The great Ticket scam strikes again!
 

Heading to Cork last Friday. Boarded the commuter service in Sallins at 09.54bound for Heuston to catch the 11.00 train to Cork. Told the Ticket guy where I was going and asked for a return ticket, Sallins-Cork. He fiddles with his buttons and prints a ticket for €56. Hourly departures from Heuston he tells me. You'll make the 11.00 says he. So as I board the Cork train in Heuston, the ticket guy looks and says that is the wrong ticket. No its not says I. Yes it is he insists. But that was the ticket I was sold on the Dublin bound train I tell him. Well its wrong he replies. No its not I repeat.

He then explains to me that the ticket only entitles me to travel forward to somewhere like Thurles and make the connection that way. Sensing that this already delayed train could be further delayed (I would not have budged) he allowed me to board. A few furious calls later and he comes down the train to me and apologizes, saying its not his fault and that particular journey can only be done if you book online. Why I ask. I don't know, its stupid he says, but thats what were told.

Now I don't blame staff for this. (although he was a little condescending to me at the platform in Heuston. As if I was some kind of thicko that needed a lesson in how to buy a ticket) I blame management. This issue has been highlighted here, on other forums and the media. The most noticeable being Liveline only a couple of months ago. In that case a similar thing happened to a customer travelling from Sallins to Thurles. I contributed to that particular piece and listened to Barry Kenny squirm and talk baloney about online bookings blah blah blah. In the end he agreed that its something that needs to be addressed. But in true IE tradition, it hasn't been. So perhaps Barry should spend more time talking to his bosses about his futile attempts to defend a rediculous ticketing setup, rather than getting upset about my banjo exploits in relation to multi-billion euro infrastructural projects.

You see, customers don't care about me walking to Navan, naked while playing the banjo. They care about things like being accused of an offence because staff havent been given clear instructions. So Barry, seen as you love reading our forum, I won't bother with a letter of complaint. But perhaps when our paths cross on live radio, you might be just as quick (as you were with the banjo comment on the Last Word) to apologise for the embarrassment caused to me in Heuston on Friday 29th June by your company's failure to deal with a very simple matter.