East Cork councillors call for Irish Rail to source more carriages for peak services

Councillors say overcrowding on peak services is a health and safety concern and have called for additional carriages

Irish Rail urged to buy more carriages as East Cork commuters face ‘disaster’. Picture Denis Minihane

East Cork councillors have called on Irish Rail to urgently source additional carriages from overseas to tackle overcrowding on peak-time services between Midleton and Cork.

The service has been described as so overcrowded that, tongue-in-cheek, one councillor suggested Irish Rail might need to employ security staff like those used on the Tokyo underground to push commuters into packed trains.

The call for additional carriages received unanimous cross-party support at a meeting of the East Cork Municipal District Council, where Social Democrats councillor Eamonn Horgan proposed that the local authority write to Irish Rail seeking carriages from Northern Ireland, Australia or Brazil.

Mr Horgan, an engineer, said those countries have railway networks using the same gauge as Ireland.

He also suggested Irish Rail could modify existing carriages to accommodate more commuters, including by installing additional “flip-down” seats which would provide more standing room when not in use.

‘A disaster’

Fine Gael councillor Rory Cocking described the current service for East Cork commuters as “a disaster”.

He said local councillors had been “banging a drum on this for quite a while” after receiving numerous complaints from constituents.

Mr Cocking questioned why the 8.15am train from Midleton to Cork, used by commuters and third-level students travelling into the city, operates with just two carriages.

“But there are then some trains in the evening, like 4.15pm, which have four carriages,” Mr Cocking said.

“This needs to be addressed now,” he added.

Fianna Fáil councillor Patrick Mulcahy said the number of people cramming into the limited number of carriages at peak times represented “a huge health and safety issue”.

Mr Cocking said, tongue-in-cheek, that the current peak-time service was so bad that it resembled the Japanese underground system, where staff are used to push passengers into packed trains, leaving them “crammed in like sardines”.

Independent Ireland councillor John Buckley said he feared Irish Rail would not add more carriages until planned electric trains were introduced on the route, which could be several years away.

“This is an urgent matter, and we can’t wait until the line is electrified,” Mr Horgan said.

Irish Rail response

Irish Rail officials recently wrote to the council acknowledging that they were aware of overcrowding on peak-time services between Midleton and Cork.

However, the company said it did not have additional carriages available to alleviate the problem and was trying to source extra carriages from the national fleet.

Irish Rail did not respond to the council’s request for earlier morning trains from Midleton to connect with the first Dublin-bound train from Cork.

It also did not respond to a request for later night-time services from Cork to Midleton.