Why don't Iarnrod Éireann enforce the 'no portable chair' rule?

eth0_

I don't want to get into an argument about whether or not portable chairs should be allowed on trains - my feeling is they're bloody annoying, dangerous, and the people who use them are very ignorant - taking up the space of two people when everyone else has to stand...

But anyway. There are signs on all the trains saying anyone causing an obstruction (such as with chairs) is breaking the law, and can be fined up to €500.

Has anyone actually heard of this being enforced?

Hagar

Why should anyone stand in the first place? I know, I know, the fare you pay to IE only covers them transporting you from A to B but surely thats a cop out? If that was their only duty why do they put any chairs in the carriages at all?
Let's all stand together like sheep.
Let's ostracise anybody who is not prepared to take a 2 or 3 hour journey standing up.
Let's not complain.
I think they do not prosecute because it would give somebody the opportunity to pillory their poor services in open court. IE would be left trying to defend the indefensible.

ThreadKiller

Hagar wrote:

If that was their only duty why do they put any chairs in the carriages at all?
Let's all stand together like sheep.
Let's ostracise anybody who is not prepared to take a 2 or 3 hour journey standing up.
Let's not complain.

For god's sake man !!!

Don't be giving them ideas !

Tarabuses

I can just see the postings here when there is an accident on the railway and passengers are unable to escape from carriages due to the aisles being blocked by these portable chairs.

Hagar

Don't worry about portable chairs blocking the aisles. If the number of people standing on the average train is anything to go by there will be about 1 metre deep of dead and dying on the floor to climb over.
It's very simple really, train crash - you die.

maxheadroom

The real issue is why the hell can't IE implement some kind of seat reservation system for their intercity services?

eth0_

EH ARE YOU GUYS BLIND?!?!?!?!

"I don't want to get into an argument about whether or not portable chairs should be allowed on trains"

John R

eth0_ wrote:

EH ARE YOU GUYS BLIND?!?!?!?!

"I don't want to get into an argument about whether or not portable chairs should be allowed on trains"

I guess it isn't up to you what direction a thread takes.

eth0_

John R wrote:

I guess it isn't up to you what direction a thread takes.

I can ask a moderator to close this thread as you're all ignoring my original question in favour of p*ssing and moaning about whether or not portable chairs should be allowed! It's called thread spoiling.

John R

maxheadroom wrote:

The real issue is why the hell can't IE implement some kind of seat reservation system for their intercity services?

Because they don't want to?

One of the big advantages of the current system is that even when trains are fully seated people can still get to where they want to go.
Instead of having to stand for a journey would people prefer to be turned away at the station because the train was booked up weeks in advance?

Hagar wrote:

Why should anyone stand in the first place? I know, I know, the fare you pay to IE only covers them transporting you from A to B but surely thats a cop out? If that was their only duty why do they put any chairs in the carriages at all?
Let's all stand together like sheep.
Let's ostracise anybody who is not prepared to take a 2 or 3 hour journey standing up.
Let's not complain.
I think they do not prosecute because it would give somebody the opportunity to pillory their poor services in open court. IE would be left trying to defend the indefensible

People stand because at certain times there are more passengers than seats.
If you bothered to look into it you would know that there are new trains being built to increase capacity acros the entire network.
Would you prefer that they limit the numbers travelling until then? I suppose if you were able to get a seat you would like the idea very much, however if you were turned away from the station with no alternative transport I would guess you would not be so happy.

maxheadroom

John R wrote:

Because they don't want to?

One of the big advantages of the current system is that even when trains are fully seated people can still get to where they want to go.
Instead of having to stand for a journey would people prefer to be turned away at the station because the train was booked up weeks in advance?

I never said compulsory seat reservations, I meant that if people wanted to pay extra to reserve a seat they could. If you dont, you take your chances. You might get a seat, you might not.

eth0_

maxheadroom wrote:

I never said compulsory seat reservations, I meant that if people wanted to pay extra to reserve a seat they could. If you dont, you take your chances. You might get a seat, you might not.

You're obviously not a commuter! I can only imagine what would happen on a crowded train when loads of seats are reserved! What a ridiculous idea. You can reserve seats on the Dublin>Belfast route and presumably on other cross country routes, but routes like Dublin>Longford and Dublin> Dundalk? Madness!

John R

eth0_ wrote:

I can ask a moderator to close this thread as you're all ignoring my original question in favour of p*ssing and moaning about whether or not portable chairs should be allowed! It's called thread spoiling.

Thread spoiling, a bit extreme perhaps?
Besides p*ssing and moaning is the favourite national pastime, every other thread would have to be closed if that was the case.

It is pretty obvious that there is no satisfactory answer to your original question. I would guess that it is up to the individual train conductor to enforce the rule and either they don't see a pressing need to do it or don't reckon it is worth the hassle of trying to get personal information out of people.

It might be for the same reason that the no smoking fines are rarely prosecuted; when they do get to court the judges usually let them off with tiny fines or nothing at all. Meanwhile it costs the company a great deal in court and staff costs.

