crowded trains why complain???????

[gm101]

why do people always complain about over crowded trains???? name one train system in the world that does not have over crowded trains at peak times

[Mark Gleeson]

Not a useful post

There is a difference between standing and overcrowding

Busiest commuter train in the UK has 12 coaches and carries about 1350 people, busiest one in Dublin 1400 in 8 carraiges

There is sustained crush loading on all suburban services in Dublin, which goes beyond anything you will see anywhere across Europe, no one should stand for more than 20 minutes, its 40 minutes to Maynooth, Bray and 55 to Drogheda its not acceptable

At least one person collapsed this morning and there was an exceptionally close call where several peoples lives where placed in imminent danger.

[Thomas J Stamp]

Originally Posted by gm101

why do people always complain about over crowded trains???? name one train system in the world that does not have over crowded trains at peak times

I like you. Can we have some more?

[Mark Hennessy]

Originally Posted by gm101

why do people always complain about over crowded trains???? name one train system in the world that does not have over crowded trains at peak times

Some peak trains going into the city of London are very busy for a small period of time in the morning rush, folks there can jump on the next one following along within 5 mins.

Over here the choice is limited to a train now or at best another in 20-25 mins on the commuter lines from the west and north?

So if everybody wants to get on one of the 3 or 4 trains an hour what you find is the dreadful overcrowding that is the norm in Ireland but is exceptionally overcrowded by other countries standards.

[gm101]

i for one think irish rail as a whole do a great job i think there could be improvements of course but i also put this down to under investment by the government that investment only started to be made around 10 years ago and that takes time to reap the rewards who here on this site can say the railways in ireland are not better now than ever before as the slogan says "were not there yet but were getting there"or is is just that were a nation of moaners you decided.

[markpb]

Originally Posted by gm101

i for one think irish rail as a whole do a great job i think there could be improvements of course but i also put this down to under investment by the government that investment only started to be made around 10 years ago and that takes time to reap the rewards who here on this site can say the railways in ireland are not better now than ever before as the slogan says "were not there yet but were getting there"or is is just that were a nation of moaners you decided.

Under investment doesn't explain why the staff are rude or discourteous, why passenger information is poor at best and absent at worst. It doesn't give them reason to run dirty trains with enough padding in the timetable to make most other European operators laugh and then claim that they're 97% on time. The list of problems Irish Rail passengers face is a long one and most of them have nothing to do with under-investment.

[ThomasJ]

that takes time to reap the rewards who here on this site can say the railways in ireland are not better now than ever before as the slogan says "were not there yet but were getting there"or is is just that were a nation of moaners you decided.

Agree with what you say to some extent, They are playing catchup based on years of underinvestment that is down to the government

Some of the problems however are down to IEs own decision making. Worth noting though that the Maynooth line, the line suffering from severe overcrowding and whose passengers constantly collapse and came close to a fatal incident yesterday, was according to Iarnrod Eireann "not feasible". Were they correct?

[Thomas J Stamp]

Originally Posted by gm101

i for one think irish rail as a whole do a great job

so do we, otherwise we wouldn't exist

Originally Posted by gm101

i think there could be improvements of course

cant disagree with you there

Originally Posted by gm101

but i also put this down to under investment by the government that investment only started to be made around 10 years ago and that takes time to reap the rewards

as the lads above have rightly pointed out, not all can be put at the DoT door, but when it can be, we will do it, and we have done.

Originally Posted by gm101

who here on this site can say the railways in ireland are not better now than ever before as the slogan says "were not there yet but were getting there"

ah, but you're working from such a deplorable base level. As Morecome and Wise used to say "He's in the gutter, but he's looking up at the pavement"

Originally Posted by gm101

or is is just that were a nation of moaners you decided.

Did you know that yours was the 30,613th post on this, our second, board?

Did you know that our Web Stats are now higher than IE?

Amazing really.

[Ballymore]

I disagree that their main problems are due to underinvestment. It's what they do with the investment they get that concerns me.

For instance does anyone else think it's ridiculous that your ticket is checked going onto the platform in Mullingar and then again in about 5 minutes time by a different guy on the train. Same thing happens on the way home, I put my ticket through the automatic barrier in Connolly to get onto the train in the first place so why pay someone to check it again an hour later on the train?

I've nothing against them as individuals - some of them are even pleasant - but surely they could be doing something more productive!

[Laois Commuter]

Originally Posted by Ballymore

I disagree that their main problems are due to underinvestment. It's what they do with the investment they get that concerns me.

For instance does anyone else think it's ridiculous that your ticket is checked going onto the platform in Mullingar and then again in about 5 minutes time by a different guy on the train. Same thing happens on the way home, I put my ticket through the automatic barrier in Connolly to get onto the train in the first place so why pay someone to check it again an hour later on the train?

