Rail Users Ireland Forum - View Single Post - A damning indictment of Irish Rail's Intercity service.

turnapin · 05-12-2007, 15:49

I find the locked gate issue to be a bit of a red herring. People only go through locked gates as a last resort. In this case it appears to be a train that’s due to depart in eight minutes, a locked gate and no information(though presumably the display said On Time, which would compound matters). If there’s a queue you don’t go through. If the gates staffed, you don’t go through. If there’s neither you’re in a difficult position, where you could either catch the train or feel like an idiot in eight minutes time.

The real issue is that IE are terrible at providing information to passengers. They are an absolute disaster at providing it on a consistent basis across the network and just to compound matters, each line and station appears to have it's own peculiarities of operation which are largely undocumented and may be interpreted differently by different employees.

I love the idea of “Now Boarding” at the gate. In truth I’m sure it would just be a matter of time before someone comes up to an unattended locked gate with a train on the platform and “Now Boarding” on the display.

05-12-2007, 15:49	#6
turnapin Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 46	I find the locked gate issue to be a bit of a red herring. People only go through locked gates as a last resort. In this case it appears to be a train that’s due to depart in eight minutes, a locked gate and no information(though presumably the display said On Time, which would compound matters). If there’s a queue you don’t go through. If the gates staffed, you don’t go through. If there’s neither you’re in a difficult position, where you could either catch the train or feel like an idiot in eight minutes time. The real issue is that IE are terrible at providing information to passengers. They are an absolute disaster at providing it on a consistent basis across the network and just to compound matters, each line and station appears to have it's own peculiarities of operation which are largely undocumented and may be interpreted differently by different employees. I love the idea of “Now Boarding” at the gate. In truth I’m sure it would just be a matter of time before someone comes up to an unattended locked gate with a train on the platform and “Now Boarding” on the display.