IF YOU’VE EVER boarded an Irish Rail train and gone to your pre-booked seat only to find somebody sitting in it, you’re not the only one.
Figures released by Irish Rail to TheJournal.ie under Freedom of Information legislation show that the problem accounted for 976 pieces of feedback in 2015.
That made it the single most vexing issue passengers encountered on-board.
Crowding was next with 672 pieces of feedback, while contacts about first-class carriages had 416.
Heating, cleanliness, catering and wi-fi all feature in the feedback, though there were only single issues with fines, noise and intimidation in the 3,403 pieces of customer feedback.
Tickets, please
In terms of fares and ticketing, there were 2,562 pieces of feedback in total.
The most common problems on that front were to do with on-line tickets, unused tickets and student tickets. Some 476 people got in contact about either fare structures or ticket prices.
There were 1,504 pieces of feedback in relation to train stations, with facilities and ticket machines the most common topic.
Some 77 people got in contact about trains leaving early, 27 people spoke about the state of toilets in stations and 117 were upset at incorrect information being displayed.
There were 1,135 contacts about the Irish Rail website, with over half, 644, saying they had been unable to book tickets.
There were 721 contacts about staff, but 211 of those were positive. Of the remainder, 408 said that staff were rude or unhelpful.
There were 368 contacts about antisocial behaviour on trains, with 229 about unruly passengers. Under this heading the number of pieces of feedback relating intimidation jumps by 50. There were 25 thefts and 14 assaults.
A spokesperson for the company said that the numbers were “broadly reflective of people who use trains in Ireland”.
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