Drunk passengers caused majority of anti-social incidents on trains

The anti-social actions of a group of "roughly between 12 and 16" men on the Sligo-Dublin train on May 22 last prompted two passengers to register complaints with Irish Rail.

"They proceeded to shout, scream, sing, blare music at a high volume and consume a lot of alcohol," one of the passengers wrote of the men who had embarked at Carrick-on-Shannon, stating that the group was already actually drunk getting on the train.

Passengers who joined the train in Mullingar would have been exposed to the behaviour of the men, whose behaviour deteriorated as time went on.

Said the complainant: "By the time we reached Drumcondra, one of them was shouting at the window and was being rude to other passengers. A group of them were making sectarian and racist remarks." The complainant was aggrieved that during this period "not once did an employee walk through the carriage".

"For there to be no-one to check on the well-being of your customers is disgraceful and needs to be fixed," they wrote.

The incident was one of nine anti-social behaviour issues on trains on the Sligo-Dublin line that were the subject of complaints made since the start of the year, Irish Rail has revealed in response to a Shannonside FM Freedom of Information request.

Five of the nine incidents complained of involved alcohol. In one of the incidents, the passenger emailed from the train to appeal to the rail company to send a staff member to the carriage to speak with a group of males who were being "really rowdy and drinking and intimidating people".

On a different occasion a passenger contacted Irish Rail to let the firm know he or she had witnessed a ticket handler receive "a most abusive rant" from another passenger.

A parent complained that their 16 year old daughter, while travelling to Mullingar from Connolly Station had been subjected to a verbal assault by a man in his late 50s: "He swore at her, asked her inappropriate questions and took her school books from her and graffitied them inside (sic). She is extremely upset, distraught and feels she can't go on the train again."