Reserved seating not being available and a man passing lewd remarks to a female passenger are among the complaints made about a Shannonside train route this year.
Details released to Shannonside FM show that just a handful of complaints about masks wearing or Covid precautions were received by the national train operator this year on the Westport-Dublin line.
Thousands of passengers take this route in the Shannonside region each day, with stations including Roscommon town, Castlerea and Athlone.
A total of 45 complaints were received in the first half of this year about the train service - including seven concerning anti-social behaviour.
A 38-year-old woman complained that a man who got on at Castlerea made her feel very uncomfortable and was passing lewd comments across the carriage to her.
She explained she was too afraid to complain about the man on the train at the time and asked for a discreet way of asking for help on a train.
A couple who go on at Roscommon and were abusive to passengers was also highlighted by a passenger with Irish Rail told that teenage girls were 'terrified because of the commotion'.
Irish Rail staff in Castlerea were also criticised after a woman who didn't speak English was sent on a train to Westport instead of her destination of Dublin which the complainant claims ruined their plans for the afternoon through 'absurdity'.
Issues with people reserving seats but not being displayed were a very common complaint with delays to services and bus transfers on some services which passengers were unaware of also raised by disgruntled commuters, some of whom sought refunds for their journeys.
Overcrowding on trains was also a common issue - with one passenger being forced to stand from Roscommon to Dublin for their 2 hour journey and an issue with tickets printed in Roscommon not working at Heuston station were also highlighted.
In a statement to Shannonside FM, Irish Rail says "While our customer research continues to show strong overall satisfaction with our services, including amongst Sligo to Dublin and Westport to Dublin line customers, customer feedback when customers do not have a satisfactory experience is very valuable to us, and we regret any poor experience a customer has with us. We are continuing to invest in our customer services through people, systems and information to ensure the customer experience continually improve. Earlier this year, we began recruiting the final phase of on-board Customer Service Officers to ensure that all our services will have customer service personnel on board, and new fleet, customer communications, and station information and signage will be built around enhancing the customer experience at all times."
Details of the complaints are below:
Details of the anti-social complaints are below:
