Yep, it's confirmed. The mahem I predicted (see previous post) for St. Patrick's Day owing to the incompetence of Irish Rail certainly came to pass. Not only had the bright sparks there decided to run a Sunday service on possibly one of the busiest days of the year, but shockingly they also put on short trains only. That means fewer carriages for the passengers.
Catherine and I got on the train at about 11 am in Skerries only to find the train already very packed. Fair enough, we got on at least. The platform at the next stop, Rush and Lusk, was full of passengers, all of whom seemed to get on but it rendered the train completely full. Nobody from any of the next 5 stops could get on. Hundreds of families, kids all painted and dressed up for the parade, were left on the platform with no way into town. I just wish the head of Irish Rail was there on the platform to see the dejected looks on the kids faces.
Apparently 600,000 people were in the city centre for the festivities, and if the people at Irish Rail can't predict that it would be a major day for passengers (and therefore revenue) then they should be fired for complete incompetence.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I'm not sure incompetence is the word I use, there is an Irish attitude that you are missing. Well it's more a way of life rather than anything else. It's the "ah sure it'll be grand" attitude. There was no lack of planning for the day, in fact I'm sure the dozens of train drivers who booked the day off did so well in advance and had their day of perfectly planned. When it came to drawing up the roster for the day I'm sure a supervisor or low paid manager looked at the list of six drivers name he had at his disposal and simply said " ah sure it'll be grand". He knew what he had to do, he knew what he should have done he just didn't have the heart to tell some of the drivers they couldn't have the day off.
ReplyDeleteBy the way love your blog Stephen. Some interesting outside observations.