I was on the 9:00pm service Dublin-Cork on Friday (03/02/2006). The train, a mark 3, boarded and departed approximately 10 mins late for no apparent reason. However, Heuston staff did make an announcment appologising for the delayed boarding etc.
The "fun" started after boarding.
A completely unintelligable announcement in a very strong cork accent came over the intercom mumbling something about Kent station. This was followed by giggling.
There was no doors closing announcement. The doors simply shut.
The first stop, Kildare was announced after the train stopped and the doors were opened.
The doors had closed before the announcement was made warning that they were about to close.
Now for the really fun bit.
The speakers went live and we heard "Watch yer wan, she'll steal the sugar and the milk.." followed by giggling / horse play.
then "Gerry's here.. .Gerry's here... Gerry's here!" (or something along those lines).
They then left the microphone on for about 45 mins !!
The rest of the announcements for the entire journey were completely farsical. They were deafeningly loud, the mic was never switched off at the end of them and they were completely unintelligable.
I cannot understand how any company that claims to uphold standards could stand over this kind of utter nonsense. I would even go as far as to suspect that the crew making these announcements were possibly tipsy / drunk.
If this happened on an airline the crew would be summarily dismissed without any explanation. You'd simply have to pack your things and find a new job, in a different industry.
I am just amazed that this kind of nonsense can go on.
The faster they come up with an intercity PIS and automatic announcement system the better. IE staff clearly can't be let loose with a microphone!
