Sir, - Please permit me to comment on Iarnrod Eireann's "Passengers' Charter - a new era in Customer Service" as reviewed by your correspondent Eamon Timmins (An Irishman's Diary, November 30th). I think this booklet must refer only tomainline trains and stations, not to provincial ones.
Take Clonmel (Co Tipperary) for instance. The facilities there are a disgrace. The station has a front door in direct line with the back door and consequently has a wind-tunnel in between. There are no comforts such as heating, shop, tearooms, etc., in the so-called waiting room, unlike those in Kilkenny and Limerick Junction. The ladies' toilet looks as if it has not been flushed for months and the place is filthy with uncollected litter. This "edifice" doubles as a bus and train station and is way out of the town centre.
To give Clonmel Corporation its due, it has been complaining to Iarnrod Eireann for years to update this place but nothing has been done. It is getting worse.
Clonmel is a big town with many industries and a third level college recently opened. Imagine the through-put of workers and students using that building at weekends. How Iarnrod Eireann have the neck to produce a Passengers' Charter is a mystery to me. - Yours, etc.,
Ethel Shaw (Mrs), Cedarwood Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 11.