Madam, - Last Sunday I brought my five-year-old son to his first soccer match - the FAI Cup Final at Landsdowne Road. He enjoyed the occasion immensely. After the cup was presented we made our way to Lansdowne Road station to get the DART back to Killester.
We left the ground at 5.20pm. The level-crossing barriers were down and we queued with several hundred others for more than 20 minutes. No trains passed.
Then the barriers came up and we queued in a laneway outside the station for another 20 minutes. No announcements were made to explain the delay or say when the next DART would run. I asked uniformed staff for information, but they didn't know and didn't seem to care. We were then let into the station and boarded a DART. The train stood in the station, jammed full of people, for yet another 20 minutes.
Finally we were on our way - but only as far as Connolly Station, where the train was declared "out of service". We waited for the next train, only to find on its arrival that it too was "out of service". When we finally boarded a DART that was "in service" it stopped twice at signals between Connolly and Clontarf (presumably held up by the two "out of service" trains entering Clontarf depot). In all, it took us more than an hour and 40 minutes to travel five stops.
At a time of high demand (attendance at the match was 25,000) Iarnród Éireann failed miserably. This makes a mockery of Operation Freeflow and it's the last time I'll abandon my car for public transport. - Yours, etc,
CHRISTY ROCHE,
Lorcan Grove,
Dublin 9.