450 job losses announced at Iarnród Éireann

kingshankly

foggy_lad wrote: »

One thing I read or heard from the reports about these job cuts and cutting back at Irish rail was that staff had an uncertified sick leave entitlement of 7 days per year, that is 7 days they can ring up sick without having to go to the doctor and get a note to prove they are sick. Most other jobs even in the civil service and HSE have at most 5 uncertified days per year.there are possibilities to cut back on certain salaries without the need for as many job losses but the unions of those doing the bulk of the overtime and getting the bulk of the perks would never allow their members to take a hit like that so others must be sacrificed!

But unlike other places these days can't precede a rest day or follow a rest day

kingshankly

hardCopy wrote: »

Would that it were so easy. I tried this on a Galway train once. A couple were sitting in our reserved group of four seats. The woman just stared out the window and refused to acknowledge me completely, I eventually got a response from the "gentleman" which was something along the lines of:

Me: "Excuse me I think you're in our seats"
Arsehole: "Who says it's your seat?"
Me: "It's written on my ticket"
Arsehole: "CIE don't give a f*ck"
Me: "Well I do, I've reserved these seats, it's written on my ticket"
Arsehole: "You're wasting your time, they don't give a f*ck"
Me: "Are you going to move?"
Arsehole: "They couldn't give a f*ck, I don't give a f*ck....."

Eventually my girlfriend and her two friends were so mortified they just moved to the next carriage.

Was the place card with your name above the seat if it was its the arseholes fault if not its Irish rails

foggy_lad

kingshankly wrote: »

But unlike other places these days can't precede a rest day or follow a rest day

Afaik there is no job in the civil service or semi-state where you can take an uncertified day be on a monday or friday (or directly before or after rest days if these are not Saturday and Sunday).

Most civil service jobs have a rolling system/limit, afaik it is 15 uncertified days over any 3 year period. You can also take two days if required but after that you need a sick-note from a doctor certifying you unfit for work due to illness or infection etc

Hilly Bill

foggy_lad wrote: »

Afaik there is no job in the civil service or semi-state where you can take an uncertified day be on a monday or friday (or directly before or after rest days if these are not Saturday and Sunday).

Most civil service jobs have a rolling system/limit, afaik it is 15 uncertified days over any 3 year period. You can also take two days if required but after that you need a sick-note from a doctor certifying you unfit for work due to illness or infection etc

and whats your point?

Judgement Day

kingshankly wrote: »

Was the place card with your name above the seat if it was its the arseholes fault if not its Irish rails

Surely it's up to Irish Rail to make sure that passengers are able to sit at their reserved seats without an unpleasant situation developing?

Judgement Day

Judgement Day wrote: »

Surely it's up to Irish Rail to make sure that passengers are able to sit at their reserved seats without an unpleasant situation developing?

How could Irish Rail make sure that some numpty won't decide to ignore a seat reservation? I can only guess that they would have someone on board to enforce seat reservation.

kingshankly

Judgement Day wrote: »

Surely it's up to Irish Rail to make sure that passengers are able to sit at their reserved seats without an unpleasant situation developing?

It is off course but unless their alerted to the problem the are unaware. Passengers can make mistakes and not realise their in a reserved seat.
Passengers who have reserved seats also need to complain but most of the time they just take the next available seat

Cookie_Monster

kingshankly wrote: »

It is off course but unless their alerted to the problem the are unaware. Passengers can make mistakes and not realise their in a reserved seat.
Passengers who have reserved seats also need to complain but most of the time they just take the next available seat

but who can you make aware on most trains?

n97 mini

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Ah yeah, the good old perception of state or semi state staff being underworked

No need to turn this into another public sector bashing exercise

kingshankly

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

but who can you make aware on most trains?

Well as far as im aware there is no driver only trains that you can book seats(I may be wrong) so there will bea guard/host/ticket checker on board

Cookie_Monster

kingshankly wrote: »

Well as far as im aware there is no driver only trains that you can book seats(I may be wrong) so there will bea guard/host/ticket checker on board

I'm not sure but I thought it was mentioned earlier in thread that only Mk4s have a train attendant and the 22ks didn't, maybe I'm wrong though

kingshankly

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

I'm not sure but I thought it was mentioned earlier in thread that only Mk4s have a train attendant and the 22ks didn't, maybe I'm wrong though

It depends on the service not the train a 22 going to Sligo will have a guard yet a 22 going to Drogheda will not

flyingsnail

kingshankly wrote: »

It depends on the service not the train a 22 going to Sligo will have a guard yet a 22 going to Drogheda will not

I am sorry but you are wrong, it is entirely dependant on the stock. The only stock left with actual guards is the De dietrich on the enterprise. The host on a mk 4 is not a guard.

foggy_lad

kingshankly wrote: »

Well as far as im aware there is no driver only trains that you can book seats(I may be wrong) so there will bea guard/host/ticket checker on board

They may be on board but that does not mean they are available to passengers with complaints or other issues, and expecting passengers to use an emergency intercom to contact the driver (as was suggested in another thread) over issues like no power in the sockets or someone in your reserved seat seems a bit strange even for Irish Rail. Passengers need to be looked after on board trains or they will move in large numbers onto buses where there is at least one member of staff to every 53 passengers!

studiorat

Karsini wrote: »

How could Irish Rail make sure that some numpty won't decide to ignore a seat reservation? I can only guess that they would have someone on board to enforce seat reservation.

