Cork - Dublin 1630 on Sat 27 June

[seamus kilcock]

Due to engine failure on the IRRS special at Thurles on Saturday 27 June the 1630 ex Cork arrived in Heuston exactly one hour late.
The train hostess did not announce pax were entitled to a refund.
Knowing the train was going to be at least 30 minutes late en route should the hostess give pax the refund claim form?
Should she at least have informed pax they were entitled to a refund and collect same at Heuston's info desk?
There were only 90 paying pax on the train = 90 refund forms.

[Mark Gleeson]

We had spotted the 16:30 in trouble http://www.railusers.ie/passenger_info/live_travel.php

You should have been given the forms, at the very least told of your right to claim a refund

[PLUMB LOCO]

What is it with calling people/passengers PAX? Why not go the full hog and call them units? This is the sort of nonsense CIE/IE go on with.

[ACustomer]

There was an IE guy near the barriers at Heuston handing out refund forms: some people were a bit bemused, didn't seem to realise their entitlements.

BTW, pax is pretty universal in the airline world where it is probably used to overcome linguistic barriers. But why is the term "passenger" such a no-no?

[seamus kilcock]

My apologies 'acustomer' and 'plumb loco' for the use of PAX for passengers. Indeed it does come from my 21 years connected with aviation where so much is abbreviated for speed of use as well as linguistic purposes.

Incidentally on said Cork 1630 train the hostess announced those travelling to Belfast from Connolly to get to the front of the train A-SAP - not A.S.A.P. She repeated the exact same message ending with A-SAP!
This certainly got the attention from those sitting nearby with the ususal derisory commments like - what do you expect from a Blonde and from Cork too. Yes she had that distinctive Cork accent.

My use of PAX for Passengers is not in the same league - is it?

[Mark Gleeson]

The train should never have been delayed in the first place.

Its quite amazing how far Irish Rail will go help out non timetabled activities. Its fairly obvious sending out the oldest locomotives in the fleet with a heavy train on the Dublin Cork mainline was going to lead to trouble

That said hard to understand how a train broken down in Thurles could cause so much grief, it broke down in just about the best place on the Dublin Cork line to break down, delays should have been minimal

[ACustomer]

The train which broke down was a charter. Those who hired it were customers of IE, just like those who were on the regular 1630 from Cork. If the fault had been reported immediately to CTC and if they had acted quickly, then the 1630 could have picked up the stranded passengers with little or no delay. But my information is that the 1630 was a bit late anyhow, and that lead CTC to give precedence at Thurles to two Down trains, which delayed the 1630 further.

The crippled train was at the up platform, luckily leaving the bi-directional down platform available.

The special left Limerick Junction 10 minutes early and was going to be overtaken by the 1630 from Cork at Ballybrophy. The original timetable for the special was for it to be overtaken at Thurles by the 1630. Had this plan been adhered to, then in all probablility the failed train would have been at the down platform, leaving the unidirectional up line the only way through Thurles. Result would have been real chaos.

Trains fail from time to time, and whether they are regular timetabled or specials, IE have to improvise to get around the difficulties. In the circumstances, they did not do too badly, although perhaps they were a little slow in their initial reaction.

[dowlingm]

plumb loco - maybe you would prefer SLF?

(Another aviation term - self-loading freight)