19:00 to Cork (04/12/06) left at 20:30

[sandraoh]

I caught the 7 o'clock train home last night and only got into Portlaoise at 21:30. What a service. The train didn't board until 7 o'clock. It didn't leave initially we were told because they were cleaning up glass from a broken internal door before leaving due to health and safety regulations. This did happen. A guy was boarding the train and entering the dining car at the non shop end and the internal door closed on top of him and his luggage caused the door to shatter into 7 million pieces all over him. The dining car staff just stood and stared and called nobody. I went into the 1st class carriage and found an off duty ticket checker who got the whole thing sorted fair play to him. Long after the glass had been cleaned up we were told that there was a problem with the brakes and that an engineer was looking at it. They opened the bar (again fair play) long before there was any sign of movement. In the end we were all taken off the train and moved from platform 5 to platform 3 to wait for an old reliable manual door train. We were moved at 8pm but were made to queue for a while and then moved onto the train which left at 8:30pm. Teas and coffees were free although there was no announcement to that effect. The train manager went around telling people to go and have a cup of tea or coffee and was letting people ring home on his mobile. Apparently the train that broke down had had problems in limerick junction before it arrived in Heuston. Why wasn't another train made available?

edit:they handed out refund forms when we were standing queuing at platform 3