Yup! Hit the emergency button! That way you won't have to squeeze the length of the train in the wrong direction looking for the steward. Then you say, "Excuse me can you please remove this wrinkly coffin dodger from my seat".

If Irish Rail cannot regulate the seating reservation why do they have it at all? It's a little thing but it's adds up, if I reserve a seat I don't expect to have to make sure the seat is free myself. Like a said a small thing, but it's another small thing.

The suggestion by some that the customer should have to do this themselves it is indicative of the mutton dressed as lamb situation that is Irish Rail. The inter city services seem to think they are running Concord or something.

The current system for the customer is inflexible and obstructive. Since there are so many alternatives which are as quick or quicker and more convient and pleasant to use it's surprising that the system isn't in a worse state.

I was dropping over €100 a week on trains, eventually I gave up and began using private bus services about 1/10th of the cost. The IE managent could certainly learn a thing or two from them.

I can identify with the people who have the railway in their blood, my grandfather was a railway man, neighbors, relations, in-laws; I've always loved the romance of train travel. I hate to see it going the way it is, but using the train is becoming a completely impractical form of transport compared to others.

The kicker is that Irelands heyday of rail transport seems to have been when there was independent railway companies, nearly 30 of them, operating with a handful of traffic. The new use of the Dublin South and Eastern by the Luas obviously been a success. Perhaps a National operator like Irish Rail has had it's day and it is down to the RPA to hire in the private guns to run more stream-lined systems regionally, Cork Suburban, Galway Suburban etc.

It's all well and good having "our own" network. But not at the cost of it being unusable as a service.

I'd be afraid of using the emergency buttons due to the very large "Penalty for improper use" warning stamped underneath them.

I really can't understand why it's Irish Rail's fault that somebody ignores the reserved seating notices. I don't know what more they can do, short of asking for ID when doing ticket checks.

studiorat

Karsini wrote: »

I really can't understand why it's Irish Rail's fault that somebody ignores the reserved seating notices. I don't know what more they can do, short of asking for ID when doing ticket checks.

It's an emergency I want to sit down!!!

They don't need to ask for ID, the seat numbers are on the tickets as is the passengers name. They simply need to bring this to the passengers attention when checking the ticket.

The problem seems to be that the reserved notices are well, quite un-noticeable. Yet IR insist in offering the reservation regardless.

Why do they have it at all? It seems quite useless. So I can only assume it's an attempt to make a quick buck.
Why don't the ticket checkers ever mention it when checking the tickets?
I've never seen an ticket inspector remark on it either for that matter.

It's just another thing that illustrates the inefficiency of the operation.

end of the road

their needs to be another member of staff on board intercity/regional services other than the driver. this idea of the driver being able to turn on the CCTV to view whats going on down the end of the train or will deal with your complaint if you push the emergency button is just not good enough. the drivers job is to drive the train, if he's viewing the CCTV or trying to deal with passengers he is not fully concentrating on driving the train. he may be able to do both but he shouldn't have to. some people say they can drive while talking on a mobile and maybe they can, but its illegal and rightly so. yet a train driver is not only incharge of driving 3/4/6/8 carriges of train, but has to deal with passengers complaints or view CCTV if theirs a problem when some uncivilised person or people decide to cause trouble. i'm aware commuter and dart have the same problems but i'm not sure would they require another member of staff on board.

kingshankly

flyingsnail wrote: »

I am sorry but you are wrong, it is entirely dependant on the stock. The only stock left with actual guards is the De dietrich on the enterprise. The host on a mk 4 is not a guard.

I'm sorry my friend I'm not wrong if a 2900 railcar is used for the Belfast ( which is quite often I have drove 29s to Belfast on 3 occasions recently to Belfast and I am just 1 of maybe 20 drivers who drive to Belfast ) it needs a guard

corktina

the only way is all reservation or no reservation...ie aer lingus or ryanair....

hardCopy

Just to clarify, there were no seating reservation numbers on any seats that day. No sign of anyone to complain to either.

Also somebody mentioned power sockets, these worked for about 20 minutes on the return journey and then stopped.

