Is Iarnród Éireann really getting there? Not if you're taking the Cork-Tralee train, writes a freezing Michael Dwyer.
Irish Rail passengers travelling between Cork and Tralee over the holiday period would be well advised to dress for the occasion. Recommended accoutrements include gloves, scarves, earmuffs, sweaters and full-length thermal underwear, and a few warm blankets could also prove very useful.
Our national railway service is, we are constantly reminded in its advertisements, "getting there", but unfortunate passengers in the deep south-west are getting there numbed with the cold. My Irish Rail journey from Dublin to Tralee last Saturday afternoon went from one extreme to the other.
The 3.15 Dublin-Cork train was comfortable and warm, almost too warm, and had a dining car and trolley service. Leaving that train in Mallow, I boarded the Cork-Tralee train for the last two hours of my journey, and the temperature dropped from hot to freezing.
The heating was not functioning in any carriage on the train.
As hailstones lashed the windows, some passengers rubbed their hands vigorously in a vain attempt to keep warm. Others reached into their suitcases and produced sweaters to wrap around their legs. A Kerryman long based in Saudi Arabia shook his head in amazement and despair. A baby cried for most of the journey.
There was, briefly, the consoling thought that a hot tea or coffee would help thaw us out, but no dining car or snack bar facilities whatsoever were available on the train, which serves Cork, Mallow, Banteer, Millstreet, Rathmore, Killarney, Farranfore and Tralee.
Nobody from Irish Rail appeared at any point during the two-hour journey to explain or apologise for the absence of heating.
I was prepared to accept this as an isolated incident, assuming that Irish Rail really is trying hard at "getting there", until I returned to Dublin yesterday morning. In a chilling example of Groundhog Day, the 9.15 Tralee-Cork train was numbingly cold.
Outside, the temperature was down to low, single-digit figures; inside, it felt as if we were travelling in sub-zero conditions. It didn't look much colder on the ice-capped mountains in the distance.
Once again, there was no catering facility offering even a hot drink. This time, however, Irish Rail provided a human face.
The young man checking our tickets could hardly have been more courteous as he apologised to the hand-wringing, teeth-gnashing passengers, one after another.
"The pump for the heating nearly got started, but it isn't working," he explained politely. "But these trains are over 40 years old."
To mark the great advances made by our national rail service that is "getting there", stations along the route were festooned with posters proudly declaring: "Happy 150th Birthday. Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Mallow-Killarney railway line".
The comments that were expressed up and down the train were anything but celebratory, and mostly unprintable.
Those posters served as a pointed reminder of just how far Irish Rail has advanced in 150 years of "getting there".
It is the 21st century and the company cannot even guarantee a modicum of heating in the depths of winter, and is quite happy to send out antiquated vehicles that belong in a museum.
Disembarking at Mallow yesterday, to connect with the train to Dublin, I felt sorry for my fellow travellers continuing on to Cork and with another half-hour ahead of them aboard the refrigerator-temperature train. My sympathy was short-lived, though, as we stood for 45 minutes on the exposed central platform at Mallow Station, waiting for the Dublin train, which was "getting there", but running 20 minutes late.
Age of rolling stock cause of problem
The problems experienced by passengers on the Cork-Tralee railway line are a direct consequence of the age of the carriages in use on the line, according to Irish Rail.
Apologising for the failure in the heating system on the Cork-Tralee train last Saturday, a spokesman said the steam-heated system in use was "prone to problems". "When problems such as this arise, the only other option is to cancel the train, and this wouldn't be desirable," he said.
The 40-year-old rolling stock on the line is the oldest still in use in the Republic. The good news for passengers is that Irish Rail has received funding to replace all carriages over 30 years old. This will happen within the next three or four years.
The spokesman was unable to say why no staff member was available to explain or apologise to passengers. - Paul Cullen