Sir, – Mary Frances Douglas (Letters, November 12th) tells of her discovery that all food and drink services on Irish Rail trains have been suspended since Covid and that one cannot even buy a bottle of water on a train.
My last experience with Irish Rail catering, in October 2015, preceded Covid by more than four years, on the Galway to Dublin mid-morning train, during a lengthy unscheduled stop in the general vicinity of Portarlington (a favourite location for such events).
Having used the hiatus working on my laptop for more than an hour without any announcement as to the cause or likely duration of the stop, I went to the buffet car, where the gentleman behind the counter was chatting with two fellow Irish Rail colleagues, and asked for a coffee. I was told that as service always ceased 10 minutes out from Heuston Station, and since we should have been in Dublin “an hour ago”, the journey was deemed to have been completed and the buffet car was closed.
To his credit, he managed to keep a straight face while outlining this unusual customer service model. – Yours, etc,
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LIAM STENSON,
Galway.