Aug 21 2008
Iarnród Éireann Does Something Nice?
A lot has been said, giving out about Irish Rail (here, here and here, and here, and here), but this morning I was privileged to receive some great service from one of the Irish Rail staff.
I forgot my wallet this morning (yes, I know I’m an idiot). I only realised as I reached the platform at Pearse Station. I got to the exit and I was honest with the ticket collector. He recognised me. I told him I have an annual ticket and I am there every morning. I told him I had forgotten my wallet. I told him I was very sorry and I asked him what I could do.
In his almighty benevolence he said that I looked trustworthy (well thank you Mr Man for letting me know). He asked if I was sure I wasn’t lying (I checked – I was sure). He took out his ticket book and said he would need to take my details, as “rules are rules” and I had no ticket. Before I had time to beg and plead, he said he had lost his pen. “Ah sure, go on this time, but don’t let me catch you again. And make sure you have money for your return journey”. Wasn’t he wonderful?
I know I’m in no position to give out, I had no ticket. But by his own admission this guy recognised me. Was there really a need for a power trip? And his “don’t let me catch you again”? He didn’t catch me – I came forward and admitted it. I have, many mornings, accidentally presented my bank card instead of train ticket and no one noticed or even looked at it. I could have handed him a wet trout and he’d have been none the wiser.
Why does everyone in Irish Rail have such massive attitude problems?
Hang on a second…………^%…$…”..!!!……………
..&/)(………^…………………….&*…
Okay – got that out of my system.
Irish Rail are the biggest shower of incompetent thieving lazy arse-wipes known to be on the face of the planet. The staff are either so mindlessly bored with their lives that the only way they can achieve any pleasure is to lord it over the hard working commuters they encounter every morning or they still live with their mammy’s and they never get a say at home.
I heard someone giving out about an Irish Rail “worker” one day.
IR “worker” – “Do you know how I got this job?”
Commuter – “You got all D’s in your leaving cert?”
and they lie! 97% DARTS arrived as scheduled!?
Sounds very similar to translink. Very, very similar. Extorionate c**ts.
How are you going to get home? Or to eat today?
*worried*
Are they really that bad guys??? Glad we don’t have trains up here if that the case, lol.
On a similar note we missed the flight last week home so had to get a flight to Dublin and get Bus Eireann home. Dad has free travel being a senior citizen and looks old enough to qualify but as he didn’t have his travel pass the lovely woman driver said no card, either no travel or pay. We had to fork out €18 to get him home. 🙁
Fancy lunch so? On me (no laser card, I promise) !
irish rail is a joke
@Lottie I concur!
@Sheepie Well, yes, I don’t like that word, but I agree with the sentiment. 😛
@Darragh Home? Food? Aaggghh – I haven’t thought it through…
@Stella Sadly, yes, it that bad. I generally don’t have the problems with the running times – work is flexible enough to allow for delays – but the customer service is non-existent. Ignorant, rude, power-tripping morons.
@David Lunch? With you? Not a fucking chance. 😉
@tdog And not a very funny one!
I have to say that the service in Waterford is, overall, brilliant. There are one or two ignorant guys who are on serious powertrips inspecting the cards but everyone else is sound and with great attitudes. Most of them recognise me now and just wave me on. I have even posted before about how sound the guys doing trolley service on the train are. It is the complete opposite of most of the Dublin stations I’ve been in, esp Heuston.
Have you ever notice just how many workers there are on the platform though, compared to how many are – Apparently – needed? There always seem to be loads more guys staffed than appears necessary.
LOL! Too funny. The woman who sells the tickets here in Tullamore has the personality of a thumb tack. She is the most miserable grumpy person I have ever met. It’s become a game with me at this point. I always try and make her smile. Hasn’t worked to date. As miserable as she is, I have to say I was slightly disappointed last time I took the train and she had been replaced by a handsome and cheerful young man. Where’s the challenge in that! 😉
Ah Iarnród Éireann! If I get into my bad experiences we’d be here all day in short the power trips, I imagine, have alot to do with lack of job satisfaction. If I was checking tickets all day everyday or sitting selling them I think I would have chewed a few commuters for breakfast, lunch and dinner myself. “How dare they smile at me as I stand here miserable…smug f****ers!”
Seems this attitude is the same the world over. Travelling in Belgium a few years ago, bought some under 25 train tickets (ah, them were the days!) no prob in station. On the train, the nasty little inspector who still loves with mammy insisted on ID to prove our age. I had it, my g/f didn’t and had to shell out quite a bit. Tried appealing to a non-existent better nature in my not so great French and he just threatened to call the police. He enjoyed it a bit too much and left a bitter taste, especially as tourists.
