[Article] Some train journeys slower than 20 years ago

[Mark Gleeson]

Well out of 4 Mk4 trips in 2 months

Trains late leaving Heuston by 1-2 minutes, loss of time en-route for no reason
Halts for non signalling reasons, far too many stops in Inchicore (9:00 15/12/2006)
Lack of catering trolley (13:00 29/12/2006)
Manual announcements which are interrupted by a auto announcement (9:30 15/12/2006)
Feedback when the train manager makes a PA, painful! (9:30 15/12/2006)
Electronic seat reservations offline very frequently (e.g. 9:00 4/11/2006, 13:00 29/12/2006)
Failure of train staff to make PA for short platform (9:30 15/12/2006)
Someone triggered the emergency procedures PA (9:30 15/12/2006)
Refilling of train toilet tanks (13:00 29/12/2006)

The catering service is extremely suspect thats probably the thing which is most noticeable

[Nigel Fitzgricer]

Originally Posted by MrX

The biggest problem that Irish Rail have is an inability to provide uniformity of service.

That it in a nutshell - purchasing a train ticket is still 'Pot Luck' in terms of what service you get for you money and it matters not how many shiny new pieces of kit they get, this is still the case and it's very much a customer service issue and not a rolling stock technical problem.

The catering is a insane joke - like something out of 1970's Albania with the shutters closing an hour before the destination and three blokes sitting there looking surley and the shelves around them stocked with food and beverages the passenger are forbidden to even think, about let alone purchase. Can anyone explain the logic of this carry-on?

Unfortunatly IE are and always have been a engineering-driven company in terms of their overall culture and Customer Service was not on the radar screen and still is not in many ways. Once they have the train in service the issue seems to end there for them. The attitude is "sure it's a new ____ (INSERT_"train", "platform lenght", "ticket machine"...etc"

In terms of staff, I have to say that some of the new staff they have hired in recent years are a breath of fresh air from the traditional CIE "Oirish" union heads. Even the new Irish staff (the younger ones) are far more on-the-ball and the Eastern European ones are a revelation.

The worst staff at IE I find always tend to be over 35, and they get more rude and lazy once they reach their 40's and beyond. There is also far too many old time CIE heads in IE and they really do think that the world owes them a living. Untill this culture is rooted out of the company once and for all (especially with the train driver recruitment which is almost a form or in-house aparthide) then Customer Service and flexibility of staff working hours will be a major main problem in IE and then by default denying customers trains on off-peak and Sunday services.

Having said that, there is at last some hope with Irish Rail and it's getting better slowly, but the Customer Services problems and the slow trains/padding are so institutionalised within the organisation at this stage they will be with us for many years to come.

[MrX]

There other serious problem is with communication. It sometimes comes across like as if the entire company needs to get psychological help in that regard. The consistant inability to communicate basic facts is shocking.

Things like trains stopping in the middle of nowhere for extended periods without any explanation. It can be so bad that passengers start wondering if the driver's dropped dead at the "wheel".

Their automatic communication systems i.e. automatic PAs are quite patchy too. DART in particular is a total disgrace. Taking heed of those announcements would be very inadvisable. "This train is for --- Howth".. as it whizzes along toward Bray ..
Platform announcements and the CDE on-board announcements (in my experience) work fairly reliably.
I have no experience of the 29000 fleet

I suppose at least you can say it's one thing that they've achieved a degree of uniformity about!

[hhf8]

29000 seems ok regarding announcement,the few 2800 ones i get,dont seem to have any displays working or any PA

[Mark Gleeson]

We have updated our comparision page

Its getting worse not better

http://www.platform11.org/passenger_...ting_there.php