Rail Users Ireland Forum - View Single Post - The Cork Dublin Express Train has entered service

sandraoh · 08-08-2006, 15:59

I caught the 15:52 service from Mallow to Portlaoise yesterday after a lovely weekend in tralee. Here is my experience.

I was delighted to see the nice new train pull up as I had never experienced a journey on one since they entered service.

We got on the train and it was nicely air conditioned and even through a huge number of people boarded at Mallow we managed to get seats together.
Once the journey began the nice robotic man started his announcement as gaelige about moving bags off seats etc. It didn't mention anything about stopping in Portlaoise and the English annoucement was the same. I went to have a look at the electronic journey planner thingy and it didn't include Portlaoise either. I wandered down the train and found not one but 2 ticket checker people sitting with their feet up and I asked them what the story was, they told me that "it should be yeah" when I asked if the train was stopping in Portlaoise.

I then wandered off to try and find the dining car. I have to say it was a very rough ride and I must have appeared drunk to all of the passengers that I fell on as I tried to make my way through the train. I was thrown from side to side quite roughly in patches. When I got to the dining car there was an enormous queue and no wonder as tweedle dum and tweedle dee were working behind the counter. Only one was serving, the other appeared to be working the till or checking what was in stock when the other shouted back. They mustn't have understood me when I asked for 2 ribena drinks as I was handed 2 packets of fruit pastilles instead. I finally got what I wanted by using hand gestures and a lot of pointing.

After a very rocky journey it was announced that we would be stopping in portlaoise, next station is portlaoise. This was before we had even passed through Ballybrophey! Lots of people stood up in order to alight and were left being thrown around by the doors for a good 20 minutes.

By the time we arrived in Portlaoise I was seasick from rocking around so much and the electronic journey display thing said we had already passed through Portarlington and was almost in Monasterevan.

Can the do anything about the horrible motion sickness problem. Vomits per mile statistics should be made available. I wouldn't like to be feeling a little hungover or suffering from morning sickness!

08-08-2006, 15:59	#157
sandraoh Regular Poster Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Portlaoise Posts: 145	Seasickness I caught the 15:52 service from Mallow to Portlaoise yesterday after a lovely weekend in tralee. Here is my experience. I was delighted to see the nice new train pull up as I had never experienced a journey on one since they entered service. We got on the train and it was nicely air conditioned and even through a huge number of people boarded at Mallow we managed to get seats together. Once the journey began the nice robotic man started his announcement as gaelige about moving bags off seats etc. It didn't mention anything about stopping in Portlaoise and the English annoucement was the same. I went to have a look at the electronic journey planner thingy and it didn't include Portlaoise either. I wandered down the train and found not one but 2 ticket checker people sitting with their feet up and I asked them what the story was, they told me that "it should be yeah" when I asked if the train was stopping in Portlaoise. I then wandered off to try and find the dining car. I have to say it was a very rough ride and I must have appeared drunk to all of the passengers that I fell on as I tried to make my way through the train. I was thrown from side to side quite roughly in patches. When I got to the dining car there was an enormous queue and no wonder as tweedle dum and tweedle dee were working behind the counter. Only one was serving, the other appeared to be working the till or checking what was in stock when the other shouted back. They mustn't have understood me when I asked for 2 ribena drinks as I was handed 2 packets of fruit pastilles instead. I finally got what I wanted by using hand gestures and a lot of pointing. After a very rocky journey it was announced that we would be stopping in portlaoise, next station is portlaoise. This was before we had even passed through Ballybrophey! Lots of people stood up in order to alight and were left being thrown around by the doors for a good 20 minutes. By the time we arrived in Portlaoise I was seasick from rocking around so much and the electronic journey display thing said we had already passed through Portarlington and was almost in Monasterevan. Can the do anything about the horrible motion sickness problem. Vomits per mile statistics should be made available. I wouldn't like to be feeling a little hungover or suffering from morning sickness!