Who's Worse Irish Rail or Students

[Jamie2k9]

Irish Rail was forced to take a train out of service for 24 hours after it was “wrecked” by some 300 DCU students on their way to an event in Galway.

During an outing on Monday, hundreds of members from two societies at Dublin City University boarded a train specifically chartered for them heading to Galway City.

Those on-board were allowed to bring their own alcohol, and according to reports, there were only two security guards presence to deal with the mass of students.

“The train was left in a dreadful state,” said a spokesperson for Irish Rail.

“The train was not able to enter service on Tuesday as it had to be deep cleaned on Tuesday and overnight on Wednesday before going back into service.”

According to the rail service vomit and “other fluids” where discovered throughout the train.

First reported in the College View, DCU’s student newspaper, the Engineering Society and Science & Health Society took 300 students from Dublin to Galway City on the train.

According to the newspaper, only two stalls were in working order during the journey, though a student on the train claimed “It was more like one.”
“We were locked in there with one toilet between 300 people,” said Josh, speaking to RTÉ’s Liveline.

“I don't know what they expected. There was no where for anyone to get sick.”

Asked about the behaviour on-board the train, the student said that while everyone was “a little bit drunk” there was no one acting up or looking to cause trouble or damage to the train.

“It was carnage in Galway City but on the train, everyone was well behaved.”
Addressing the claims that there was not enough working stalls on the chartered journey, Irish Rail said when the train left Heuston Station in Dublin there “was 5 out of 6 toilets operational.”

“One toilet went out of service on the way to Galway so there were 4 operational toilets on the train.

“We regularly have student charters from Trinity and have never had a problem with the condition that the train was left in,” the rail service added.
Irish Rail told Independent.ie that they would be seeking payment for the cost of cleaning the train from DCU authorities.

"The University has been liaising with Irish Rail since Tuesday when it was made aware of an incident involving a Clubs & Societies event on an Irish Rail train earlier this week," a DCU spokesperson told Independent.ie.

"A small number of individuals behaved in an irresponsible manner which greatly inconvenienced Irish Rail as a result. The University strongly disapproves of such actions which reflect neither the ethos of the university nor the typical behaviour of our student body.

"We have been working closely with Irish Rail to get an assessment of any damage that may have been caused, the cost of which will be met by the Societies responsible for organising the trip."

Lovely pics in link!
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news...-34485907.html

Would appear 17.35 to Waterford drew the short straw with reduced capacity as a result.

I honestly can't decide who is worse however if I had to I would put 90% blame with IE.

1 - "Students" - groups of students going to Galway, need we say more
2 - Alcohol - IE allowed it, this the same IE who do not allow alcohol on special trains and any glass bottles yet they expected students to be well behaved.
3 - Only positive is IE will be sending them bill.

[Thomas J Stamp]

i would put it 50/50. I have been there myself in my student days (although one of the group cleverly declared that we were students from the Royal College of Surgeons) when we left one car of a train to westport in a bit of a mess. That also resulted in a deep clean...... but that was a scheduled service with no prior warning. Booking a whole train though, really IR could have imposed a ban but they always had the safety net of being able to bill the uni afterwards.

since IR say they regularly have charters with the well behaved upstanding young folk of trinity it does sound like they were expecting enid blython and instead Hunter S Thompson turned up.

[ThomasJ]

Getting the last train from maynooth around the time the academic year ends is an experience in itself.

[ACustomer]

Whose Worse...?

This is 100% the fault of the students (or maybe their parents). One of them said:

I don't know what they expected. There was no where for anyone to get sick

. Need I say any more?

My own direct campus experience (not DCU) is that grossly aggressive and offensive behaviour caused by binge drinking - real binge drinking and not the ridiculous 3-pints criterion used by the health fanatics - has become far more common in the past decade or so.

Some of the blame lies with University authorities who are too timid to crack down on really bad behaviour.

In my student days we could drink an awful lot, but somehow we never managed to get violent, obnoxious and rarely did we get sick. Maybe once, but we learned from that.

Irish Rail were not to blame: this only deflects blame from where it really lies. They were perhaps too naive and trusting. What disturbs me is that this might be part of a lenient policy of Irish Rail towards obnoxious behaviour generally. Like the University authorities, they are a bit timid.

[Jamie2k9]

i would put it 50/50. I have been there myself in my student days (although one of the group cleverly declared that we were students from the Royal College of Surgeons) when we left one car of a train to westport in a bit of a mess. That also resulted in a deep clean...... but that was a scheduled service with no prior warning. Booking a whole train though, really IR could have imposed a ban but they always had the safety net of being able to bill the uni afterwards.

since IR say they regularly have charters with the well behaved upstanding young folk of trinity it does sound like they were expecting enid blython and instead Hunter S Thompson turned up.

Maybe I was a little harsh but the principal with special trains and drink and glass bottles is for passenger safety. It's something that should of been applied without question. While I accept it was a charter it was a very poor judgment call to make.

As for the previous charters for Trinity, that may be the case but were they overnight charters to party in Galway. IE have decided to not operate another one next week.

Whose Worse...?

This is 100% the fault of the students (or maybe their parents). One of them said:
Quote:
I don't know what they expected. There was no where for anyone to get sick
. Need I say any more?

My own direct campus experience (not DCU) is that grossly aggressive and offensive behaviour caused by binge drinking - real binge drinking and not the ridiculous 3-pints criterion used by the health fanatics - has become far more common in the past decade or so.

Some of the blame lies with University authorities who are too timid to crack down on really bad behaviour.

In my student days we could drink an awful lot, but somehow we never managed to get violent, obnoxious and rarely did we get sick. Maybe once, but we learned from that.

Irish Rail were not to blame: this only deflects blame from where it really lies. They were perhaps too naive and trusting. What disturbs me is that this might be part of a lenient policy of Irish Rail towards obnoxious behaviour generally. Like the University authorities, they are a bit timid.

I agree in principal but some poor decisions made by IE and another one is charting a train with over 300 students with bags of drink and accepting 2 security guards traveling with them is another which should be looked at.