Sir, - I nearly choked on my coffee this when I read the response from Barry Kenny of Irish Rail (June 14th) to my letter of May 29th. He is defending a pricing structure in public transport which makes it cheaper to drive than to take the DART from Greystones.
He tells us the fare works out at 13p per mile from the city centre to Greystones. What he doesn't tell us is that the city centre to Bray leg of the journey averages 9.5p per mile, and the Bray to Greystones leg (just one stop further) works out at 25p per mile, more than double - this based on his own figures.
Mr Kenny argued against my points recently on East Coast Radio. He claimed the reason that Greystones passengers pay nearly £5 for a return ticket to town, while Bray passengers pay half as much, is that Greystones is "in a different zone". He did not explain what these mysterious "zones" are, and what purpose they serve, but suffice to say the "zones" are a creation of the mind of Irish Rail. Using these "zones" as an excuse for such pricing is pathetic.
Mr Kenny blames the single track for the holes in the Irish Rail timetable, yet I don't think that this quite explains gaps of almost two hours at peak periods. I thought I had heard it all when Mr Kenny, on the same radio programme, described the fact that there were people standing on trains leaving Greystones (the first stop on the DART) as "a success in anyone's language". But I was proved wrong when he wrote in your paper that people should purchase their tickets days in advance to "avoid the queues which can result". This is very revealing of the overall attitude of Irish Rail, which appears to feel that customers should be conveniencing it, not the other way around.
Mr Kenny claims a staff member was "assaulted" in the incident I mentioned in my last letter. That incident involved standing in a large queue for 20 minutes to purchase a ticket. When the train was about to go, the ticket inspector would not allow people to board, because they had not been able to sell the tickets in time. He advised passengers to "get the next train", which was almost two hours away. Another passenger shoved past the inspector, and boarded anyway along with a stream of over 100 passengers. Mr Kenny claims that this is something "no staff member should have to face". I agree, but the answer lies in the hands of Irish Rail. If it is not providing sufficient staff, then its existing staff will continue to have to deal with justifiably angry and frustrated customers. I would suggest that the treatment of passengers in this incident is something that no customer should have to face. - Is mise,
Tadhg O'Brien, Hawkins Lane, Greystones, Co Wicklow.