ones.

The train service has improved a fair bit over the last 15 years, but in this regard the change has been for the worse.

T Corolla

Paley wrote: »

I'll second that. Announcements seem to occur before and after each station regarding all of the above in both Irish and English (is the Irish a legal requirement or something?). The announcements are recorded in advance and are so slooooow to get through. It's like watching a car crash in slow motion. The cumulative effect of these interruptions takes away somewhat from the pleasantness of the journey, one of the advantages of travelling by train in my book.

Occasionally the driver gets on the speaker and gives some information. The contrast with the automated announcements is striking. They zip through the info at a normal pace and so are far less of an intrusion than the automated ones.

The train service has improved a fair bit over the last 15 years, but in this regard the change has been for the worse.

In fairness if they removed this from the train another thread would kick off saying why was this service removed. We all been on trains in other parts of the world and its the exact same thing. You should bring some interesting reading material onto the train next time so you will not be annoyed as much. I always bring a book or two onto the train and these announcement never bother me or 99% of the passengers. This is ridicious thread conjured up by someone having a bad day

Run_to_da_hills

T Corolla wrote: »

Thats a little short sighted on your behalf. There are kids and elderly people also using the train who are unaware of these dangers. How about if an elderly person who has poor mobility slips getting off at an intermediate station and you will be sitting there for alot longer than the announcement

The elderly are MORE aware of any railway danger than anyone that ever uses the train, they have been on them long enough.

As regards safety issues they have had experience traveling in trains that would be considered lethal in todays standards with zero facilities for the impaired, IE suicide outward opening doors, narrow pass throughs, carriages regularly over shooting platforms etc.

The elderly also travel by rail more than any other group of people with their free travel passes so it doesn't need to be drilled into them and if kids are going to listen to the announcements while playing with their Nintendo DSi's :rolleyes:

markpb

T Corolla wrote: »

In fairness if they removed this from the train another thread would kick off saying why was this service removed. We all been on trains in other parts of the world and its the exact same thing.

People manage to take buses every day and even though they don't have announcements about everything, people manage to get off at the right stop, not fall going down the steps and not sue because of the undisclosed CCTV.

I know BE are adding announcements about the next stop but it's one (bi-lingual) announcement and it's arguably more useful on a bus than on a train. At least train stations have signs outside the window telling you what the name of the stop is and they're halted long enough for someone to read the sign and get off - none of which is generally possible on a bus.

T Corolla

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

The elderly are MORE aware of any railway danger than anyone that ever uses there train, they have been using them longer than anyone else.

As regards safety issues they have had experience traveling in trains that would be considered lethal in todays standards with zero facilities for the impaired, IE suicide outward opening doors, narrow pass throughs, carriages regularly over shooting platforms etc.

The elderly also travel by rail more than any other group of people with their free travel passes so it doesn't need to be drilled into them and if kids are going to listen to the announcements while playing with their Nintendo DSi's :rolleyes:

I agree that alot of eldery use the train to get around but they are not all aware of the dangers. I had in the past help old people off the Mark 3 and now the 22k as they can be nervous of when they step espically in the winter months and station with poor lighting.

markpb

T Corolla wrote: »

I agree that alot of eldery use the train to get around but they are not all aware of the dangers. I had in the past help old people off the Mark 3 and now the 22k as they can be nervous of when they step espically in the winter months and station with poor lighting.

What part of the numerous announcements do you think helps them to overcome that fear?

Run_to_da_hills

T Corolla wrote: »

I agree that alot of eldery use the train to get around but they are not all aware of the dangers. I had in the past help old people off the Mark 3 and now the 22k as they can be nervous of when they step espically in the winter months and station with poor lighting.

That has absolutly nothing got to do with announcements. Another suggestion for IE is to have a designated area for the unsupervised impaired or elderly, an area where rail staff can attend at the same spot at ever station, also place where they can keep wheelchair ramps at close hand.

It could also free up the rest of the train from obstruction should a real emergency occur if the train had to be evacuated in a hurry, ie fire or smoke.

sealgaire

What are IE: bi lingual IR announcements?

markpb

sealgaire wrote: »

What are IE: bi lingual IR announcements?

They're called both Iarnrod Eireann (IE) and Irish Rail (IR).

Terrontress

I find the automated announcements on the DB 747 and the Aircoach Dublin services to be a real pain.

highlydebased

They could do with tidying up the announcements perhaps

"This train is for Limerick. Next station, Kildare" (not much of a need to list out the calling stations)
Perhaps the calling stations could be announced at the start of the journey as well as all the other muck, and perhaps periodically during the journey. But there is no need to be welcoming everyone on board and reminding about safety notices every stop...

Cookie_Monster

Neon-Circles wrote: »

"This train is for Limerick. Next station, ..."

My initial thought everytime I hear that is I know it's for X that why I feckin got on it in the first place

T Corolla

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

That has absolutly nothing got to do with announcements. Another suggestion for IE is to have a designated area for the unsupervised impaired or elderly, an area where rail staff can attend at the same spot at ever station, also place where they can keep wheelchair ramps at close hand.

It could also free up the rest of the train from obstruction should a real emergency occur if the train had to be evacuated in a hurry, ie fire or smoke.

Is'nt that discrimination segrating people to certin part of a train because you want it. Its public transport not a hotel. What kind of prices would you expect the people to pay for this.

foggy_lad

T Corolla wrote: »

Is'nt that discrimination segrating people to certin part of a train because you want it. Its public transport not a hotel. What kind of prices would you expect the people to pay for this.

considering the massive prices already being paid for standard class tickets i would suggest irish rail take this issue seriously or risk losing the few remaining loyal passengers they have left!