Mirror reporter Siobhan lets off steam as ‘hellish’ train journey gets off track

It’ll be a long time before I take the train again after my journey from hell. I knew I’d be shattered on Saturday after presenting the Rentokil Initial Killarney Historic Rally for On The Limit Sports – so I opted to take the train to and from Dublin so I could chill.

Alas, there was no relaxing to be had.

I should have taken the cheaper option of the bus, saving myself 20 quid and more due to unforeseen taxi costs.

Including transfers, I paid the guts of 90 quid for a whole lot of misery.

The journey down was full of lager louts getting locked on cans so it was tough trying to focus on writing on my laptop.

It was also rammed with people reduced to sitting in doorways next to the loos.

Near Killarney I got an email informing me about possible disruptions to the train service that weekend due to “essential works”.

I was surprised Irish Rail don’t tell you until after you’ve booked and paid for your expensive ticket.

Why can’t the works happen in the middle of the night when the trains stop running like in the commercial sector?

In non-state run business the customer is always right – and disruption to paying customers is kept to a minimum.

On Saturday night I waited patiently for my return train, which was late arriving into Killarney.

We got a train as far as Banteer, Cork. Then an overheated bus to Mallow. Then a train as far as Thurles – after which we endured a ridiculously long bus journey via Kildare back to Heuston.

This country is bonkers. When I joked to one of the Iarnrod Eireann lads it would have been cheaper and wiser to just get a bus from Killarney the whole way home, he laughed hysterically in my face.

Then he gave me the “you’ve been trumped” knowing glance and said: “You’re dead right

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there love – it’s a bit of a joke.” Even the staff seemed browned off.

Another worker told me they were all fed-up of dealing with complaints from aggrieved passengers.

The train should have got into Heuston at 11.30pm, meaning I could have had the chance to use public transport to get home.

Instead I ended up having to pay for a taxi too. A young lad

Why can’t essential works take place in middle of the night? SIOBHAN O’CONNOR

cleaning the train informed me I should have taken note of signs advertising the disruption to customers.

But I booked online – where I later discovered a tiny mention in small print.

Buried under the heading News & Service Updates, it read: “Line improvement works 1st to 3rd December.”

To add insult to injury the lad on the intercom expressed how sorry he was, telling us: “Iarnrod Eireann apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

But if they were that sorry they would at least offer us a cheaper ticket for the hassle.

Or in the words of Mrs Doyle, a “cup of tea, father”.

But we weren’t even offered so much as a glass of water. We

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are paying for this semi-state-run service in our taxes so I’d like to get some bang for my buck and a pleasant ride.

Yes it’s a first world problem – I got home in one piece and nobody died – but I would have been quicker flying to New York.

train lads laughed and said I should have got the bus SIOBHAN O’CONNOR