[P11 Press Release] Regular rail users come second

[Mark Gleeson]

Regular rail users come second

Platform 11 Ireland National Rail Users Organisation is highly critical of Irish Rail's decision to close the car park at Leixlip Louisa Bridge for the duration of the Ryder Cup. This move has been made to facilitate coach transfers from the station to the K Club at the expense of long suffering commuters.

Platform 11 communication and media officer, Derek Wheeler stated, "The Ryder Cup is wonderful event but its unacceptable and seriously misguided to inconvenience regular rail commuters who use the park and ride facility at this station. We are also dismayed at the lack of information available on Irish Rail's Website."

In a recent survey by the Dublin Transportation Office, the DTO, the car park at Leixlip Louisa Bridge station was identified as a problem, 31 spaces are provided but the DTO survey found no less than 46 cars parked there.

Platform 11 members who use the park and ride where shocked to hear the news and expressed anger at Irish Rail's decision. Platform 11 member and regular user of the line John Daly said "It may not be the biggest station car park on the line but its a very important facility for those of us who use it on our commute to work"

Mr Wheeler added Irish Rail can talk about major infrastructure improvements until they are blue in the face but this particular act is a basic example of there continuing poor standard of customer service.

ENDS

[markpb]

I just mentioned this to people in work and the general attitude is that the 20k people coming for the Cup are more important than the few people who happen to park there. It's not much of a car park anyway.

Ye old Irish "shure its only public transport, it's no good anyway"

:-(

[Mark Gleeson]

Thats just the draft release, full one coming

We had a man on site and the news is interesting

IE sold only about 6000 tickets, that only 1000 a day

[Mark Hennessy]

Mr Wheeler added Irish Rail can talk about major infrastructure improvements until they are blue in the face but this particular act is a basic example of [s]there[/s]their continuing poor standard of customer service.

Don't want to be a pendant but seeing as it hasnt been released yet...

EDIT: Paul can we do strikethrough on our posts?

[Mark Gleeson]

Date: 19th September 2006
From: Derek Wheeler, Communications and Media Office, Platform 11.
Contact : (086) 3452651
Issued by: Platform 11. The National Rail Users Organisation.

Platform 11 Ireland's National Rail Users Organisation is highly critical of Irish Rail's decision to close the car park at Leixlip Louisa Bridge station for the duration of the Ryder Cup. This move has been made to facilitate coach transfers for the station to the K Club. An Irish Rail spokesman in recent weeks admitted in the media that Irish Rail where making a profit on this service, a profit at the expense of long suffering commuters.

Platform 11 communication and media officer, Derek Wheeler stated, "The Ryder Cup is wonderful event but its unacceptable and seriously misguided to inconvenience regular rail commuters who use the park and ride facility at this station. We are also dismayed at the lack of information available on Irish Rail's Website."

In a recent survey by the Dublin Transportation Office, the DTO, the car park at Leixlip Louisa Bridge station was identified as a problem, 31 spaces are provided but the DTO survey found no less than 46 cars parked there.

Platform 11 members who use the park and ride where shocked to hear the news and expressed anger at Irish Rail's decision. Platform 11 member and regular user of the line John Daly said "It may not be the biggest station car park on the line but its a very important facility for those of us who use it on our commute to work."

A Platform 11 representative visited Leixlip Louisa Bridge station shortly after 11am this morning (Tuesday) and found the car park empty and coaches parked on the road outside.

Mr Wheeler added "Irish Rail can talk about major infrastructure improvements until they are blue in the face but this particular act is a basic example of their continuing poor standard of customer service."

ENDS.

[constellation]

I was on the 9:45 from Connolly to Enfield this morning.

1. They changed the platform from 4 to 7. Train came from the north, so no obvious reason for that change.
2. Train was delayed by a northbound DART arriving at platform 7.
3. Train was not clean. Litter everywhere. How nice for those paying 20 euros for the pleasure of travelling by train.
4. Transfer from Leixlip to K-Club was by Dublin Bus double deckers. No expense spared eh?

Back to the press release. No obvious reason to prevent people from parking other than to put down a lot of unnecessary crowd control railings (what crowd?) and to provide a nice little make-shift stall selling tea and chocolate bars - with a nice 4x4 parked next to it.

On the plus side. Driver made an announcement for the golf fans at Leixlip Louisa Bridge, they had someone walking along platform 7 of Connolly to answer questions and there were regular announcements on the PA at Connolly.

[Mark Gleeson]

We can understand the need for a queuing system but that doesn't require the whole car park, just one side would do

We had a man on site to check it out and it was empty

No notice anywhere on the IE site, notices at the station don't count since its too late then

Profit first passenger second

They have a nice fleet of newish AV class buses all dolled up for it

[Derek Wheeler]

Rumour circulating, that car park was closed to prevent car bombs.

Some honest clarity from IE would be nice. We shouldn't have to ask.

[Oisin88]

Originally Posted by Derek Wheeler

Rumour circulating, that car park was closed to prevent car bombs.

C'mon, tiger woods and the two former US presidents weren't going to take the train out.

I can never work out where anyone gets the idea that Ireland, a little island on the west coast of Europe with a fairly small population would ever become a target. Get real people