Madam, - Last Sunday I had planned to travel to Carrick-on-Shannon for the day, and chose to go by train. Not being a football supporter, I was blissfully ignorant that there was a match in Longford, until I arrived at Heuston Station at approximately 7.35am for the 8.00am train, and saw it thronged with Dublin supporters. I bought my return ticket, and - with some difficulty - found a seat.
I noticed a smell of drink from one or two supporters as I walked by them - and when I saw boxes of alcohol being brought on to the train by many of the supporters, and bottles and cans being opened and drunk, I started to become concerned. There was barely standing room in the carriage I was in, and the groups at the two tables in front of me, along with those standing, were all drinking. From the banter that was going on, it was clear that they were not just starting their drinking, but were continuing it.
I had no desire to spend the best part of two hours, particularly at that hour of the morning, trapped with people intent on getting drunk, so I decided to drive to Carrick-on-Shannon. I was lucky to have the choice; others may not have had.
I managed to get a refund - with some difficulty - and complained to three members of staff, including the man at the ticket desk, about what was going on on the train. The staff member checking the tickets said he couldn't see anything, even though boxes of alcohol were being brought on board openly in front of him, and another member of staff didn't even bother to speak to me. The attitude conveyed was, to put it politely, one of supreme indifference.
I mentioned my experience to a number of people afterwards, and the response was that what I encountered was "normal". It is "normal" to allow people to drink on trains before 8.00am on a Sunday?
To say I am appalled would be an understatement. The fact that such behaviour is obviously tolerated by Iarnród Éireann beggars belief. I don't travel by train very often, but each time I do, something happens to remind me why I don't, and then I get lured by the reassuring advertising again. One day I'll learn. - Yours, etc,
MÁIRE GARVEY, Johnstown Park, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.