[Mark Gleeson]

New train same problems

Well it left Cork with a defective toilet on coach 4202. This was locked out for the journey. For reasons unknown train arrives Thurles 15 minutes late and takes off, at this stage the buffet is empty, no beer and no crisps.

The ride was utterly shocking loads of swaying around the worst I've ever seen

The PIS has gone nuts and keeps telling us that the next stop in Kildare when in fact it was Port Laois, sure the train manager give a PA and all is well, we pull away now 16 minutes down and shortly after the PA awakes to tell us we are making an unscheduled stop in Portarlington, change here for the west, after a 30 second stop off we go and crawl into Kildare now 26 minutes late at 18:01

Doors close and brakes come off and the train rolls back about 4 feet, stops and the driver tries again and again then gives up, door interlock is checked. At this point I've copped the problem the locomotive wasn't notching up from idle the push pull system has gone wrong, so the PA tells us we have a problem, then the call is made for the CME representative to come forward. So after 10 minutes of this we are allowed off

So at 18:49 we leave and take off to 90 mph and all seems well. It gets better we arrive Inchicore and we stop not once but twice to facilitate the staff, first stop allowed the driver to swap with the outgoing 19:00 to Cork second to allow train manager to swap over, the 19:00 to Cork had been delayed by 20 minutes to facilitate this

So as we approach Heuston the train manager Happy (Siobhan jumped ship at Inchicore) applogises for the delay of approximately one hour which was due to a problem with the locomotive, this PA was made at 19:24 and we hadn't reached Islandbridge, we should have been told of our right to a 50% refund. Train stops in platform 6 at 19:27, 62 minutes down

Poor show from Irish Rail on numerous fronts
1 Toilet in first class not working
2 Catering stock was not replenished in Cork, no sandwiches on the trolley
3 Shocking ride I lost my footing several times on the way to the buffet
4 PIS was broken again
5 Loco push pull system died at Kildare, why on earth didn't they simply uncouple it and stick it on the front ??
6 Despite the fact the 50% refund clause was clearly in play we where not told
7 Farce of stopping in Inchicore twice
8 Delay of 1900 to Cork as a side effect

And of course what was on the back, yes a big ugly orange lump so much for image and service presentation