Right, enough talk of Cravens. Back to basics.
Tonight, Saturday 4th March, I arrived in Heuston for the 21.45 Kildare service(sat only).
Departure board said it was departing from Platform 3. So I wait beside the entrance to P3. The display board above the platform entrance was blank. In fact they were all blank, eventhough a Galway and Westport were due in.
Galway train was 13 mins late and pulled into P3! (21.38) Manual announcement made to apologise. At 21.40, the "auto announcer" kicks in to say that the train on platform 8! is the 21.45 to Kildare. Main departure board still listed it as P3. So I make the quick dash down to 8 along with other people and board train with 2 mins to spare, eventhough I was sitting in Heuston since 21.00.
Platforms 2,and 4 were empty, but the Kildare train was at 8, half way to Kilmainham!
This has happened before, mainly during rush hour and it will be announced. But theres no excuse at that time of night.
Furthermore, I travelled both ways today without a ticket. Im not a fare evader, because, you can't buy a ticket in Sallins at 13.20 on Saturdays and there were no staff on board to sell/check tickets on the 13.24 to Heuston. On the return journey, all of the ticket vending machines in Heuston rejected my €1 coin as I tried to pay the €6 fare and there was no ticket check at the platform or on board the train. This is avery common occurence off peak.
But Im €8 richer.
Thanks IE!