Irish Rail has an annual circle jerk, where it pretends that it is a customer focused organisation. I am aware of this as I have Google alerts setup for “railway” and “Ireland” and over the last few weeks, I have been receiving alerts advising me of this event.
Notwithstanding that I don’t work for Irish Rail, I’d like to nominate myself for an award for next year’s circle jerk ceremony.
I was at Farranfore station in Co. Kerry on Sunday morning, taking photos of the former line from Farranfore to Valentia Harbour whilst en route to Parknasilla, where I was staying Sunday night.
As is normal for Irish Rail these days, there were no staff at the station. Like a small number of stations (such as Kilcock, Co. Kildare), there is also no electronic display panel to advise of incoming trains, which is relevant when the station is a crossing point where trains can arrive at/depart from either platform.
Whilst there, there was a lady with very poor English looking to travel to Tralee and was getting very agitated lest she miss the train as there was no indication as to which platform the train would arrive on. Logic would suggest that the train should arrive on the Up platform (that on the right facing Tralee) as this is where the exit is and it means that anyone with mobility issues could leave the station easily. In addition, if there was anyone with mobility issues looking to travel to Tralee, they could board the train without having to cross the historic GS&WR style footbridge.
36 years of criticising Irish Rail has left me with the understanding that if Irish Rail can do something wrong rather than do something right, they will and in this regard, they didn’t disappoint. Shortly before the train arrived, the level crossing gates went down and the signal at the Tralee end of the Down platform went green, at which point I was able to gesture to the very agitated lady on the footbridge (who was in tears at this point) that the Down platform was the one she needed. The arrival of the train on this platform meant that all passengers leaving the station had to cross the footbridge to exit.
As a final act of customer excellence on my part, this lady also did not know how to open the train door and, gentleman that I am, I opened the door for her. In the absence of staff at the station (nor an electronic display advising which platform the train is due to arrive at), I, a member of the public, was left to fulfil a customer excellence experience that should be carried out by an IR employee.
Coming back to the platform routing issue, this left me wondering what would happen if there was a person in a wheelchair, or a parent with a pushchair or just someone elderly for whom step climbing is not easy. Welcome to Irish Rail and the land of ‘We Don’t Care’. Whilst at the station, I spotted a mobile wheelchair ramp in the shelters on both platforms, to enable the boarding and de-boarding of trains. What I didn’t notice was a means to then exit the Down platform for such users.
There is an area at the Tralee end of the Down platform, through which a level access point could be constructed, but IR has other priorities, such as the Foynes railway (a freight only line with no traffic), a temporary platform on said line for a one off event (the Ryder Cup in Adare) and building a second platform at Clara, Co. Offaly, rather than relocating the passing loop at that point to east or west of the station, thereby obviating the need to build a second platform.
Farranfore is the not only example of the ‘We Don’t Care’ philosophy – the stations on the railway between Glounthaune and Rushbrooke in Co. Cork all have 1 platform that is inaccessible to those of reduced mobility, the weasel worded policy of our national railway company in the case of the latter is to require such users to travel to the next suitable station and return on the next train because, you know, your time is free.
The absence of staff at the station also has another aspect to be considered. On the Down platform, I spotted the remains of a dead bird, which, being skeletal in nature, means that it has been there for quite a while and not removed by staff/contractors.
Welcome to Ireland.