A damning indictment of Irish Rail's Intercity service.

[KSW]

I travelled to Cork and returned on the First Coach only ever once. Standard class has so much going for it than first anyway, I was greeted by the 1st class host and he walked me to my seat and took my bag and placed it in the rack overhead. Mind you I dont travel the service that often unlike you so I cant really complain. The Rosslare staff are very polite I have to say, They are the kind of guys who want to talk to you and all the rest... Mr.X on your other thread about your Grandmother I do agree with you, But you will not get anywhere if you dont ask for help. I often see a luggage Go-kart going to the Cork train and bringing down the luggage through the platform you could ask if you could hop on that I did three times I'm only 19 so... There's always room if your lucky that is..
There should have been IE staff at Cork and at Hueston to assistant your Grandmother on and off. The staff could have called Hueston and informed them and so on........

[StephenM]

Keith, fair play at writing to IE about that guy he obviously deserved it.

[Thomas J Stamp]

Originally Posted by sean

Read this thread on Green Issues on Boards.ie about a week ago, I didn't know it was this bad, particularly vis-a-vis international standards.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showt...p?t=2055188717

Thoughts?

He decided that he wanted to open the gate and get on. We all know here why they leave the CDE gates closed till last min (as they cant be quite sure its going to work) but come on, just deciding to open a closed gate and get on?

Originally Posted by MrX

I've seen them open on many an occasion and I take CityGold fairly regularly. It seems the cleaning staff just leave them open as it's a lot of hassle to close them. As they're cleaning the train they bring the bags back into that area and leave them there.

Oh yeah, me too.

Originally Posted by StephenM

Keith, fair play at writing to IE about that guy he obviously deserved it.

Yep, glad he was sacked. If you hadnt complained he'd still be in that job assaulting other members of the public.

I dont doubt but for one minuite the experiance that our friend on boards had. It was nasty, the staff seemed universally rude for no reason that was apparent from the post. It's the simple things that keep customers coming back, even if they are hot headed, fustrated and prone to giving out you are supposedly trained to deal with that. Otherwise go get a different job.

[KSW]

I cant see why the gates for the platform were closed, on the timetable it says Gates will close 2mins prior to departure. But thinking here those gates were probably accidently closed by someone who slamed the gate behind them as they thought the gates are closed to early also...... But if he had stayed behind the gate and waited for a member of IE staff to come to him and told him it was okay to pass the gate.... If he did stay behind the gate and the train departed then what would be the situation?

[Thomas J Stamp]

Originally Posted by KeithStephen

I cant see why the gates for the platform were closed, on the timetable it says Gates will close 2mins prior to departure. But thinking here those gates were probably accidently closed by someone who slamed the gate behind them as they thought the gates are closed to early also...... But if he had stayed behind the gate and waited for a member of IE staff to come to him and told him it was okay to pass the gate.... If he did stay behind the gate and the train departed then what would be the situation?

What they mean is that the gates are closed (hence would be opened first) 2 mins before departure. The gates are usually closed at all times in Heuston untill the train is ready for boarding. Even though the train in this case was 11.00am I've seen the gates not open till after 11, because they have to do a door test on the CDE befaore passengers get on.

The train wouldnt have gone, the ticket man closes the gate and has to stay there untill the train has left to stop people running after it.

[kevin]

Queuing and boarding are now done from about half way up the side of platform 5 so you could see how someone who hasn't been to Heuston in a while might not find this new gate.

You see a lot of confused people looking at the closed original gate. The signage around there isn't that great.

(The original gate is sometimes used to board passengers who booked online.)

kevin

[hhf8]

from travelling down to cork on the friday in 1st class. The luggage van/DVT is always open to people. The cleaner usually bases themselves there

[turnapin]

Originally Posted by Thomas J Stamp

What they mean is that the gates are closed (hence would be opened first) 2 mins before departure. The gates are usually closed at all times in Heuston untill the train is ready for boarding. Even though the train in this case was 11.00am I've seen the gates not open till after 11, because they have to do a door test on the CDE befaore passengers get on.

The train wouldnt have gone, the ticket man closes the gate and has to stay there untill the train has left to stop people running after it.

Thomas,

So the gates will close 2 minutes before departure actually means the gates will open 2 minutes before departure. This is as opposed to Connolly, where the gates will close means the gates will close.

People don't know that the gate will close means the gate will open. They also don't know that the train wouldn't have gone or that some a member of IE personnel has to stand at the gate before the train can go. I regularly use both Connolly and Heuston, but not the Cork train and I don't know these things. I don't want to know the minute inner workings of Irish Rail and I don't want to know gate and departure protocol. I just want to arrive at the station, buy my ticket and get on the train.

How can people defend this madness.

Patrick

[Colm Donoghue]

At most stations in Ireland, you buy your ticket and go onto the platform indicated to get your train.
This is how it works in Connolly Tara Pearse.
His train was on the platform indicated he passed through an unlocked gat to get onto his train.
he doesn't state if there was a sign telling customers to wait to get their ticket validated or not. If there wasn't, getting on the train seems perfectly rational and proper.
I don't care about arcane bull**** byelaws and obsure terms and conditions unavailable at the point you buy your ticket. Good customer service will tell you what you need to do to avail of the service properly and Politely ask you to do what is necessary to enable the company run a smooth service.
Ryanair tell you in black and white all their nasty gotcha's and terms and conditions with every ticket. they also make a profit. They also provide a better customer service than Irish rail. And Ryanair would not be high up any list of good customer service.

Being abusive to your paying customers is not good customer service, even if they are rude to you.
Expecting customers to know how a service always operates even if they've never used it before and berating them for this is not good customer service.
Expecting customers to know that the way it works in all their other stations doesn't work in one particular station, and berating them for it is poor customer service.
Good customer service isn't free, it takes an effort from the company to introduce it.
Good manners and politeness are free however.

What turnapin said is the way it should be.

I don't want to know the minute inner workings of Irish Rail and I don't want to know gate and departure protocol. I just want to arrive at the station, buy my ticket and get on the train.

[sean]

Originally Posted by turnapin

Thomas,

So the gates will close 2 minutes before departure actually means the gates will open 2 minutes before departure. This is as opposed to Connolly, where the gates will close means the gates will close.

People don't know that the gate will close means the gate will open. They also don't know that the train wouldn't have gone or that some a member of IE personnel has to stand at the gate before the train can go. I regularly use both Connolly and Heuston, but not the Cork train and I don't know these things. I don't want to know the minute inner workings of Irish Rail and I don't want to know gate and departure protocol. I just want to arrive at the station, buy my ticket and get on the train.

How can people defend this madness.

Patrick

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