Thread: Late Late Late
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Unread 10-11-2010, 19:22   #5
James Howard
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Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Sligo Line
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I've often thought that it would help a bit if the driver could open all of the doors rather than just enable them - at least at the bigger stops. When I used to get off a Longford train in Pearse, it used to happen at least a couple of times a week where somebody would be standing in front on the button and it might take 10 or 20 seconds to get the doors open.

The biggest problem with passenger flow in this country is that people have no manners. It wouldn't occur to 90% of people to step off a train to one side of the door to clear the way for 30 or 40 people and then get back on it. Similarly a fair proportion of people are too thick to realise that everyone will get where they are going a bit faster if they let people off the train before getting on themselves.

Maybe they could have a helpful instructional poster like the one that explains why leaves on the track make the trains go slow. Or an announcement along the the lines of "Hey Thicko, let everyone off before you get on the train".

Another genius thing that would help matters is the fact that every single train in the country seems to be 4 inches higher than every platform in the country (well, maybe it is just the platforms I use). And when you consider that most of the platforms on the DART, Maynooth and Sligo lines have been extended over the last 10 years - specifically to accommodate new trains, why the hell didn't they raise them at the same time? That would save 2 or 3 minutes faffing about with ramps every time somebody in a wheelchair needs to get on or off a train.

Keeping things running just doens't seem to be a priority. Take the example of a medical emergency (which is usually somebody fainting due to overcrowding). This usually results in the train stopping for 20 minutes while somebody makes tut-tutting noises to the victim and waits for the paramedics. Now, it is perfectly reasonable that the person not be moved off the train by an amateur, but they could let the train continue on to one of Connolly, Clonsilla, Heuston or Sydney Parade which are near major hospitals and arrange for the paramedics to meet the train there. This would probably get the person to proper care faster, would lessen the travel time for the ambulance and would keep things moving.

Nobody ever seems to have a plan when entirely predicatable things go wrong.
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