Imagine... a rail service that’s safe, punctual and peaceful!

ACCORDING to a report on RTÉ, anti-social behaviour on public transport is out of control.

An exasperated frontline transport worker told RTÉ Investigates he is simply sick and tired of dealing with the abuse he gets every day and doesn’t see an end in sight.

“There’s just groups and groups of young teens, young adults going around, not having a care in the world, just being aggressive, being like little sh**es, excuse my language, to everybody that they encounter,” he said.

Over the course of several weeks, RTÉ Investigates travelled on most forms of public transport to see first-hand what the daily commute was really like. Using hidden cameras, the researchers witnessed a wide variety of anti-social activity, including begging, substance abuse, unruly individuals, and gangs, and even threats of violence.

Teenagers travelling in gangs is an increasing problem on the public transport system, and many passengers described a sense of menace when travelling close to these gangs. 

Drinking and drug-taking are also adding to the anti-social behaviour and the sense of fear experienced by the travelling public.

Frequently, they witnessed people drinking alcohol on board Luas trams and the DART. Some passengers were also seen rolling joints, and consuming pills taken from bags concealed in their socks.

It seems things have deteriorated since I was a regular user of the Cork to Dublin train back in the early 1980s. At one stage, I travelled up and down that route almost every week, and while there was no fear of intimidation, there certainly was discomfort, especially in the winter.

It wasn’t unusual to be without heat or light, or both at times, and you wouldn’t want to be wearing your best bib and tucker as the seats weren’t the cleanest. It wasn’t unusual either to have standing room only, especially if you travelled on a Friday evening.

Overcrowding was common, and there were always complaints about the lack of carriages which is something I still hear commuters grumbling about today.

Iarnród Éireann say they have improved their stock since then and they now provide the option of a quieter carriage on their Heuston to Cork services too.

That’s good news because the only threats we were subjected to in those days came from the irritating announcements over the public address system. As soon as you settled into your seat, a loud monotone voice addressed passengers to inform us where we were going, and which stations would be serviced along the route.

I never knew why we needed to be told this. You’d imagine that, before buying the ticket, passengers would have worked out the train’s destination. But in case we hadn’t, the voice named every stop between Cork and Dublin, and repeated the whole thing again in Irish for those who didn’t understand English.

The same rigamarole was repeated every time the train pulled into a station, making a snooze almost impossible. I don’t know if that still happens, but I learned on my travels abroad that, as I expected, there’s no need for it.

Last summer, my wife told me she wanted to visit Italy. She said it was on her bucket list so off she went and arranged everything.

Before I knew it, we were standing in Pisa in the middle of August, admiring the famous wonky Tower. Later we headed for Cinque Terre, which is about an hour and a half away on the train, and it was on this journey that I noticed something - it was peaceful.

There were no announcements because the Italians have come up with a better idea. On each platform they have a digital notice board displaying the names of the various stops and the time you will arrive at each one. So, all you need to do when boarding the train is look for your destination and note the time of your expected arrival. After that, just keep an eye on the watch.

In Italy, they also have on-board information screens to keep you updated, which eliminates the need for noisy recordings, and the system seems to work well.

It sounds simple but, of course, for that to work, the trains have to run on time, which might be an issue here in Ireland.

The Italians also operate an honour system, which might be another problem for us. You purchase your ticket online and validate it online before you board the train.

They don’t have an issue with free- loaders because the tickets are cheap, and also because of the reputation of Italian rail inspectors. They don’t mess about.

A few years ago, an Italian train conductor was sacked for issuing passengers with too many fines. He was accused of “terrorising” passengers by overzealously handing out a record number of 5,000 fines within the space of a couple of years.

He was let go in 2017 after the company received a deluge of complaints from unhappy customers, costing it about €10,000 in reimbursements for fines the passengers argued had been issued arbitrarily and for mistaken sums.

The inspector had fined passengers for various infractions, such as boarding a train without a ticket, failing to date-stamp it, or for travelling on incorrect routes.

He sued the rail company for wrongful dismissal and a court ruled in his favour. The court described the conductor as someone who worked with “uncommon zeal” and was “inflexible”.

However, it ruled he was only doing his job, albeit in an “extremely meticulous way”, and did not seek to profit personally.

With reports of bad behaviour on public transport here, we could do with a worker with “uncommon zeal”.

The ill-mannered passengers putting their feet on the seats or placing their bags on the seat next to them and refusing to make room for other passengers could do with some “inflexibility” too.

Maybe we should employ some Italians.