You can book a seat on a train anywhere in Europe - except in Ireland. Conor Pope finds out Irish Rail's plan to address the problem

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Iarnród Éireann would like to apologise for the heat on this train. This was due to over-crowding," comes the terse announcement over the PA as the Galway-Dublin train shudders to a halt at Heuston Station.

A few hot, sweaty passengers manage weary smiles, and wonder aloud about the cause of the overcrowding which created the sauna-like atmosphere. However, the announcer fails to provide further information.

Such conditions on the Irish rail network are the norm and regular inter-city train users are accustomed to being treated shoddily by the company. Trains are frequently overcrowded and people are left standing for long periods. Short-hop commuter trains are regularly deployed in place of inter-city trains. Information about delays is non-existent or the PA systems are so muffled that messages are impossible to decipher.

"Does anyone here speak Train," one passenger heading west asked his fellow travellers last Saturday, so incomprehensible was the noise from the PA system.

One cause of regular peak-time over-crowding is that it is next to impossible for someone to reserve a seat on a train in the Republic, unless they are prepared to pay a first-class supplement - and even that option is not available to most travellers using the less well-cared for lines.

Iarnród Éireann's failure to introduce numbered seats and a reservation facility - for convenience and safety - is particularly galling for passengers given that the company provides just such a service for trains running across the rest of the EU.

If you want to travel from Paris to Cannes, Milan to Naples, London to Amsterdam or Munich to Rome, knowledgeable and helpful staff at Iarnród Éireann's office on Dublin's O'Connell Street can pre-book your tickets and guarantee allocated seats. It is an excellent service and one which makes rail travel across Europe effortless. Why then can't it provide travellers closer to home with the same service on its own network?

Soon it will be in a position to do just that. "We have identified reservations and booking as a need and are actively testing it in-house at the moment," says Iarnród Éireann spokesman Barry Kenny. "It is actually quite advanced."

Later this year, the company hopes to roll out a credit card reservation service, which will allow first-class passengers to reserve numbered seats and collect tickets from machines using a system not dissimilar to that operating at cinemas for many years.

After that it will include the cheap seats. "We're going to start implementing the system with first-class, then move to standard class at key peak times," Kenny says. "This way the company will be able to assess whether or not there is a demand for the service."

One reason why demand may not be high is because of the flexibility the open ticketing system gives travellers. Weekend, five-day and monthly return tickets allow train users to travel when they want within that timeframe without the need to book, something which appeals to many, Kenny adds. He accepts there are times when people are found standing on inter-city trains but says this raises concerns of comfort rather than safety which is, he insists, of paramount importance to the company.

"On DART and commuter trains full loading is the norm," he says. "While on inter-city trains we want everyone to travel in comfort. We do experience some standing at peak times. We want every customer to have a seat."

He is optimistic that the new reservation system will improve passenger comfort and says the company is looking at ways to keep the open-ticketing option for some carriages, to give passengers more flexibility.

The introduction of reservations might go some way to improving the company's performance but is not enough, says the national rail transport and development lobby group, Platform 11. "Irish Rail will roll out a credit card booking system but people will still have to stand," says public relations officer Derek Wheeler. "Right now we are just playing catch-up with rail companies across Europe, following years of under-investment by various governments. We have to go forward and introduce more rolling stock and a higher frequency of services in addition to the booking system. Only that will remove the problem of overcrowding."

There is a glimmer of hope on that front with more rolling stock on the way. But delivery takes up to three years from the time of order indicating the company lives by its slogan: it's not there yet, but it's getting there. Hopefully.