A TRALEE businesswoman has called on Irish Rail to review their security policy after an incident as she travelled between Mallow and Tralee on Sunday.
Mags Kissane of Connect Publications was attending Mallow Races with her husband and decided to travel by rail to the event.
Everything was fine on the journey to Mallow, but returning home was a different proposition.
Speaking on Radio Kerry’s Talkabout programme on Tuesday, she said when they returned to Mallow station after the races, there were two men in the waiting area provoking and intimidating other people.
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Mags informed one of the staff who called the gardai. However, the train arrived and everyone, including the two men, got on board.
When the train arrived in Killarney, there were gardaí waiting and they escorted the two men off the train.
As the train departed for Tralee, an intoxicated female in her 40s started to cause a disturbance and began intimidating other women on a carriage, one of whom was very distressed by the incident.
Other passengers intervened and the alarm was set off on the carriage. When the train pulled into Farranfore, the ladies who were intimidated by the woman disembarked from the carriage. The alarm continued to go off all the way to Tralee.
Mags, while acknowledging they dealt with the first incident at Mallow station, said Irish Rail should have a greater staff presence, especially on evening trains where it’s likely people are travelling home from large events and alcohol would have been consumed.
She said Irish Rail has a duty of care to their customers and a staff member should be travelling on a more regular basis between the carriages to ensure passengers are behaving themselves and not intimidating other people.
