Rail Users Ireland Forum - View Single Post - [unoffical strike action] Disruption at Mallow

sandraoh · 28-06-2006, 13:55

I was meant to catch the 11:24 service from Portlaoise but one of the station staff came around at 11:15 saying that is was delayed by hald an hour and that there would be another train along in "about 3 minutes" which was only 3 carriages long and would be very full. No actual announcement was made.

At 11:50 a tiny train which according to passengers who travelled from Limerick is the train that usually link Limerick with the Junction arrived. It was pretty full but I got on anyway as I was late. Once everyone was packed in the driver announced "Please note this train will serve Heuston station dublin only, please stand clear of doors as they are about to close". There was one person on the train who was going to Portarlington and he couldn't get to the doors before they closed.

There was no communication button that I could find and I couldn't really move around to try and find one as it was very full so I rang the station in Portlaoise. I explained the problem to him and he told me he would get the train to stop in Portalington. The train went through Portarlington without stopping so I rang Portlaoise back. He said he was told it was going to stop in Portarlington so he took my number and said he would ring me back. He rang me back a few minutes later and told me that they had no way of communicating with the driver and that the train would have to go non stop to Dublin. The only announcement made about this train only going to Dublin was when we had boarded the train. No announcement of any delay was made over the PA system in the station.

When we got into Dublin I helped the Portarlington person (who was polish and had very little English) at the information desk that he needed to get back the Portarlington. The man from the station in Portlaoise had rang ahead and he was escorted to the train.

There was an apology when we were pulling into Hueston apologising for the people who had to stand.

28-06-2006, 13:55	#8
sandraoh Regular Poster Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Portlaoise Posts: 145	I was meant to catch the 11:24 service from Portlaoise but one of the station staff came around at 11:15 saying that is was delayed by hald an hour and that there would be another train along in "about 3 minutes" which was only 3 carriages long and would be very full. No actual announcement was made. At 11:50 a tiny train which according to passengers who travelled from Limerick is the train that usually link Limerick with the Junction arrived. It was pretty full but I got on anyway as I was late. Once everyone was packed in the driver announced "Please note this train will serve Heuston station dublin only, please stand clear of doors as they are about to close". There was one person on the train who was going to Portarlington and he couldn't get to the doors before they closed. There was no communication button that I could find and I couldn't really move around to try and find one as it was very full so I rang the station in Portlaoise. I explained the problem to him and he told me he would get the train to stop in Portalington. The train went through Portarlington without stopping so I rang Portlaoise back. He said he was told it was going to stop in Portarlington so he took my number and said he would ring me back. He rang me back a few minutes later and told me that they had no way of communicating with the driver and that the train would have to go non stop to Dublin. The only announcement made about this train only going to Dublin was when we had boarded the train. No announcement of any delay was made over the PA system in the station. When we got into Dublin I helped the Portarlington person (who was polish and had very little English) at the information desk that he needed to get back the Portarlington. The man from the station in Portlaoise had rang ahead and he was escorted to the train. There was an apology when we were pulling into Hueston apologising for the people who had to stand.