That’s epicly crap. I never really take the DART, I’m a luas gal, but anytime I’ve done Dublin/Cork or Dublin/Galway I’ve found the service awful. They need to deal with capacity as well as woeful service. Why we can’t ramp up the bridges and get some nice double decker trains like the Germans I’ll never know.
@R Yep – standing around doing sweet FA. Drives me mad!
@Deborah I like that – but I doubt our guys would ever smile. Well, unless I fell over and smashed my face. That might give them a reason to grin a little.
@LittleMiss I understand the job can’t be that satisfying, but I am not about to sympathise with someone who looks down on me like that. Gits!
@Donal Yeah, I suppose it’s unlikely to be restricted to Dublin. And it’s so expensive too – makes me want to learn how to drive. (Thank you for the comment by the way).
@Sinead Thank you for the comment. I saw the double deckers in Paris this year for the first time. They seem to make so much sense – so, we’re unlikely to see them here for a very long time.
I have a monthly ticket. When i forget it i usually just pick a ticket off the ground or find an old one which I keep at work and wave it quickly past their noses. They usually dont look that hard.
They do come across all self righteous about tickets but maybe its because they have to be on the back foot all the time with the shit service they provide.
I think he was just playing with you and your overreacting!
All right lottie.. what do you do for a living? your probably a bum ass studant with to much broadband time on your hands.. if you dont like the rail get a fucking car
@Dan – Yes Dan, I am a bum assed student with too much Broadband time on my hands. I also work a full time job for 50 hours a week, pay over €1500 a year for a DART ticket and still end up driving to work or Dublin on occasions when the DART is either out of service, running 40 minutes late (this occurred twice in the last three weeks) or the time table does not service the average commuters needs.
And aren’t we trying to push for a greener environment? – “leave the car at home they say” – I do try but I have responsibilities and people rely on my being where I say I will be AT THE TIME I say I will be there. Obviously not a concern for our national rail provider. They bang on about trains operating at 96% reliability/according to schedule – BS! They then qualify this statistic in small print stating “within 10 minutes of scheduled arrival time”. Irish Rail may think within 10 minutes is on time – I do not. Neither do many of the people I share a train with in the morning. there is a big different between a train that is due to arrive at 8.55 arriving at 9.05 when people are due to be in work at 9am. Luckily for me I work for a company who don’t mind the odd late arrival however so many people are forced to get the train which leaves 40 minutes earlier just so they can be somewhat certain of getting to work on time. This is another 40 minutes of valuable time of parents, students, the average Jo which is sacrificed due to the failures of IR.
A question for Dan? Do you (a) not use the train or (b) work* for Irish rail? Because I have yet to speak to a daily DART user who has not experienced some abuse at the Mercy of IR.
Did you know that rail fares are going up (yet again) by 15% and yet €5m is wasted by Irish rail every year on empty trains traveling vacant on the lines when they could be providing for commuters. According to this mornings paper one train travels from Howth to Bray at RUSH HOUR and yet does not carry any passengers and the trains that do collect are jammed to unhealthy unsafe capacities. How can they justify price rises when they frivilously waste money and peoples time in this manner?
I can go on (and on and on and on) on this issue but alas I was late for work this morning due to the late arrival of my DART and I have work to catch up on.
*the term work is used in the loosest meaning in this context.
@Dan You fool – you’ve awoken the beast. 🙂 Thanks for the comment though.
I will say this, I know for a fact that Lottie is not overreacting. She’s seen so much stupidity from Irish Rail that I’m surprised she hasn’t attacked one of their staff at this point. And I really don’t think getting a car is the solution. Getting from Greystones to Dublin can take up to two hours by car, traveling in rush hour in the mornings. The 55 minute DART journey (when it’s on time) is just about manageable.
@lottie ok i do agree the rail system dose need alot of improvement, and the answer to your question is yes i use a car yes i as you say “WORK” for irish rail.
Apoligies for branding students as bums, but i dont like seeing working people knocked even if they are bad at their job.
But the railway has been neglected up until about the mid 90s when the goverment was putting more attention on roads and everything else except the rail, but if you havent noticed everything is going up in price rises how that irish rails fault.
Are you sure you dont work for irish rail? by the sounds of it your always late and the term work is used in a loose manner.
i used to be a gate keeper on the maynooth line 12 hour shifts night and day running around like a headless chicken opening and closing gates every 5 min and then have abuse shouted at you all day by passers by in cars, so the term work is very loose indeed