[Mark Gleeson]

Once again a case study in how not to run a railway

14:00 Heuston Cork set 4007
Arrived Heuston 13:37 stood in the queue to 13:52 they appeared to be having serious problems with the pre departure tests.

Boarded and had to eject someone out of my seat, the yellow shirts made no attempt to block people from boarding the reserved coach without a reservation

There was a coffee stain on the side of the table in C33

Catering trolley didn't roll until after Portarlington and was brought through the train without serving anyone before working from the back. No passenger for Thurles in coaches C or D had enough time for a snack from the trolley.

Coach 4135 was showing a systems fault which is typically a broken toilet.

There was no safety or evacuation notice on doors D & C of coach 4137, the one at the other end was pealing off the wall

The electronic map was most confused when the train was just south of Ballybrophy the map had us 16 miles away in Portlaoise

Train host was not visible

And why oh why do train staff have to smoke at the platform?

17:00 Heuston Cork
No Mk4 available so a push pull Mk3 was used resulting in a 15+ minute delay by Thurles

17:30 Cork Heuston set 4007
Arrived 9 minutes down in Thurles

Boarded and had to eject someone out of my seat

Catering trolley was locked up in the buffet which closed at Portarlington

The coffee stain on the side of the table in C33 was still there

Coaches 4407, 4135, 4137 & 4138 where all showing a systems fault which is typically a broken toilet, which I can confirm in 4137.

Interestingly we slowed to a crawl at Portlaoise as if to drop off or collect a package, the train in front was beyond Portarlington at this stage so no reason to slow

So once again IE can't provide a proper service and the ride has again deteriorated to the appalling