I've nothing against them as individuals - some of them are even pleasant - but surely they could be doing something more productive!

If there are no barriers at the outer end, then yes tickets should be checked on train. Amaizng how many travellers out of Victoria in London buy a ticket to Clapham Junction to get through the barriers, and have a change of heart over their destination - as discovered with an on train ticket check south of East Croydon. So it is productive. Whether some on here like to acknowledge it or not, there are many who will try and get away without paying fares.

LC

[gm101]

the ticket checkers that work on the sligo line also work as guards if need be or if there is a problem with the train they can act as a second man so they do have a purpose and of course to catch fare evaders

[Mark Gleeson]

Trains to Sligo don't carry guards in the first place

Normal policy at significant intercity stations is to check tickets on the platform or at a gate to the platform

On train checks are generally done towards the end of the journey, to catch people travelling beyond there ticket

So you won't be checked between Dublin and Thurles but you will Thurles Dublin most of the time

[ThomasJ]

How far off the point has this topic gone?

from:

why do people always complain about over crowded trains???? name one train system in the world that does not have over crowded trains at peak times

to:

the ticket checkers that work on the sligo line also work as guards if need be or if there is a problem with the train they can act as a second man so they do have a purpose and of course to catch fare evaders

[Thomas J Stamp]

well, call me sentimental in my old age, but I'll keep this open for a while, just to see if you can all find a point to this.

someone goes to the bother of signing up to a discussion forum and is putting across the point that we should all shut up and be happy with what we have got.

look, I've even added a poll.

[ThomasJ]

Crowded trains, why complain?
well, would you tolerate this?
This blog sums it up.

Railing against shorter trains
A reader from west Dublin was prompted to get in touch after modifications made to his commuter rail service left him and his fellow passengers squashed like sardines into the carriages daily. "It takes a perverse talent - not to mention a hard-necked disregard for popular outrage - to actually halve the passenger capacity of a given train in the face of spiralling passenger numbers, but Irish Rail have done just that," he writes.
"Last month a new station on the Maynooth to Dublin line opened near the Phoenix Park, at which time Irish Rail made changes to the timetable. Most rational souls might imagine they put on more or longer trains at peak times - but that is not the Irish Rail way. Instead, they employed the revolutionary tactic of halving the existing peak-time trains going through Tara Street." The result is, he says, "dangerous overcrowding and people left stranded on the platform".
He says that the train which leaves Tara Street shortly after 6pm used to have eight carriages but, for the last week in January, "it was a four-carriage affair. The overcrowding is such that it would shock Dart users," he says. He contacted Irish Rail by e-mail last week without much hope of getting a reply and he wasn't far wrong - apart from an automatic "thank you for your e-mail" response, he has so far heard nothing.
"I have always considered my sympathies on matters of economics and politics to be decidedly left-of-centre, but now find myself pining for an Irish Margaret Thatcher to arrive on the scene, privatise the lot, and put the incompetents responsible on the dole," he concludes. While that might be just a little extreme, we do take his point.
We contacted Irish Rail on his behalf, and spokesman Barry Kenny assured us that the trains departing Tara Street in the evenings had not been shortened as a matter of policy as our reader thinks. Kenny said that, on one day in the week our reader is referring to, "a mechanical issue" had led to the number of carriages being reduced from a normal eight to four.
Since then, he said, there have been six carriages on the service leaving Tara Street shortly after 6pm. This was a "short-term" reduction to allow for maintenance on some carriages. Carriages on the Dublin-Sligo line were being upgraded, and once that process was completed, the older carriages would be commissioned for use on the Dublin to Maynooth commuter line. Kenny said that he expected the service to be back up to its full capacity of eight carriages "by the end of February or the beginning of March".
We asked if commuters could expect to see a similarly short-term reduction in fares to compensate them for the increasingly cramped conditions, but the answer was a fairly emphatic no.

[Colm Moore]

I fear I'll live to regret saying this.

Originally Posted by markpb

Under investment doesn't explain why the staff are rude or discourteous

I think the two points can be linked. If you put a company into negative mode for 75 years where the only activity outside day to day operations is closing things, then you aren't going to attract or retain the best staff.

[Mark Gleeson]

Irish Rail are at pains to point out the young age profile in the company so that doesn't hold

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Irish Rail are at pains to point out the young age profile in the company so that doesn't hold

Does that mean high employee turnover, low retention?

[Damo]

I was in Zurich for two weeks in April '07. Peak hour trains weren't overcrowded, and the trains arrived exactly on time.

[Derek Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Victor

Does that mean high employee turnover, low retention?

No. It means the older gits have ****ed off and their sons and daughters have moved in to replace them, with the same old "drilled in mentality" that IE management haven't got the brains to shake off.

Poor management has killed off many a company.