A while ago I started a thread in the members' section of this forum called "Dogs on trains - Ireland is out of step". I don't know whether you got to see it. Essentially I argued that most European countries have no difficulty accepting dogs for travel by train, generally with the passenger, with nothing more than a lead required.
I have a lot of experience of travelling with dogs on both sides of the Irish Sea. In Britain, a great Dane would probably not be refused if the train was not too full. My experience with two golden retrievers is that I have rarely been asked to move along to another part of the train, though staff have the right to do so.
Here in Ireland, you should be able to bring a great Dane on the Dublin-Cork or Dublin-Belfast lines, if you provide a cage big enough and put him in the van. That might not be much help if you live in Waterford. I got my two retrievers used to this from an early age - I remember Sophie's first such journey, between Connolly and Drogheda on the Enterprise, which is only half and hour. It may be more difficult to get an older dog to accept this.
I wanted to sound out RUI members to see if others agreed. There was no great enthusiasm, and some people focused on things that could go wrong (which seems to be IR's attitude), rather than realising that the same risks must exist in every other country, but their attitude is that passengers with dogs are part of the customer base.
In one sense this is a different issue to carrying bikes by train, but they have this in common. In their rush to accommodate as many passengers as possible, IR have forgotten that real live passengers don't come in an idealised, standardised form, but have a variety of things to bring with them. IR needs to be flexible if they are to attract people out of their cars.
Maybe I'm not a lone voice in this. It would be good if we could highlight just how much Ireland is out of step with most of the rest of Europe.
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