Train passengers differ on experience with safety and anti-social behaviour

Passengers alighting from the 15.06 train from Cork into Heuston station on Friday reported mixed experiences of anti-social behaviour on the route.

Helen Hogan, from Douglas, Cork, said she only travelled first class now having had several bad experiences.

"I was on the train there once and I had a present for my son, a coat from Brown Thomas, very expensive and this guy got on at Limerick Junction and went to take it. So I had to grab it off him. I said I'd call the guards but sure there was no-one to call," she said.

“Another time this guy was weird, talking all dirty stuff to me. That was when I decided I would only go first class from then on.”

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Sorcha Dells, who is from Dublin but attends college in Limerick, said she travelled by train weekly. Asked whether she had experienced trouble on board, she laughed.

“Yeah, definitely. Just all the time, there’s lots of people being very loud and obnoxious with no masks on, not really adhering to the Covid standards,” she said. “There’s a lot of playing music out loud, not caring what other people think.”

Others, however, were more positive. “This is our first time on the Cork train in over a year and we were just saying how good it was, very pleasant,” said a man, wheeling a large red suitcase and with his teenage daughter.

“We live in Dublin and are just coming back from Cork after a mid-term break.”

Another couple with young children said they “travel on the train only sometimes and it is fine”.

A woman with a young boy said she had “no trouble on the train today and none other times either”.

Signs up around the station advised that no alcohol was permitted on board trains “in the interests of customer comfort” – a measure in place since Covid-19 restrictions were introduced and dining cars were removed from all inter-city trains.

‘Lost control’

However,many of the respondents to an Irish Times call-out said drinking and drugs use on trains were regular causes of anti-social behaviour problems on trains.

“I use the Dart nearly every day,” said Oliver Whelan. “I was using it through the pandemic twice a week. We have lost control of public spaces in this regard.

“I had groups smoke hash regularly at the back of the carriage with no regard for anyone else and obviously wearing no mask. I’ve seen a woman go to the space between Dart carriages to use as a toilet.”

Will Quinn said he had witnessed “open heroin use” on the Dublin to Cork and Tralee trains several times.

“On one occasion two bathrooms had become blockaded by heroin users either refusing or being unable to get out of the bathroom. When the bathrooms were finally vacated, you could very easily make out what was going on,” he said.

“And the poor staff are essentially powerless to act ... There has been countless trains with excessive drunk and disorderly behaviour. The trains in Ireland are in many respects lawless today.”