Train bosses on wrong track with booze ban

EVEN as a committed non-driver, it is a rare enough occurrence for me to use public transport. Not on any point of principle, I should add. It is simply a matter of practicalities.

Many years ago, I reached the conclusion that life would be less complicated if I lived within walking distance of wherever I needed to be in terms of work, shops and social outlets. So that’s pretty much what I have managed to do for the past quarter of a century or so.

Part of the reason for my original decision was that I grew in up in a part of Dublin that was traditionally poorly served by public transport. During the Seventies and Eighties, the No.44 bus – which in those days ran from Hawkins Street in the city centre right out to Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow – probably would’ve qualified for endangered species status.

Very occasionally I’ll take the Dart or Luas nowadays, both of which seem to run well. But it would be rare for me to find myself onboard a mainline Irish Rail service.

There is no particular reason for this, other than the fact that I seldom venture down the country. But I happened to be on a train from Dublin to Galway recently for the first time since an alcohol ban was introduced at certain times over the weekend.

You’ll have heard about this previously. Figures published over the summer revealed that there had been more than 1,000 cases of antisocial behaviour on Irish Rail over the previous 18 months. This amounted to a 43% increase in the space of a year. Among the incidents reported were assaults on staff, criminal damages and fights. One rail employee said he had been attacked by youths using snooker balls in a sock as a weapon and, on a separate occasion, had a fire extinguisher thrown at him. The upshot was that management at Irish Rail responded by extending the scope of the company’s weekend alcohol restrictions.

As of last month, a booze ban applies on Fridays on the 11.25am, 1.25pm and 3.35pm services from Dublin’s Heuston Station to Galway and on the 2.45pm train to Westport.

Similar restrictions were already in place between Dublin and Waterford on Fridays and Sundays.

AN Irish Rail spokeswoman was quoted as saying: ‘The vast majority of customers who wish to enjoy an alcoholic beverage onboard our services do so without impacting in any way on their fellow passengers, but there is a minority that do.’

National Bus and Rail Union chief Dermot O’Leary said: ‘I won’t deny that people would like to, on their train journey, have a leisurely drink, but unfortunately the evidence we have from our frontline people is that people who travel those services – not everybody, obviously, a small number, a small minority – tend to act boisterously.’

Which, of course, is fair enough. It would be impossible for any reasonable individual not to feel a significant degree of sympathy for the employees who have to contend with this outrageous carry-on. But what about well-behaved passengers who might be gasping for a drink as they head home after a hard week’s work? Or couples heading away for a romantic weekend who want to kick off the proceedings with a glass of vino? Or, frankly, anyone at all who knows how to behave themselves properly when they’ve had a couple of scoops?

Nobody could plausibly argue that travelling on Irish Rail is an experience to be looked forward to with keen anticipation.

On the catering front, you’d be doing well to get anything better than a curly sandwich and a tepid cup of tea.

Against that backdrop, it is unfair that civilised passengers are being denied the simple pleasure of, say, a gin and tonic. I know I could have murdered a cold beer on the journey west last weekend.

It goes without saying that having drunken yobbos onboard will affect passenger numbers. But so presumably will a blanket ban that impacts on people who know how to mind their manners.

Forgive me if this sounds like stating the obvious, but there is a perfectly simple solution to this. Even allowing for the reduced police presence in rural areas, I can’t imagine that too many gardaí along the Dublin-Galway route are overly busy on Friday or Sunday afternoons.

There is absolutely no reason why Irish Rail staff shouldn’t be able to phone ahead and have any troublemakers removed at the next station by the boys in blue. Trust me, that’d sort the problem out pretty sharpish.