Irish Rail has defended its current refund system as “in line with EU regulation,” amid calls for a new tiered system to be put in place.

Fine Gael Senator John McGahon put forward a bill this week that could see tiered refunds become law.

He proposes a 25% refund if a train is delayed by 20 minutes, 50% after 40 minutes and a full refund after an hour.

Currently, there is a 50% voucher refund or 25% cash for delays above an hour, while this is doubled for delays above two hours.

Irish Rail spokesperson Barry Kenny said the current system is “reasonable”.

“It’s a reasonable balance in terms of compensation and is in line with EU regulation,” he said.

“You do have to realise that 44% of delays that occurred in 2023 were due to factors outside our control.”

Mr Kenny said “there is any number of issues” that can cause delays.

“A very significant number of delays are outside our control, in terms of weather impacts and stuff like that - vehicles hitting bridges and roads.

“We do have unfortunate emergency situations along the line.

“Things like signalling issues and mechanical faults with the train would also be the two big ones for us, along with infrastructure issues.

“Our job is to work towards minimising those as much as we can and give the most reliable service we can.”

Improvements

Mr Kenny said improvements have been made within Irish Rail, with more to come.

“We have more customer service officers on board than ever before,” he said.

“We are investing in a new national control centre which will be operational next year and will significantly enhance the information we provide right across the network – both to our staff and customers.

“There is a lot of good happening out there and a lot of service improvements.”

Other jurisdictions

Mark Gleeson from Rail Users Ireland said delay compensation in Ireland “doesn’t hold up well to other jurisdictions”.

In theory, Irish Rail paid out double the EU minimum but it only paid out the minimum of cash under EU regulations,” he said.

“The issue we have is actually accessing the refund.

“If you do get delayed you have to find the form, you need to fill it in, put a postage stamp on it, and send it in – there is no way to do it in a digital fashion.

“If you’re delayed on a regular basis, which a lot of people are, it’s an awful lot of time to spend on it.”

Managing delays

Mr Gleeson said Irish Rail needs to help manage delays better.

“A lot of the delays aren’t of Irish Rail’s making but the point needs to be made that their recovery from delays is not as effective and efficient as it could be,” he said.

“We had massive delays outside Portarlington a couple of weeks ago where passengers got on the train around 7pm and didn’t get to Cork until 2am.

“There were opportunities missed to expedite getting those passengers home.”

Mr Gleeson said Irish Rail needs to invest more in avoiding delays in the first instance.

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Main image: An Irish Rail train standing at the platform at Claremorris station in Co Mayo. Picture by: Keith Heneghan / Alamy Stock Photo