Sir, - I am writing to comment on one of the worst train journeys I have ever endured. I commute daily between Drogheda and Pearse Station, Dublin. Last Thursday, when the 5.13 p.m. train out of Dublin arrived at the platform, a crowd of passengers started for the doors, pushing and shoving in an attempt to get a seat on the train.
As I joined the rush for the doors I noticed a pregnant lady with a toddler in her arms, a folded buggy and a baby bag. She was being pushed and shoved by other commuters. I really could not believe how rude and unpleasant they were.
When I pushed backwards to make room for the lady and to take the buggy from her, a man berated me loudly for slowing up the rush. I turned to explain to him that I actually had some manners and was trying to assist the lady and her baby. He, like all the other commuters, ignored me and continued to board the train, scrambling for seats as if it was the last train leaving Dublin for the night!
Eventually the lady managed to board the train and to sit down, as I had held the last seat for her by plonking her buggy on the seat until she could get down the aisle. Before the train pulled out of the station, another heavily pregnant lady boarded and was left to lean against a table where four besuited people, three men and one woman, did their best to ignore her discomfort and avoid her gaze.
Can someone please tell me why we have turned into such ill-mannered individuals when we commute on the Northside rail service? As a regular commuter, I understand people's frustration with the rail service, but I can't understand the ruthlessness that has crept in. Pregnant women are not the only people left standing; I have seen elderly and disabled people clinging to the edges of seats while other regular commuters pretend they cannot see them. Surely our frustrations need to be taken out on Irish Rail and not our fellow passengers, especially those in greater need of a seat.
The main offenders are not the younger travellers, as you might suspect. They are for the most part middle-aged professional people, many of them Irish Times readers. A favoured tactic is unfolding of their papers and placing them in front of their faces in case they should make eye contact with the aforementioned people and be embarrassed into offering them their seats.
The blatant disregard of other people when boarding trains has reached such a peak that I sometimes fear a horrible accident. Indeed, I have often been lifted from my feet in rush of commuters.
I implore people to think of the discomfort their ignorant behaviour is causing to needier travellers. - Yours, etc.,
Sharon Coady, Drogheda, Co Louth.