When I went back to Galway 6 months later I took the go bus, much simpler.

galait

Irish Rail are another joke in the long list of Irish Jokes , The Athlone Station is Fairly Busy with several staff on duty at all times , But when a Toilet get's blocked they have to call in an outside company to fix and they get paid several hundred of our Euro to do this while the staff lay about smoking - ! ,

One evening while waiting to collect someone I observed a Station Employee check tickets at the door with a lit cigarette was in his mouth , During this period he checked about 20 passengers tickets all the while puffing on his cigarette !!!

kingshankly

end of the road wrote: »

their needs to be another member of staff on board intercity/regional services other than the driver. this idea of the driver being able to turn on the CCTV to view whats going on down the end of the train or will deal with your complaint if you push the emergency button is just not good enough. the drivers job is to drive the train, if he's viewing the CCTV or trying to deal with passengers he is not fully concentrating on driving the train. he may be able to do both but he shouldn't have to. some people say they can drive while talking on a mobile and maybe they can, but its illegal and rightly so. yet a train driver is not only incharge of driving 3/4/6/8 carriges of train, but has to deal with passengers complaints or view CCTV if theirs a problem when some uncivilised person or people decide to cause trouble. i'm aware commuter and dart have the same problems but i'm not sure would they require another member of staff on board.

Just to clarify CCTV is only viewable when the train is stational in case people were thinking drivers be scanning thru carriages when driving

gsxr1

galait wrote: »

Irish Rail are another joke in the long list of Irish Jokes , The Athlone Station is Fairly Busy with several staff on duty at all times , But when a Toilet get's blocked they have to call in an outside company to fix and they get paid several hundred of our Euro to do this while the staff lay about smoking - ! ,

One evening while waiting to collect someone I observed a Station Employee check tickets at the door with a lit cigarette was in his mouth , During this period he checked about 20 passengers tickets all the while puffing on his cigarette !!!

So I take it that in your place of work, you also unblock the busy public toilets in the nearest public building as well as completing your normal duties.
Fairplay to ya.

We need more like you.

I would do it. But i guess thats just me.;)

Judgement Day

gsxr1 wrote: »

So I take it that in your place of work, you also unblock the busy public toilets in the nearest public building as well as completing your normal duties.
Fairplay to ya.

We need more like you.

I would do it. But i guess thats just me.;)

It's an unpleasant job right enough but it goes with the territory. The day is rapidly approaching when the only activity of IE staff that won't subcontacted will be opening their pay cheques.

kingshankly

In fairness it's not the employees fault its the system say the employee goes and unblocks the toilet yet he injures himself the first thing he will be asked is why we're you doing that.
There is far too many contractors used to do jobs in which station staff should be doing

senordingdong

admiralofthefleet wrote: »

Vote yes for investment and jobs

Surely it's time we took investment and jobs out of the public sector?

It's shocking to think that this gang have sruvived as long as they have considering the 'service' they provide.

foggy_lad

kingshankly wrote: »

Just to clarify CCTV is only viewable when the train is stational in case people were thinking drivers be scanning thru carriages when driving

Like most other issues in Irish rail and the other CIE companies the failures are mostly the product of fcucked up decisions by management and those who never use the services they are making decisions about!

Irish Rails attitude is that the offending scrotes will be captured on CCTV and apprehended at a later date:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: but how useless is that when these anti-social bastards have terrorised a train full of people or even injured people and walk away free when they reach their destination?

and all the time passengers are reading the fine notification on the emergengy intercom trying to decide if they should risk using it because we all know that someone being assaulted will probably be missed by the cctv but someone using the emergency intercom will immediately be caught on camera and Your idea of an emergency may be very different to what Irish rail see as emergency situations.

kingshankly

foggy_lad wrote: »

Like most other issues in Irish rail and the other CIE companies the failures are mostly the product of fcucked up decisions by management and those who never use the services they are making decisions about!

Irish Rails attitude is that the offending scrotes will be captured on CCTV and apprehended at a later date:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: but how useless is that when these anti-social bastards have terrorised a train full of people or even injured people and walk away free when they reach their destination?

and all the time passengers are reading the fine notification on the emergengy intercom trying to decide if they should risk using it because we all know that someone being assaulted will probably be missed by the cctv but someone using the emergency intercom will immediately be caught on camera and Your idea of an emergency may be very different to what Irish rail see as emergency situations.

The CCTV is constantly recording thru the black box .
And if someone was being assaulted or even harassed I would have no problem with a passenger breaking the glass. But if the broke it to complain about a non working socket I wouldn't be too impressed I can hardly fix it

bazza1

kingshankly wrote: »

In fairness it's not the employees fault its the system say the employee goes and unblocks the toilet yet he injures himself the first thing he will be asked is why we're you doing that.
There is far too many contractors used to do jobs in which station staff should be doing

Facilities and cleaning staff have been wound down and all works outsourced. Contractors come in when needed so that IE do not have to have staff on the payroll/PRSI/ Holidays etc. This is to reduce costs which so many on this thread are so desperate to see. This , unfortunately, can cause delays in rectifying small problems, as the staff are not available to sort stuff out quickly.