[05-10-2007] Bridge Strike Custom House Quay

[James Shields]

Things seem to be gettin going again, but everything delayed about 10 mins at the moment.

[tigger1962]

hmmm strange... we were told the delay was caused by a points failure outside connolly??

[James Shields]

hmmm strange... we were told the delay was caused by a points failure outside connolly??

That is strange. It said bridge strike on the electronic platform display in Pearse.

[Oisin88]

That is strange. It said bridge strike on the electronic platform display in Pearse.
I've heard four different excuses before for the same delay.

[Colm Donoghue]

The fact that there are these conflicting messages shows the problems with the communications between IE and their customers.

A Bridge strike is completely not Irish Rail's fault.
(Unless they are very tardy in getting engineers to give it the all clear)
it's an easy excuse and I can't see why a clear consistent answer isn't given. in these cases.

Similarily in the case of a suicide on the line, IE beat about the bush and state only an incident occured, whereas mentioning emergency services are at the scene lets people know what the incident is likely to have been and also that the Incident is out of IE's hands.

People can tolerate a honest answer to why they are delayed, whereas they know immediately when some spin is being spun. Two times I remember people on a jam packed train all appreciating this honest policy were
Leaving Connolly heading to Drogheda. delayed after leaving the platform, the driver came on to apologise for the delay because the controllers had let two darts in front of us ( to keep them on time) but delaying people standing for much longer. And the driver had the genuinely exasperated and annoyed tone to his voice.
Another time going out through the northside in the cutting, the train braked very hard and stopped. Driver came on to apologise and said he thought it was a break fault and hopped to fix it quickly.
About 2-3 mins later we moved off and driver told us it was a brake fault and was fixed and sorry for the delay.

Both these times, the people I saw in my carriage looked thankful an explanation was given, which shows how low our expectations are.

IE and the main CIE group of companies no longer buy public liability insurance because they self insure and as a consequence, they ensure they minimize their liability. Their goal should be to have no need for a PR spinmeister for when things go wrong with customer relations by having good customer relations - but the incentive is not there for IE to fix the issue.


Lastly and fairly importantly, IE should nail these guys striking bridges. they should publicise the results they get against them in court, either civil or criminal and provide a strong deterrant for truckers to plan their route according to their height; so bridge strikes are eliminated.

[Mark Gleeson]

Couldn't agree more

All but too often the excuse has no relationship to the problem, so I'm on a train with a suspension problem and the excuse is due to speed restrictions en route, thats not the same as the train was broken

What has gone wrong
Why
When will it be fixed
What should I do until then
Entitlement to a refund

Far too often you overhear the radio in the drivers cab explaining a problem but do you get a PA god no its only 4 miles further on after a station stop does everything stop