Saturday, April 6, 2019

Eyelashes, make-up and phones on the railway

Life on a busy rail service from Dublin Heuston to Cork.

Friday afternoon trains are the busiest of the week and this train was full to capacity. No empty seats with a small number of passengers standing.

Train kept to meticulous time-keeping.

At one four seater, two passengers divided by a table, one ‘older’ gentleman is on the phone explaining that he was under a bridge and the signal was poor. But he kept asking could he be heard. Certainly the rest of the passengers heard him.

Another of the four passengers was facetiming, obvioiusly talking to a child as she was speaking in a baby-voice.

Somwhere south of Sallins she removed make-up material from her bag and placed it across the table.

From Sallins to north of Limerick Junction she organised her false eyelashes before putting them in place.

And after all that time, work and skill there was no obvious difference in appearance.

The third passenger insisted on hogging the aramrest, which turned into a silent battle between the two passengers sitting side-by-side.

Irish Rail prefers to call its travellers customers and not passengers. Why is that?

All four passegers in the ‘four-seater’ were holders of Travel Passes.

4 comments:

Thomas G McCarthy said...

It's always good to hear of punctual service from Iarnrod Eireann.
I am a regular passenger on Irish trains.
On Friday evening, 5 April 2019, the 22.10 train from Heuston Station, Dublin, to Portaoise, left Heuston 26 minutes late.
Shortly after 22.10 all passengers on board were asked to disembark, since another train had to be coupled with the service we had already boarded. This was done swiftly and all were back on board within five or six minutes. So this doesn't explain the excessively late departure. An apology was given over the public address system on board, once we had left Heuston, but no explanation was offered.
Thomas

Anonymous said...

Why is it relevant that all four of the passengers had travel passes? It seems like a snide remark and unworthy of the author of this usually excellent blog.

Michael Commane said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael Commane said...

Thank you for the compliment.
The Travel Pass comment was not at all intended to be a 'snide' remark'. The intention was to be funny, sort of...
But it would be interesting to know how many 'dodgy' Travel Passes are in circulation.
Also, is it appropriate or economically sensible that people on pensions of €40,000 plus are entitled to the Travel Pass? Then again, they have and are paying tax on their income.
Ask any Irish Rail staff member about the misuse/abuse of the Travel Pass and you will get some idea of what is happening.
Talking about the Travel Pass; it's worth noting that all EU pensioners are entitled to travel at half fare on Spanish and Portuguese railways. All one has to do is show her/his passport when purchasing ticket.

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