Terrible service at heuston

[MrX]

My almost 90 year old grandmother was on here way back up to Dublin yesterday on the 1:30pm train from Cork. She had a minor accident in Cork and was on two crutches. (and accompanied by a relative). She has a damaged hip and quite serious mobility difficulties at the moment.

The service was worse than abysmal and the staff just didn't care about her at all.

Problems:

1) My mother asked if she could upgrade at Cork - Kent and was told - no! You must be here 30 mins before the train's departure. The ticket person made no effort to explain that she could upgrade on board and made no effort to help her find a suitable seat in standard class or to give her priority boarding as would be the standard on air transport.

I realise that you may not have been able to buy a supplement at the ticket desk at that stage, but the least they could have done was explained the options!

2) No ramps were offered at any stage and she had to haul herself over the enormous gap at kent. (she didn't ask for one as she assumed none was available). She was actually in pain when she got on as she wrenched her arm on the way in. The lady who was with her also strained herself quite badly catching her.

3) Staff on board made no effort to help her find a seat. Although she did eventually find one in Coach E

4) Passengers wouldn't give her the priority area and staff did not make it available for her.

5) She got to Dublin and again, no ramp was offered. She waited in her seat and nobody came.

6) When she got off the train (last) all the gates were closing. She was about to exit through one of the gates and the ticket checker asked was she boarding or getting off the train and they said getting off. The helpful member of staff simply locked the gate.

7) This meant she had to struggle the entire way up the platform on two very painful hips and crutches.

8) She got to the top of the platform to find ANOTHER locked gate (she'd taken too long to get off the train) (this is where i finally found her!)

9) (the only nice bit) - An older member of heuston staff opened that gate. This was the only person who seemed to care. This is where we finally found her, we could not get access to the platform! Despite several attempts.

10) We had tried to park in the wheelchair space in the setdown area (this was of course being blocked by an inconsiderate person who didn't need it)

11) So, she parked behind it. The parking attendant shouted at her, banged on her windows. She tried to explain and he told her "I don't want to hear your little story" and continued shouting at her...

So, she blocked the entire queue of traffic into the set down area while my granny was being loaded in... as the guy was totally unprepared to help and we were not asking an old lady to walk any further.

My overall experience was that Irish Rail simply do not give a **** about a disabled passenger.

Next time we'll take ryanair! At least legislation forces them to care.

I am phoning them on monday and plan to demand an explanation for this treatment. It's utterly unacceptable. Millions were spent on making those trains accessible and the staff simply failed to give a damn.

It's an absolute disgrace and I find it utterly unforgivable that an old lady was treated so shabbily.

IE ought to be ashamed of themselves. It's not lack of resources, it's staff who simply do not care.

My attitude now is privatise the lot of it!

[Mark Gleeson]

Many Cork Dublin trains where sold out yesterday so that could explain the upgrades not being available, http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/...ew&news_id=287

Normally if you give Irish Rail notice even a few hours ahead that you will need assistance they will be waiting to help. http://www.iarnrodeireann.ie/images/upload/news/296.pdf I've seen this in practice and it works and is surprisingly coordinated, upon boarding the staff confirm the destination, if its a driver only train tell the driver and then phone ahead

Each coach on a Mk4 has a wheelchair ramp, its in the wall opposite the toilet

Rule one is if you need assistance ASK

Now while on train the train manager should have shifted someone out of the priority seats in a unresevered coach, again if they where asked this should have happened. Again the train manager would have arranged the ramp and wheelchair at the Heuston end if asked.

If a member of staff was asked for assistance directly and did not assist there is serious grounds for complaint

[StephenM]

Originally Posted by MrX

My overall experience was that Irish Rail simply do not give a **** about a disabled passenger.

I have to disagree, on the Ballina - Manulla line I have seen nothing but helpfulness towards disabled passengers. They will always provide a ramp if required and an extra member of staff will travel on the train from Ballina with a ramp even though there is also (If I am right) one available at Manulla Junction. I have seen one group of passengers offering a member of staff a tip in reward for his work but he did not accept. The passengers are always quite glad of the assistance.

Even though it should not have to be done, did you contact Iarnrod Éireann in advance of the journey to inform them?

[MrX]

I didn't arrange the transport myself and my grandmother's not one who is likely to ask for help on board. She's a stubbornly independent type.

What really irritates me is the fact that the staff on the platform when she got off at Heuston must have been able to see she was having serious difficulty and did absolutely nothing to help. They could have at least let her out a closer gate rather than letting her wander the entire length of the platform on two crutches!!

The car park attendant was also ridiculously aggressive. His behaviour was totally uncalled for. We were not creating any sort of an obstruction and he actually ended up creating a situation where we'd no choice but to do so. Also he wasn't enforcing the wheelchair space regulations at all. This is the very type of scenario where that space is useful!

[CSL]

Mark your first link doesn't work.

[Mark Gleeson]

Originally Posted by CSL

Mark your first link doesn't work.

IE deleted the page, there was some soccer game on which had led to a rush on tickets, despite an extra train being provided.

[StephenM]

Did you manage to get any of their names? I'd be irate if a situation like that arose where you obviously are worse off when a staff member is involved.

[MrX]

Well there are a few problems here. My grandmother's not normally this immobile and would not normally need help on a train. She had an accident and this rendered her very immobile to the level that each step was very painful and she was on two crutches.

Now, she asked for help at Kent station at the ticket desk when she arrived. She didn't get offered anything. No priority boarding, nothing. Just told gruffly that she couldn't do an upgrade.

From that point on she just assumed that no further help was available. It's all very well to assume that people know these services exist, but they're not advertised and they're not offered so it's quite difficult to access them. It's a very different scenario for someone who is a long-term wheel chair user or who is used to using these services on board.

How was she supposed to know that there was a ramp available on each coach if no one told her? Or how was she supposed to know that she was supposed to phone ahead if she needed assistance if she's never had to do that before? It's not printed on the tickets, it's not written on a sign, it's not advertised. Sure, it might be on some obscure note on their website, but it's not good enough in my opinion.

I'm sure some IE staff are great when it comes to helping people with mobility issues. However, as usual, there's no consistancey. It's the same as the fact that you can't be sure of getting food on a train half the time. Nothing's predicable, standards are not universally maintained and there's absolutely no quality control worth talking about. One train can be great, clean, well managed and with an excellent food service. You try another train on the same route and it can be filthy, poorly managed and have no catering!

I still think the way she was treated was unacceptably shoddy and that someone should have offered some kind of assistance.

It was extremely obvious that this old lady + her sister were struggling their way up the platform unaided when I arrived. She looks old and she's on two crutches! I mean how hard is it to spot that someone like that might need a hand?! Even if the station's busy, staff saw her and just ignored her.

Also, the way the parking attendant treated us in Heuston was nothing short of absolutely ignorant and was totally unacceptable. I do not appreciate being shouted abuse at by anyone in any situation. There was no problem / major traffic issue. He was just utterly unreasonable and unhelpful

[Mark Gleeson]

Since she asked for help it becomes a whole different ball game

All staff are meant to have been given training in assisting passengers with mobility problems

The ticket clerk is the problem, if they had acted in accordance with the procedure there would have been someone out with the wheelchair or golf buggy which would have sorted the whole thing, it would have set off a chain of a events

While sitting on the train any mobility difficulty is likely to be hard to spot. The train hosts are very friendly and visible, just ask it makes matters so much easier, they can radio ahead for assistance

Car park dude is a outside contractor not IE

Ticket clerk deserves a serious earful then a p45