Next time you are on a train why don't you ask the staff, they are the only ones who could answer the question properly.

ballooba

eth0_ wrote:

I can ask a moderator to close this thread as you're all ignoring my original question in favour of p*ssing and moaning about whether or not portable chairs should be allowed! It's called thread spoiling.

Its my ball.

I'm going home if you don't play my game.

Hagar

eth0_ wrote:

I can ask a moderator to close this thread as you're all ignoring my original question in favour of p*ssing and moaning about whether or not portable chairs should be allowed! It's called thread spoiling.

Your original question was "Did anyone ever hear of it being enforced?".
Now the only valid answers would be "Yes" or "No" anything else would not address the question directly.
Did you really want only yes/no answers, which would be rather dull, or were you raising a point for discussion?
I am most definitely not engaging in thread spoiling I thought I was participating.

John R

maxheadroom wrote:

I never said compulsory seat reservations, I meant that if people wanted to pay extra to reserve a seat they could. If you dont, you take your chances. You might get a seat, you might not.

Not much different to now except people end up paying even more just for a seat; even more p*ssing and moaning to follow.

Reservations also have some drawbacks, it takes longer to load trains as some passengers will always insist on being completely ignorant. They wander up and down the platform looking for the correct coach holding the departure up. this is a constant occourence in Britian. Then there is the on-board crap where some people insist on occupying their reserved seats when a train is half empty and someone has sat in the seat. On busy trains there is the constant shuffling where people without reservations have to vacate seats halfway through the jorney to let a reserved passenger sit down. So they start roaming the train looking for other seats, along with dozens of others in similar situations.

Gillo

They used to reserve seats my company tried to reserve seats once it turned out that we needed to reserve a whole carriage, which we did.

When we went, to board the train our carriage was already full, luckily for us though the very helpful station master suggested that we wait for teh next train and he might be able to sort something out for us.

As for reserving seats on commuter trains, it's clear whoever suggested that has never travelled on rush hour commuter services. Personnally I don't see a problem wtih people using stool's ; my mother is a perfect example she has a problem with her feet and cannot stand for a very long period of time, she lives in skerries if she was workign in town there is now way she would be able to get a seat going into work and would have to use a stool. I don't bother with them myself cos I just couldn't be bothered carryine one around.

The reason Irish Rail don't enforce the problem is simple, the trains are to crowded for an inspector to get down them.

Victor

maxheadroom wrote:

I never said compulsory seat reservations, I meant that if people wanted to pay extra to reserve a seat they could

From my inbos

Premium Reservations Available on www.irishrail.ie

Premium Reservations are now available on www.irishrail.ie - click for more details

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/general_news.asp?action=view&news_id=19

parsi

John R wrote:

Then there is the on-board crap where some people insist on occupying their reserved seats when a train is half empty and someone has sat in the seat. On busy trains there is the constant shuffling where people without reservations have to vacate seats halfway through the jorney to let a reserved passenger sit down.

Well if you pay for a reservation you shoudl get the seat - they are clearly marked as being reserved. Just because the train is half-empty when you board doesn't mean that it won't fill up somewhere and you'll feel obligated to give up the "non-reserved seat you took because there was a granny in yours" to another granny

As regards wanderingup the platform - why can't the UK do what the DB do - have a train plan displayed on the platform letting you know where to stand to board the correct carriage for your reservation..

John R

parsi wrote:

Well if you pay for a reservation you shoudl get the seat - they are clearly marked as being reserved. Just because the train is half-empty when you board doesn't mean that it won't fill up somewhere and you'll feel obligated to give up the "non-reserved seat you took because there was a granny in yours" to another granny

I was talking about people insisting on sitting in occupied reserved seats when there are lots of free booths unreserved ,yes I know the idiots who sit in the reserved seats in the first place with lots of unreserved ones should know better but they are idiots and they don't.

parsi wrote:

As regards wanderingup the platform - why can't the UK do what the DB do - have a train plan displayed on the platform letting you know where to stand to board the correct carriage for your reservation..

In some cases they can't because several different types of trains on different lines use the same platforms and the seating arrangements are different. In other cases they do have the carrige numbers marked on the platforms and people just take no notice of them.

Paying no attention to notices/displays/announcements is a very common problem as far as I can tell.

parsi

John R wrote:

I was talking about people insisting on sitting in occupied reserved seats when there are lots of free booths unreserved ,yes I know the idiots who sit in the reserved seats in the first place with lots of unreserved ones should know better but they are idiots and they don't.



In some cases they can't because several different types of trains on different lines use the same platforms and the seating arrangements are different. In other cases they do have the carrige numbers marked on the platforms and people just take no notice of them.

Paying no attention to notices/displays/announcements is a very common problem as far as I can tell.

The Germans cope easily with this - the Wagenstandanzeiger shows each train and details what carriage is where for _that_ train. All it requires is that the (for example) Sairseal to Limerick has the same config each time and it generally does... this would make boarding faster and cleaner..