Madam, – As a regular user of public transport, I, along with other CIÉ passengers, have been obliged throughout the recent cold snap to wait at Limerick station in the freezing conditions. I have approached Iarnród Éireann staff who have confirmed that their organisation has responsibility for the station and that it “doesn’t do heating here”.
I must admit that in view of the prices charged by Iarnród Éireann – one can now fly to almost any capital city in Europe for less than it will cost one to travel from Limerick or indeed Cork to Dublin – one would have thought that the provision of a heated waiting room was the very least that it could provide for its passengers. Imagine if the various airport authorities affected by the cold snap decided that they were not going to provide heating for those stranded in their respective airports.
My own journeys have on these occasions been by bus (the Limerick-Tralee or Limerick-Killarney service) and one would have thought that the ideal solution throughout the cold snap would be for Bus Éireann to allow passengers onto the buses and to turn on the heating. Tickets could be checked before departure. They did allow us to board an unheated bus on Friday night when the delay in departure time was 45 minutes, but on subsequent evenings even this concession was withdrawn.
I recognise my plight is significantly less than those people who have had to endure long waits both in Irish and overseas airports to get home this Christmas but surely if passengers are to be encouraged to use public transport a minimum of thought must go into making their journeys a pleasant and enjoyable experience? – Yours, etc,