Irish Rail passengers left "terrorised and terrified" on Athlone to Dublin train

A passenger who travelled from Athlone to Dublin by train on Sunday evening last has vowed never to use Irish Rail again after he endured “a nightmare journey” during which up to 20 unaccompanied minors “ran riot and created havoc.”

The Dublin man – who was in Athlone to visit his uncle and was accompanied by his wife – said passengers on the 75-minute journey were “abandoned by Irish Rail” as the young people “basically hijacked the train and did whatever they liked, without impunity,” leaving passengers feeling “terrified and terrorised.”

The man, who asked not to be identified, said many of the young people who had boarded the train in Ballinasloe were carrying “ducks, chickens, cats and other types of small birds” in “shoe boxes and bigger cardboard boxes” and that they proceeded to “torture the animals” throughout the train journey.

“They were kicking them, pulling out the bird feathers, dragging them down the aisle, burning them with lighters, and the animals were in obvious distress, screaming in pain. It was just horrendous,” he said.

When one female passenger tried to intervene, the passenger, who contacted our paper, said she was “surrounded by a group of minors,the oldest of whom was probably 13 or 14, and they lit lighters and sprayed aerosols at her and other passengers, almost setting one woman's hair on fire.”

He also claimed that some of the young people were “carrying wooden sticks” and the atmosphere in Carriage C, where he was sitting with his wife was “threatening and intimidating” throughout the terrifying journey.

An Irish Rail customer service representative on the train “tried to intervene” but the unaccompanied minors “just completely ignored him and continued running up and down the train using foul language and terrorising everyone,” said the passenger.

When he disembarked at Heuston Station, the passenger said he and a number of other people who had been on the train lodged complaints with Irish Rail Customer Services, and were told that the staff “were aware” of the incident.

“The train stopped in Tullamore for over 10 minutes and no security people came into Carriage C, where all these young people were running riot, and then the train just continued on its way, and we were just totally abandoned,” he said.

“Where were the kids' parents? Where was security? Where were the guards? How can this type of thing be tolerated with no consequences for these kids and their parents?”

When contacted earlier today and asked about the incident, Irish Rail said “a significant number” of customers boarded the 17.00 hours train from Galway to Dublin Heuston at Ballinasloe on Sunday evening last.

“A number of unaccompanied minors were amongst those who boarded, and it appears many had bought small chickens and other small birds at an event in the town,” said Barry Kenny, Corporate Communications Manager.

“Our on-board customer service officer attended a number of reports of anti-social behaviour on the train amongst both adults (primarily drinking) and children, and requested security, who were stationed at Tullamore, to board,” said the Irish Rail statement.

It added that a customer had contacted “an off-duty member they knew personally” by phone, alleging that there had been “mistreatment of animals on board by one group of unaccompanied minors.”

Irish Rail stated that the staff member had “alerted our central control who in turn alerted our security team,” and that security “went through the train at Tullamore to address this, and we have asked our security team for further details.”

Irish Rail apologised to customers who experienced “any distress” during their journey, and said they would investigate the matter further and respond directly to the customer complaint.

“We apologise again to customers for the upset experienced,” concluded the Irish Rail statement.