A damning indictment of Irish Rail's Intercity service.

[Mark Gleeson]

Originally Posted by CSL

No, there is a point to be made here I think. I and a lot of other people assume that a closed gate means sweet FA in Heuston since there is no sign, whether electronic or otherwise that something may happen.

We assume just like the rest of Irish life, nobody has bothered to open the gate; therefore no penalty for lashing for it.

You wouldn't do it at an airport would you??

If the gate is closed, its closed, wait and form a queue, far too often the train in the platform is not the one you are looking for, imagine this guy boarded and the train vanished off to Inchicore. Equally the ticket checker may have been required to assist a passenger to board the train and had to close the gate. The gate exists to prevent passengers from boarding a train when they shouldn't, that is perfectly reasonable

If everyone started to open the locked gates in Heuston just because they felt like it it would cause all out chaos

You are required to have your ticket validated/stamped etc if there is a gate, again you will find this is common across the rest of Europe where you must get the ticket punched or stamped before boarding and failure to do so will result in trouble. Now its inconsistent but still

The host was correct to refuse access as the ticket wasn't stamped when it should be, however his attitude in dealing with the issue was way out of line

Ticket checks on the Cork line are conducted normally after Limerick Junction Cork bound and after Thurles Dublin bound to catch anyone who boarded since Dublin or Cork and also to nab anyone travelling beyond their destination, thats not unreasonable