Irish Rail 'treating Mullingar train users with contempt'
The members of the Mullingar Kinnegad Municipal District have accused Irish Rail of treating Mullingar commuters with contempt and are demanding to meet representatives of the company over the ongoing complaints about overcrowding on the trains between Mullingar to Dublin.
The subject was raised by Cllr Ken Glynn, who said that since he last raised the overcrowding and capacity levels – in November of last year – nothing has changed.
He accused the firm of concentrating on looking after Dublin, but not the rest of the country.
“It’s high time that something happened here because we are realistically getting nowhere,” he said, adding that he knew Transport Minister Eamon Ryan was aware of the issues: “I know there’s only so much that can be done, but one thing our minister can do is hold this particular company to task and say ‘what is happening here?’,” he said, stating that more carriages are needed on the trains.
“It’s an absolute disgrace and it’s been going on for too long,” he said, admitting that at this stage he doesn’t even know what the solution is: “We can write letters till the cows come home. And we can write again today but what is actually going to be done about this?” he asked as he issued his call for a meeting with Iarnród Éireann.
“We need to impress on them the need that there is and that there’s a whole country outside of Dublin that needs to be looked after.”
Enthusiastic support came from Cllr Denis Leonard, who said the worst trains had always been put on the Mullingar line – and he went on to inform members that a further issue was that twice in the last six weeks people have had to walk across the lines to get to their trains.
“Irish Rail is treating the 100,000 residents of Westmeath with utter contempt and disrespect and it is gross negligence to put the safety of our people at risk, to have people packed on trains, to have people booking seats that do not exist,” he said.
The mayor of the district, Cllr Hazel Smyth, said trying to deal with Irish Rail is “just terrible” and she detailed the difficulty in obtaining feasibility study results sought from the company for a meeting between Minister Ryan, Irish Rail
and Westmeath County Council.
She said the senior leadership team at Irish Rail have questions to answer. “I take the train regularly. I do find it can be a good service. But it does need to be a reliable service for people to use it,” she said.
“The reduction in fares was commendable. And it has led to more people using it, which we need, to encourage people to reduce emissions. But again, it is just absolutely terrible to see what has been done by Irish Rail to actually turn people away from taking the train.”
Cllr Emily Wallace said Irish Rail have identified Connolly Station as the busiest station in Ireland, and said she
knew of hospital patients, elderly people and students having to stand on trains from Mullingar to Dublin.
“They’re taking money off people for a service they’re not providing,” she stated.
Cllr Andrew Duncan recalled a Young Fine Gael survey carried out in 2002 at Mullingar Railway Station that found that then, there were 2000 people commuting and the biggest issue was the lack of, and the state of, carriages.
“Here we are 20 odd years later and we’re no further on,” he said, suggesting that an enquiry be lodged on the number of spare carriages there are in the country, and on the time to get them into service.
Cllr Mick Dollard recalled being part of a deputation 20 years ago that met
Irish Rail and successfully put on pressure for increased frequency of trains. He
said the three main political parties should work together to pressure Irish Rail to
meet district councillors.
Director of services David Jones confirmed that the district has been writing
to Irish Rail but to no effect: “Further attempts will be made,” he promised.