Sir, - Last Friday week, September 29th, on the 8.30 train from Dublin to Tralee, a loaded and unattended tea trolley fell onto the floor of the dining carriage, narrowly missing a child and spewing boiling water everywhere. This carriage was full leaving Heuston, because the rest of the train was crammed. There wasn't even a mop to clean up; serviettes were used.
The return journey was eventful too. On Sunday evening, after hitting cattle outside Millstreet, we struggled on to Mallow to learn that the train ahead of us had hit a tree. Our train pulled into Heuston at 2.15 a.m., approximately four hours late.
It's impossible to prevent every accident, but the complete lack of a contingency plan of any sort in these situations does little for confidence in our transport system. As a race we have got a lot better at complaining, but we seem to falter when it comes to transport and the indignity we have to undergo daily just to get to work. Personally I have felt much safer on trains in the so-called Third World.
Last night in Pearse Street station, the trains again arrived overcrowded. The platform was full of commuters faced with the usual dilemma: to risk their health to get home, or just to sit and wait until things had died down. What must it be like to be elderly in this country? It is only a matter of time before we'll have a major transport disaster. As a memorial to these victims, perhaps we'll then feel an adequate transport system to be a matter of urgency. - Yours etc.,
Joseph Woods, Eden Park, Sandycove, Co Dublin.