If I'd had a shotgun last night I'd probably be typing this from my cell right now.
Missed the 25 past 5 from heuston by about 30 seconds, queued up for the next one to portarlington which is the 10 to 6. Boarded at about quarter to, sat there like a fool watching the 18:00 cork train leave and wondering what was happening. I had just taken out my phone to ring heuston station and demand to know why I was still in heuston 15 minutes after I should have left.
Luckily for them we started moving. Naturally the 5 past 6 had left before us, although it did pull over and we passed it out.
Crawled home. Just outside Portarlington station the train stopped. No announcement. Standing there queuing to get off the bloody train. Eventually an IE man (in a new uniform) strolls through the train. Everybody extremely p*ssed off. Another angry woman took the words out of my mouth and demanded to know why we were here. Looked at us like we all had 5 heads each and said, "we're putting on a new engine". "Is that why we were delayed at the start?" "Yeah" - shrug. "Why weren't we told so that we could get on the 5 past 6?" "you WERE told." "Excuse me but we were NOT told." "well, there was an announcement on the intercom" "Your 'intercom' is clearly not working" "Oh, well i didn't know that". Silly us. We then watched the 5 past 6 arrive to portarlington, and then I think the 25 to 7 arrived in front of us. Got home nearly 3 hours after I left the office.
My patience gets thinner and thinner with this joke of a service and I'm actually trying to find a new job just so that I don't have to use the trains everyday. The new morning timetable is an absolute joke as well. I'll do the usual crappy process of writing to them but what's the point??? A €2 voucher and an automatic 'apology'?
If you hear of any IT jobs in the midlands let me know...