[13-8-2007] Northbound DART

[Mark Gleeson]

How it takes 30 minutes to get someone ill off a train beats me, you would walk from Sandymount to Vincents in 20 minutes

Northbound DART delays by Corporate Communications


13th August 2007 - 09.00hrs

Northbound DART services are currently delayed by up to 30 minutes due to a passenger taking ill at Sandymount.

Iarnród Éireann apologises for the inconvenience caused.

[zag]

I was stuck on a DART a few stations behind the delayed train. In fairness there were plenty of announcements both from the driver and the station PA, but after 10-15 minutes of hearing the same announcement over and over I was wondering the same - how could it take so long to get an ambulance ? I know part of the delay was having the patient seen to by the ambulance crew, but still . . .

It brought home (again) the lack of an available plan B when a train fails or otherwise becomes unmovable along that corridor. Is there no way that the backed-up trains could have gone on the other track, passed Sandymount and then crossed back to the correct side for Landsdowne ? It's not as if the southbound track is terribly busy at that time of morning - there are significant gaps between.

By the way, I had cycled to the station and could in theory have got back on my bike and cycled to work - is there any provision for a refund in this situation ? I know it's outside IEs control when a patient becomes ill, but it would help a lot if having heard the delay announcement 30s after buying my ticket I could have handed the ticket back and made alternative arrangements. It could be possible to wait 30 minutes (or whatever) until the threshold for applying for a mail-in refund becomes an option and then waited months to get the refund back from IE, but it is a whole lot smoother to be able to hand the ticket back at the station when they know there is a service disruption happening.

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[Mark Gleeson]

If you elect not to travel for any reason you can get a cash refund at the point of purchase, that assumes the train you boarded hasn't moved.

Wrong line working is quite messy, it has been done in these circumstances but at the moment the crossovers at Lansdowne Rd are off limits to electric trains at least until October due to the Lansdowne Rd stadium works.

Of course questions must be asked of the continuous poor response time in clearing public order and ill passenger incidents all too frequently trains are heavily delayed waiting for ambulances and gardai to attend, in many cases the delay times bare no resemblance to the time it would have taken the emergency services to walk to the location.

[Mark Hennessy]

A few weeks back I was on a train that stopped at Grand Canal dock for 10 mins plus due to a fainting passenger.

She was attended by a member of staff from the station and some folks on the platform but the driver still got of his cab and held the train.

I know its a bit harsh but if the passenger is being attended is there a need for the train to remain halted with the driver attending the sick passenger?

[Mark Gleeson]

I can remember numerous incidents where the passenger who collapsed would be carried out to the platform, placed on a seat and once happy she (almost always a female passenger) was conscious and happy to be left behind everyone reboarded a wave from a passenger reboarding and the driver set off. We lost three passengers one morning in this manner

Once the passenger is off the train, and in the care of a member of staff other than the driver or a doctor and it is clear there is no need to call gardai the train can go.

I can recall one incident where a passenger collapsed in Blackrock in the evening, hot evening but train had few standing driver got out checked she was ok, jumped over the track to the station returned with a bottle of water handed it to the passenger and once he was happy off we went, total delay 5 minutes.

It seems there needs to be a lot better coordination on the ground, equally as I have said many times before if you are feeling unwell you should avoid travelling in crush load conditions

[Chap]

That happened to me in New York, I had to get the Subway to Queens but some person took ill and they had to call the Fire department paramedics. The train was cancelled....so I had to walk and get a different train....there was a bit of a row between someone giving out about it, and sayin "just hoof her off the train", and another dude who was sayin "what if it was your mudda, ya bum"......

[MOH]

Originally Posted by Chap

That happened to me in New York, I had to get the Subway to Queens but some person took ill and they had to call the Fire department paramedics. The train was cancelled....so I had to walk and get a different train....there was a bit of a row between someone giving out about it, and sayin "just hoof her off the train", and another dude who was sayin "what if it was your mudda, ya bum"......

Throw Momma from the Train.

It seems there needs to be a lot better coordination on the ground, equally as I have said many times before if you are feeling unwell you should avoid travelling in crush load conditions

A lot of the crush load conditions are caused by trains not turning up on time in the first place. If you're already late waiting for a train you're not going to let the first one go and wait again.

[Thomas J Stamp]

Welcome to the board, Chap.