MY CHALLENGE TO IRISH RAIL
Bray wheelchair user wants rail boss’s response after ANOTHER issue on Dart
BRAY MAN and wheelchair user Padraic Moran has called on the CEO of Iarnród Éireann and Minister for Transport Shane Ross to come to speak to him, after he ended up stranded in Greystones station for the second time this year. ‘I ended up in Greystones because I couldn’t get to the emergency button on time,’ said Padraic, pictured right, who has cerebral palsy. A similar incident was narrowly avoided just the previous day, while back in January 2017, Padraic ended up at Greystones station when assistance failed to emerge at Bray.
Bray man and wheelchair user Padraic Moran has called on the CEO of Irish Rail and Minister for Transport Shane Ross to come to speak to him, after he ended up stranded in Greystones in sub-zero temperatures. ‘I ended up in Greystones because I couldn’t get to the emergency button on time,’ said
Padraic, who has cerebral palsy.
A similar incident was narrowly avoided just the previous day, and in January 2017, Padraic ended up at Greystones station when assistance failed to emerge at Bray.
Last weekend, he had boarded at Lansdowne Road after an eight-hour working day. Padraic works in Sky and started his shift at 9 a.m. on Sunday morning. His journey, door to door, usually takes 90 minutes. On Sunday night, it took Padraic over two and a half hours to get home from work in Dublin.
He said that the procedure is that the person who assists him in Lansdowne rings ahead to Bray to inform them that a passenger requires assistance. When the train got to Bray, nobody arrived to help him, and it went on to Greystones with Padrac still on board.
‘ The Dart driver nearly took me out of Greystones on the train. He then eventually came down after trying to close the door at least seven times.
‘He forgot that I was on the train. So Irish Rail’s system of informing stations is clearly not working.’
Padraic then waited on the platform in the cold for a train coming from Rosslare. He had been told that the driver would be asked to help him on.
‘What most people don’t realise is, the drivers of trains are not insured to actually put down ramps,’ said Padraic.
With no staff at Greystones station, he didn’t know if he would be able to board that train.
That driver did put Padraic on the train and he made his way home.
‘I spoke directly to Pearse. Pearse are blaming Bray, Bray are saying they weren’t informed.’
Forty-eight hours earlier, Padraic had discussed rail services on East Coast FM with Irish Rail spokesman Barry Kenny. ‘Barry Kenny told me on Friday that these issues don’t happen, and it’s going to be a better service,’ said Padraic.
‘So I now call on the CEO of Irish Rail to explain publicly how this is working. Stop sending Barry Kenny out to be your lackey. Come out and publicly tell me how this is going to be better for people in wheelchairs.
‘I also call on Minister for Transport Shane Ross to come out and tell people with disabilities how this is improving the quality of their life.’
Irish Rail had not responded to a request for comment at the time of going to press.