Sir, - I'm writing this letter from somewhere in Kildare - just beyond the Curragh, I imagine - but as we don't have windows in "steerage", I couldn't be sure. "Steerage", for anyone unfamiliar with the trains from Cork to Dublin on a Friday, is the section between the carriages - the place for the luggage, the toilets, and the many people who don't get seats.
In saying this I must not begrudge CIE anything, as today I've secured a lovely stainless steel bin to sit on. However, not all of us are so happy. The three girls on the floor alongside me have just been awoken from their well earned sleep by the mumble over the intercom announcing: "We're sorry, but the trolley service has been cancelled due to overcrowding."
Between the 10 of us in steerage (six adults, four students), we've paid CIE over £280 for seats we never got! I can understand the demand for such a service, to escape the frenzy of Dublin for the peace and tranquility of the real capital. What I do not understand is why, week in week out, I and so manyothers pay a lot of money for something we don't get. - Yours, etc.,
Cormac Murphy, Mourneabbey, Mallow, Co Cork.