Communication issues when there are delays

[eoinmadden]

This morning there was snow across the country.
This caused a delay in Athlone due to frozen points, I'm told.

I was waiting in Attymon, when the management at Athlone phoned the SOS phone in Attymon. I picked it up. He informed me the train would be about an hour late. Fair play to him for phoning us. There is no electronic display in Attymon, and the real time app on my phone showed the train as being on time.

I phoned my wife who happened to be waiting for the same train in Athenry. Incredibly they had not been told there was any delay. Meanwhile the @IrishRail twitter account said nothing of this delay.

Suddenly it was announced in Athenry that a relief train was coming from Galway. It arrived just seconds after the announcement. Bizzare that nobody in Athenry knew this was happening until it arrived.

Myself and about 8 others drove from Attymon to Athenry station. We just missed this relief train by about 5 minutes. I think with better communication we could have got that train, or it could have been held for us.

Whoever runs the @IrishRail account seems to have no knowledge of this relief train. Likewise whoever I was talking to in Athlone.

After waiting in Athenry, our original train arrived, about 40 minutes late.

The delays are understandable in snowy weather like this. The total breakdown of communication is not acceptable though.