No passenger should have to stand for more than 20 minutes on a commuter train and under normal circumstances no one should ever have to stand on an intercity train.
Is it safe? That depends
On proper commuter trains standing is safe and is the norm world wide. The trains are designed to cope with numbers well beyond what is physically possible to squeeze on, the issue at hand is that it just plain doesn't feel safe and thats the important thing and is something which both Irish Rail and the Railway Safety Commission don't seem to grasp.
Standing is not safe on board intercity trains as they where never designed to accommodate a large number of standing passengers, few if any hand rails are provided to hold onto and the doorways are narrow making getting on and off a slow process.
Surely its illegal
We have investigated the overcrowding issue and Europe wide there is no legislation or standard to be found which define limits or legal restrictions. However it is clear the overcrowding problem in Dublin is the worst to be found in Europe, we know of nowhere else where it is routine to operate virtually all peak hour trains at the manufacturers capacity limits. For comparison the busiest train in the UK is 12 coaches in length and carries 1,300 passengers, it is routine to pack 1240 people into a 8 coach commuter train and up to 1400 on a DART train in Dublin.
Trains to avoid
- 7:15 Tralee Dublin between Mallow and Dublin
- 7:22 Maynooth Connolly
- 7:58 Maynooth Bray
- 16:16 Pearse Drogheda - Fridays
- 16:35 Pearse Maynooth
- 17:34 Bray Longford (18:18 Connolly Longford)