Reserving Seats on Iarnród Éireann

Trotter

Interesting reading that more than a few people are having grief with the Iarnrod Eireann's reservation system.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2009/0819/1224252863403.html

Imagine the fun I had having booked and reserved a carriage for 30 6th class children travelling from Heuston, having to move a load of less than pleasant people out of the seats. Some roared Ah for FK sake!!, knowing full well I was trying to sit 30 kids down.

There wasn't any staff around to help in any way. A hen night full of the crudest women arrived, drinking blue wicked mixed with vodka, and screaming and cackling stuff you'd hear on TV well after 11pm.

It was a disgrace. I can't understand how they cant simply ban drinking on trains, and have someone to make sure the reservations are sorted. It was so ridiculous watching the kids grinning as the other crowd sang songs about male bits and tried to show off the ones they'd bought earlier to the kids.

I certainly wont be using this snazzy reservation system again until I reckon they've got the drinking, security, and reservation system sorted.

monument

Trotter wrote: »

Imagine the fun I had having booked and reserved a carriage for 30 6th class children travelling from Heuston...

Ah, I think I remember Irish Rail saying before that group booking such as school tours should not be booked using the online booking system. The group travel page on irishrail.ie would seem to point in this direction too:

http://www.irishrail.ie/your_ticket/group_travel.asp

TontoMurphy

Don't bother booking seats.. Went to Cork on a stag and we splashed out on 1st class for the trip, booking the first 16 seats on the carraige. Picked them out on line and got seat numbers.

Arrived at Heuston and the seats didn't even exist on the train. Very helpful stasff member remarked "not my problem".

Irish Rail as far as i'm concerned are a joke; attitude all wrong.

fh041205

All this business with seat reservations not being displayed has gone way beyond a joke by now. This is not a hard thing to do and stories like TontoMurphy's just make me despair.

Trotter

monument wrote: »

Ah, I think I remember Irish Rail saying before that group booking such as school tours should not be booked using the online booking system. The group travel page on irishrail.ie would seem to point in this direction too:

http://www.irishrail.ie/your_ticket/group_travel.asp

I didnt book online for that one, I did it through the group travel office in Dublin who sent me the confirmation in the post with the tickets and the reserved seat numbers.. for all the good it did..

Solair

Trotter wrote: »

...
It was a disgrace. I can't understand how they cant simply ban drinking on trains, and have someone to make sure the reservations are sorted. It was so ridiculous watching the kids grinning as the other crowd sang songs about male bits and tried to show off the ones they'd bought earlier to the kids.

I certainly wont be using this snazzy reservation system again until I reckon they've got the drinking, security, and reservation system sorted.

I had a few horrible experiences with drunken passengers on the Dublin-Cork train. The last straw for me was when there was a serious fight in my carriage. I couldn't find any staff anywhere to report it to.

It seems someone asked a drunken passenger to put his cigarette out and all hell broke loose.

As far as I'm concerned, Irish Rail are a lost cause. I won't travel by train in Ireland anymore, I either fly to Dublin or drive.

It's just like as if Irish Rail don't give a damn, they have the resources, they've brand new trains, lots of investment but they just do not care about the passengers onboard.

Why is it OK to have people completely drunk on an intercity train, when they will almost brutally drag teens off the DART if they open a can on board.

I know they sell alcohol on board intercity, but usually it's not the stuff that's bought on board that is the problem.

Allowing people to be this drunk on board is putting other passengers at risk. Frankly, I think Irish Rail are behaving totally irresponsibly.

It's one thing to have to deal with drunk and disorderly behaviour in an open space, or in a pub, at least you can walk out! When you're in a confined space like a train, it's can be pretty terrifying.

I would encourage passengers to call the Gardai if there is any incident on board, or if they feel threatened. CIE will not do anything!

I've seen similar nonsense on trains in the UK too, but it seems to be unique to the Drunken Isles.

Bluetonic

Solair wrote: »

Allowing people to be this drunk on board is putting other passengers at risk. Frankly, I think Irish Rail are behaving totally irresponsibly.

Plenty of people board trains drunk and do not consume alcohol onboard, yet they are still drunk onboard. How would you suggest Irish Rail police this without getting into serious legal issues.

Solair

Bluetonic wrote: »

Plenty of people board trains drunk and do not consume alcohol onboard, yet they are still drunk onboard. How would you suggest Irish Rail police this without getting into serious legal issues.

Pretty simply, if you are behaving in a drunk or disorderly manner on the train, or you're drinking alcohol which you did not purchase on board - you are asked to get off at the next station, with the help of the Gardai if necessary.

There would be no great difficult in applying an Irish Rail logo sticker to any alcohol sold on board, and given that they only carry a very narrow range of drinks on board, it should be quite easy to spot a 20 pack of Dutch Gold isn't from the bar.

