So what did we learn over the last few days....absolutely nothing new just the usual sypnosis of IEs handling of these sort of problems.... a mess!
A few areas that show that:
1. Information on Website:
On the website over the weekend there were two seperate news items, one informing passengers of easter arrangements and the other informing of cancellations. Neither had reference to the other which could/would have confused passengers....
On the news item informing of cancellations. What was not in the news item was:
Alternative options available to passengers
Paasengers who had tickets for cancelled journeys, what options for them, their entitlements
We are prbably never going to see that information on the Irish Rail Website which is why i think RUI should seriously consider the following:
Three stickys on the up to date information page -
1 for fare information (with a link to where it can be found on the irish rail website, because it cant be found),
2 for what passengers who have bought a ticket are entitled to in the event of their train being cancelled and
3 for what passengers who have bought a ticket are entitled to in the event of their train being delayed
RUI should also consider creating their own news items containing alternative options available and what passengers who have paid tickets are entitled to, to ensure people don't forget this. ie's news items are beyond a joke.
2. Lack of information on the ground
What was clear over the weekend was lack of information at stations. Mark Hennessy pointed out Coolmine station on saturday night, a lot of passengers waiting for a cancelled train.
The lack of information at some Maynooth line stations is beyond a joke.
3. Lack of provisions
2 clear examples of this today was the 18:08 Connolly Maynooth and the 18:15 Pearse Drogheda
In the case of the 18:08 Connolly Maynooth, the railcars from that service should have been added to the 18:05 Connolly Longford making it an 8-coach train stopping at all stations. Instead passengers for the 18:08 were left inconvinienced, left wait for a probably crammed 18:18 Connolly Longford the no inititive.
The same with passengers on the 18:15 Pearse Drogheda leave them to wait for an hour whereas the 18:40 stopping at all stops would have helped.
Just as well some people are still on holidays, it could have been much worse
