[Article] Children booked on train forced to stand

[comcor]

Children booked on train forced to stand

By Eoin English

IRISH RAIL was under fire last night after dozens of children were forced to stand or sit on the floor of an overcrowded train despite booking their seats.


Some children had to sit against doors in the section between carriages on their journey between Mallow and Dublin yesterday.

Angry parents said it was an extremely dangerous situation and said they wanted to highlight serious safety concerns.

One group of parents also said they will demand refunds after forking out almost €200 to pre-book seats that couldn’t be used.


It appears as if passengers who had not pre-booked had boarded the train before them and sat in their seats.

The fiasco started when dozens of young GAA players from clubs across the county boarded the 8.30am Cork to Mallow train for what was supposed to be one of the most exciting days of their lives.

They were among several clubs from Munster who got a once-in-a-lifetime chance to play at GAA headquarters as part of the annual Croke Park Activity Day.

The train originated in Kerry. Passengers changed train at Mallow for the onward journey to Heuston.

The Skibbereen-based O’Donovan Rossa club’s under-12 football group had reservations for the trip from Mallow to Heuston.

The club’s assistant treasurer Anne Crowley said she booked tickets for 32 people — 20 youngsters and 12 parents to accompany them.

“We spent two hours booking the seats online a few weeks ago. We spent €91 for family tickets, including two adults and up to four children, and got a good deal,” she said.

“Then we spent an extra €6 per person, or €192 in total, to pre-book designated seats. We got confirmation and everything.”

But when they boarded the train at Mallow, they were shocked to discover the carriage on their booking reference wasn’t part of the train. All the remaining seats were full.

One of the club’s officials met a man accompanying another team who had a pre-booked ticket for the same seat but a third person was sitting in it.

Club PRO Garry Minihane said people were “jam-packed like sardines”.

“It was obvious the train was overbooked — by as much as 200 people,” he said.

Children sat on the floor in other parts of the train. “It should not happen in this day and age,” he said.

Mr Minihane, who is a paramedic, said if the train was involved in an accident even at just 10 miles per hour, there could have been serious injuries.

“We want to highlight this as a safety issue and to stress how dangerous it was to have kids and adults standing in the train,” he said.

The situation worsened when the train reached Thurles.

A woman in her 70s had to sit on a bag, and a distressed mother taking a sick child to hospital in Dublin had to stand, Mr Minihane said.

Irish Rail’s customer charter states that if they fail to honour a seat reservation, and no other seat of similar standard on the same service is available, it will refund the fare of the single journey in travel vouchers.

A company spokesman said it had not received an official complaint yet.

“We would like to hear from anyone on the train who had a problem, and we will deal with it,” he said.

“We will apologise for any inconvenience caused and deal with the issues.”

He said the situation highlights how important it is to pre-book seats online to ensure there is no overcrowding, especially at weekends and during the busy summer season.

Irish Rail has officials on trains to ensure people who pre-book seats get to sit in them, even if they are already occupied by somebody else.

[Mark Gleeson]

This is all too typical of the seat reservations mess

I made 4 journeys over the weekend, only on one train did staff make an effort to ensure reservation holders got their seats. Of course the reservation system failed completely on two others, got my seat through luck and the train being empty not through the efforts of Irish Rail.

I've seen trains with arranged with coaches in random orders, A B E F E D.

Remember Irish Rail deny there is a problem. I'm personally locked in a battle concerning the right to get a refund if the reservation is not honored, its not as clear as what Irish Rail make it out to be

[Thomas Ralph]

That's a frequent issue on the Kerry-Dublin service. It's rare that the reservation dockets are put up.

Worth pointing out though that that size of a group should be booked by a group ticket, not online.

[Mark Gleeson]

Originally Posted by tralph

Worth pointing out though that that size of a group should be booked by a group ticket, not online.

They should have been

[Thomas Ralph]

And while I'm on the subject, are there even 32 reservable standard-class seats in the half-standard half-first carriage? That carriage is usually all that's reservable on that train.

[Mark Gleeson]

Its 32 seats in coach A, 68 in coach C

[Thomas J Stamp]

Originally Posted by comcor

A company spokesman said it had not received an official complaint yet.

“We would like to hear from anyone on the train who had a problem, and we will deal with it,” he said.

“We will apologise for any inconvenience caused and deal with the issues.”

He said the situation highlights how important it is to pre-book seats online to ensure there is no overcrowding, especially at weekends and during the busy summer season.

Irish Rail has officials on trains to ensure people who pre-book seats get to sit in them, even if they are already occupied by somebody else.

But, you moron, that is what they did.

You see, they just dont listen or care, even when its pointed out to them.

So, where were was the trian host? Out having a sneaky smoke on the platform perhaps before scampering into the van and hiding?

I now avoid the 9.50 trian out of thurles like the plague bacuase of this madness. One day they had two restaurant cars on it instead of a proper carraige, and I've posted before about this appalling service.

[Mark Gleeson]

Tralee train has no host, its short a coach despite Irish Rail having 15 or so lying around. For the last 3 years or so this one train has been a known blackspot

I made the trek back from the Munster final in Limerick to Thurles and the train host (same one who refused to let me even into the coach with my seat some time ago) made a pitiful attempt to control the situation, but the seat res system was online and GAA fans are fairly agreeable people so it worked out

The whole thing is sham, Irish Rail deny this but on the ground unless you are on a Dublin to Cork service no chance, Cork Dublin is useless most of the time

[Derek Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Tralee train has no host, its short a coach despite Irish Rail having 15 or so lying around. For the last 3 years or so this one train has been a known blackspot

I made the trek back from the Munster final in Limerick to Thurles and the train host (same one who refused to let me even into the coach with my seat some time ago) made a pitiful attempt to control the situation, but the seat res system was online and GAA fans are fairly agreeable people so it worked out

The whole thing is sham, Irish Rail deny this but on the ground unless you are on a Dublin to Cork service no chance, Cork Dublin is useless most of the time

Keep at it as its a terrible mess. The sad thing is that at this stage IE are beyond reproach in the media because they are in effect a state monopoly and they think that way, which is why they don't really care. I don't know what their vision is for the railway, but its obviously not a good one.

[Aphfaneire]

Here's a bit of stupid logic to solve this and all other problems.

CIE is semi-state, if its run by the state, why cant voters fire them for a bad job????

Same with the health system....

If only it were true


All of those old western trains are inadequet for standing room anyway, they cant handle that kind of service.

[Donal Quinn]

CIE is semi-state, if its run by the state, why cant voters fire them for a bad job????

because voters only vote for the government, not the state.