This isn't just being tipsy, this is people hurling abuse at other passengers, threatening people, shouting, roaring, etc

You shouldn't have to put up with that on public transport, which you have paid good money for.

If you were drunk and disorderly, or consumed alcohol which you did not purchase on-site at a theatre, in a shopping centre, etc etc you would find yourself ejected fairly fast.

If you did it on a plane, you'd quite likely find yourself in handcuffs. If flying into the US, quite possibly the subject of a tazering too!

There are no legal issues for Irish Rail to refuse entry to a train if someone is obviously drunk. It's no different from a pub, restaurant, or any other business refusing someone entry based on their being intoxicated.

It's grossly unfair on other passengers (the vast majority of passengers) that one or two drunken idiots can completely wreck their entire journey and can even put them at risk of being beaten up.

I remember being on a late night Dublin-Cork train and some guy who was totally plastered started annoying people for a light. A group of US tourists actually contemplated getting off the train at Mallow, even though they were going to Cork because they felt so threatened.

It's an absolute disgrace that they do not police these trains properly.

Once people see that security is being enforced on board, behaviour changes and it becomes less of an issue!

Bluetonic

Solair wrote: »

There are no legal issues for Irish Rail to refuse entry to a train if someone is obviously drunk. It's no different from a pub, restaurant, or any other business refusing someone entry based on their being intoxicated.

The issue is where is the line between sober, drunk and obviously drunk. One person can look drunk whilst being sober, another can look sober whilst being drunk.

How exactly can you control people boarding public transport, we're not talking about a private business such as a pub, restaurant etc..,

Tens of thousands of people use public transport drunk every week with no issue so to say allowing people to be (this) drunk on board is putting other passengers at risk is over the top.

Chris_533976

The seat reservation was working on the left hand side of the train from Galway to Dublin last week.

Trotter

Bluetonic wrote: »

The issue is where is the line between sober, drunk and obviously drunk.

It isn't. The issue is how a person acts while on a train. I don't care if you're mouldy drunk.. If you curl up in a seat and have a snooze, you aren't bothering me.

How drunk you are is irrelevant.. Its how you act that causes the problem or otherwise. Theres plenty of sober idiots who have the capacity to cause mayhem on their own without bottles.

Zoney

It's nice when it works in fairness - even a half-hearted approach beats a lack of any reservation system. Also even if your seat is taken already, most of the time the train either isn't full or when you ask politely the other passenger is accommodating (or indeed mortified - admittedly that puts me off moving someone too, even if not so much as the possibility of aggro). I've only twice had my seat already taken. I was on a train once too that was near empty and loaded with some other trains names.

As an aside, I highly recommend booking Enterprise both ways with Iarnród Éireann - NIR not only don't allow reservations on ordinary tickets, but also are more expensive than Iarnród Éireann promotional online fares. Plus the Translink website makes Iarnród Éireann look like Deutsche Bahn. Admittedly it was only on the way up that the train was full enough that I was glad of the reservation.

Bluetonic

Trotter wrote: »

It isn't. The issue is how a person acts while on a train. I don't care if you're mouldy drunk.. If you curl up in a seat and have a snooze, you aren't bothering me.

How drunk you are is irrelevant.. Its how you act that causes the problem or otherwise. Theres plenty of sober idiots who have the capacity to cause mayhem on their own without bottles.

I'm commenting purely on the post from Solair where he says allowing people to be (this) drunk is putting other passengers at risk.

What I'm trying to get to is what you said.

Banning drinking on the trains is not the solution. Policing is. The majority of people cause no issues regardless of their level of drunkenness.

Proxy

I was accosted by a group on a drunken weekend when returning from Galway to Dublin about six weeks ago. I was on my way to the snack bar when the group of males and females decided to shove me from side to side (against the walls) in the second that joins the carriages. One stiff shove back soon ended it, but I shouldn't have had to take any action like this, which in itself could have ended up with some legal repercussions.

When I eventually got to the snack car to report what just happened, it was closed with the attendant behind the shutter both unable to fully understand what I was describing, and then stating there was nothing he could do about it.

I did once see security pacing between two carriages on a day-time train, where there seemed to be two or three different hen/stag groups. Needless to say, they were much more well-behaved.

dowlingm

IE as it always was.

When are they going to get it - a service half-heartedly offered is not fair service or middling service, it's no service. Just don't offer it if it can't be utilised. Don't offer the full set as reserved if there's a chance a set change will produce a lower number of seats.

jahalpin

A major part of the problem with seat reservations on trains is the fact that the people using free travel passes couldn't be bothered to prebook their seats and think that they can just sit anywhere.

Most of the people using these passes are retired and, realistically, have plenty of time to goto the station the day before their journey to book seats on the trains, but they just couldn't be bothered.