[Article] Seat reservations

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...302758373.html

Rail seat booking system 'a shambles' - group
PAMELA DUNCAN

A BODY representing rail users has branded Iarnród Éireann’s reservations system “a shambles” and says the company does not have officials in place to police the system, meaning passengers have to do it themselves.

Rail Users Ireland spokesman Mark Gleeson said passengers’ experience of the reservations system employed by Iarnród Éireann painted a picture of a system in chaos.

Information indicating whether a place is reserved is usually displayed electronically above the seat in question.

Dr Gleeson said these reservations were often not displayed or went suddenly blank after a few stops. In other cases, incorrect reservations were displayed or the reserved seats did not exist, he said.

“Seat reservations are the most basic customer service facility on a long-distance train. Once again Irish Rail is unable to deliver on what the rest of Europe has managed to deliver without a fuss for decades,” Dr Gleeson said.

He said Rail Users Ireland had conducted a survey of eight Rosslare-to-Dublin intercity route trains in the past fortnight, which found that no train had correctly functioning reservations in place. But the problem was “fleet-wide”.

“Irish Rail is unique amongst railways in Europe in that there is no guard, conductor, ticket checker or train manager provided. Elsewhere it is not considered safe to operate a long-distance train without a second trained staff member on board to assist passengers.”

In 2010 Iarnród Éireann published an expression of interest for a replacement seat reservation system on the Government’s eTender website “for the supply and installation of a replacement electronic seat reservation system to be installed on up to 63 train sets (234 vehicles)”.

A spokeswoman for Iarnród Éireann said last night improvements had been carried out on the system in 2010, rendering a replacement system unneccesary. A recent survey had shown 95 per cent of reservation services on inter-city trains were operating correctly, she said.

“By and large we are very happy with the way the seat reservation system works,” she said. However, last minute changes of the train in service could affect the online seat reservation system.

She said the claims made by Rail Users Ireland in relation to the Rosslare line could arise from the low rate of reservations on that service. It may have been the case that no one had reserved the seats.

[Mark Gleeson]

Got to love how Irish Rail continue to deny everything

But the evidence says otherwise


Now at 12 trains checked on the Rosslare line. The routine is reservations light up at Connolly but 4 seconds after the doors open at Tara Street they all go blank. Going the other way they are just blank

Given there were names over the seats to start with Irish Rail's argument that no seat are reserved at all, as usual don't stack up we checked beforehand anyway

[Mark Gleeson]

Just to back up our press release

07/08/2011 13:45 Dublin Rosslare Seat reservations displays go blank at Tara Street
08/08/2011 17:55 Rosslare Dublin No Seat reservations shown - no automatic public address
09/08/2011 17:55 Rosslare Dublin No Seat reservations shown - no power sockets coach A - no air conditioning in coach A - no automatic public address
10/08/2011 17:55 Rosslare Dublin Seat reservations active but names not shown - no automatic public address
11/08/2011 17:55 Rosslare Dublin Seat reservations active but names not shown - no automatic public address
12/08/2011 17:55 Rosslare Dublin No Seat reservations shown - no automatic public address
18/08/2011 17:55 Rosslare Dublin No Seat reservations shown but IE website shows several seats booked on this train - no automatic public address - see photo above
19/08/2011 17:55 Rosslare Dublin No Seat reservations shown - no automatic public address
20/08/2011 13:30 Dublin Rosslare Seat reservations displays go blank at Tara Street
20/08/2011 18:30 Dublin Rosslare Seat reservations displays go blank at Tara Street - Power sockets coach A reset following request from RUI member onboard
21/08/2011 13:45 Dublin Rosslare No Seat reservations shown but IE website shows several seats booked on this train - no power sockets coach A
21/08/2011 14:20 Rosslare Dublin No Seat reservations shown but IE website shows several seats booked on this train - no power sockets coach A - no automatic public address
21/08/2011 18:30 Dublin Rosslare No Seat reservations shown but IE website shows several seats booked on this train - no power sockets coach A

So of the 13, we know at least 9 had real passenger reservations and of those 7 failed to work correctly, 2 worked partially. No train left Dublin with working reservations, no train arrived Dublin with working automatic public address

This is clearly not a random problem, its daily repeating nightmare

[James Howard]

I got into a heated "discussion" with somebody who had booked a seat on an almost completely deserted 19:05 to Sligo a couple of months back. There was no indication that the seat or any others on the car had been booked - in fact I didn't even know that you could book a seat on that train.

I really wasn't in the mood to pack up and move especially when there were only about 4 other people in the car but he eventually moved to another seat when I pointed out he could get his money back if his booked seat wasn't available. I just avoid car A now.

Given that getting power is now a complete lottery, I really can't see the point in booking as you will most likely need to sit somewhere else to get power.

[Thomas Ralph]

Marko is on the Last Word at the minute.

[Mark Gleeson]

Here it is

http://www.railusers.ie/podcasts/aud...servations.mp3

[dowlingm]

according to Barry Kenny you have a cultural problem James!

To be fair, someone who posts on a rail users forum, I would have thought you would have made a bit of effort to accommodate the bloke who after all had done nothing wrong rather than invite him to avail himself of a refund...

[Mark Gleeson]

There is a cultural problem alright, this is a new thing in Irish transport

But the culture change begins with Irish Rail ensuring every reserved seat is clearly marked as such and that staff will evict occupants who shouldn't be there. Staff refuse to shift people, Irish Rail deny it but we all have a story to tell.

With that in place, people will get the message. The current disaster of there being no notice of the seat reserved just reinforces the fact the system doesn't work.

[Mark Gleeson]

The classic email we get regularly

I had to stand the entire way to Westport as did my family. The people refused to leave our seats and there was no help from whoever was in charge. No one checked tickets until the Roscommon stop and at this point, we had been standing for over an hour and a half.

[James Howard]

In my defence, I don't think I was being unreasonable in suggesting the guy should sit in the next seat in an almost empty car about 2 minutes before departure, especially when he would be able to get 6 euro as a refund for his trouble. Why should I be put out in having to stop my work and pack up when there was no indication that the seat was reserved? If the roles were reversed, I would be happy to just sit somewhere else and claim the refund.

If the train was packed and the seat was marked, it would be a different thing entirely, but I still don't think it is terribly reasonable to expect somebody who turned up early for a train to stand just because he was unlucky enough to sit in an unmarked reserved seat. Regular users can avoid the issue by not sitting in car A, but again it isn't reasonable.

Irish Rail should not be offering reservations if there is no way of ensuring that the reservation can be fulfilled. What they are doing is probably illegal as they are charging money for a service that they are not providing. Your seat is reserved so long as there is nobody sitting in it when you get there.

[Colm Moore]

Just one thing on vacant spaces and reservations is that there may be other reservations and / or group bookings.

[Mark Gleeson]

Curiously a new software version has appeared on Dublin Rosslare

Funny how Irish Rail didn't admit that when asked, clearly there is a problem or else they wouldn't be changing the software

Announcements now work in the Dublin bound direction

Will take a while for all 46 sets of coaches to be updated