Tram incident splits up child and grandmother

Connex, the operator of the Luas system in Dublin, last night said that it would review procedures after an incident yesterday in which a young girl aged around four or five was separated from her grandmother who was left behind on a platform.

The incident occurred around lunchtime yesterday when the girl and her grandmother were boarding a Luas tram at St Stephen's Green.

The doors on the tram closed before the girl's grandmother could embark.

Passengers on the tram told The Irish Times last night that the young girl was in a highly distressed state after being separated from her grandmother, but that the driver said that he was unable to stop until the next platform at the top of Harcourt Street.

At the Harcourt Street platform, the driver offered to place the young girl on a tram heading back to St Stephen's Green. However, a number of passengers walked the young girl back down Harcourt Street, where she was reunited with her grandmother.

A spokeswoman for Connex last night said that the company was aware of the incident and regretted any distress caused.

The spokeswoman said the tram had already left the platform at St Stephen's Green and had reached the junction of Harcourt Street and Cuffe Street when it was brought to the attention of the driver that the young girl had been separated from her grandmother.

The Connex spokeswoman said that tram drivers are unable to stop to allow passengers disembark between platforms. She said that the driver involved in yesterday's incident immediately contacted that company's central control unit and requested assistance.

She said that unfortunately there were no customer service operators - who travel on the network to assist passengers - in the vicinity at that time.

The Connex spokeswoman said there were 24 customer service officers operating on the St Stephen's Green to Sandyford line on a shift basis.

She said that normally in such circumstances, a customer service officer on the scene would take charge of a separated child until relatives arrived.

She said the company would review its procedures to deal with circumstances where customer service officers were not on the scene.

The company said it would also advise passengers not to allow children to board trams on their own.