What I love about Irish Rail
That its customer services phoneline is open only between 9am-5pm.
Because who, in their right mind, would be using the trains at the times before and after this? No-one, I’d bet. They’re probably ghost trains at those times.
Who would, say, be wondering about cancelled trains, or why the radio says one thing and the Irish Rail website says another, or looking for some bloody information, at any other time? Only crazy, frustrated, angry customers, that’s who. And why would anyone want to deal with them?
sure what would you be taking the train for, don’t we have oodles of road?
Comment by de tick | March 18, 2008 at 7:08 pmThou speaketh with a forked tongue, Hegarty!
I recently saw Craig Doyle emerge from some greenery, saunter through an uncluttered platform and step onto a waiting eco-train.
Not for a minute did he exude anything less than 100% smuggery.
Don’t just take my word for it.
Comment by Nat King Coleslaw | March 18, 2008 at 9:00 pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcqzmGJYXGE
I maintained for years and I still do that the solution to Irish Rail (and frankly the whole of what was CIE) is to fire everyone from the ceo down and rehire on the basis that the primary purpose of the organisation is to move people about. Not to provide them as employees with jobs.
Comment by Dan Sullivan | March 18, 2008 at 10:53 pmI’m always amazed by the difference travelling from Belfast-Dublin on the Enterprise and then Dublin-Galway on Irish Rail, it’s like going from the Orient Express to Calcutta in one easy Luas journey, and that’s doing Calcutta a disservice by comparisson
Comment by Ave | March 19, 2008 at 12:57 pmTo echo Dan, Shane is making the classic mistake of assuming that Irish Rail is run for the benefit of the commuting public.
Comment by Steve K | March 19, 2008 at 2:34 pmMy favourite cuddly customer service at Irish Rail story is when I asked why it wasn’t possible to buy a single ticket from Dublin to Limerick on a Friday.
The answer “because”.
Although that’s nearly beaten by the response to the question as to why a 16.05 train from Dublin-Limerick wasn’t leaving despite it being timetabled.
“Because we’re busy”
Oh right then, i’ll just stand around here until ye’re ready.
Comment by clom | March 19, 2008 at 3:06 pmIR is slightly better than it used to be, I remember getting to Hueston to catch a 17:30 train to Limerick about 8 years ago only to be informed that they had somehow lost the train and couldn’t find it!! Luckily i wasn’t in a rush and found great amusement watching an angry businessman lose the plot with customer service shouting “Sure Jeazus theres only so many places the Fookin train can be!!”
About an hour later it arrived and ran (apparantly it had been left in the trainwash area and forgotten about)
Comment by Ronan | March 19, 2008 at 5:31 pmAgain, I look on with envy at the train using elite. If I could afford the prices charged by IR then I wouldn’t be stuck at Drogheda bus depot for two hours on a Thursday evening wondering where the bloody bus was
(Apparently buses to Dundalk stop leaving at eight)
Comment by Eamonn | March 21, 2008 at 12:39 pm