Irish Rail had to take a train out of service after it was left in a “horrific state” from a joint DCU Engineering Society and Science & Health Society event on Monday, they have claimed.
A joint ESoc and Accounting & Finance Society event, scheduled for next week has been cancelled by Irish Rail as a result of the condition the train was left in.
“The train was left in a horrific state. There was vomit and other fluids throughout the train and even a used condom,” spokesperson for Irish Rail, Jane Cregan said.
“The lack of respect that was shown for our train on Monday night was totally unacceptable,” Cregan said. “We have therefore taken the decision not to run the planned DCU student charter that was supposed to operate next week.”
The Engineering Society and Science & Health Society took 300 students from Dublin to Galway City on the train, chartered specifically for them. Irish Rail were forced to take the train out of service for a day, as it had to be deep cleaned. This resulted in a disruption to scheduled services, they said.
Irish Rail said that they have ran many similar events with Trinity College Dublin in the past and the trains were in perfect condition afterwards.
Una Redmond from the Office of Student Life and Siobhan Byrne from Clubs and Socs said they are planning to meet with Irish Rail to discuss the alleged incident.
There was security staff employed by the Students’ Union (SU) on the train, according to Redmond. She said security didn’t report back on any incidents but that “the train was messy, we did hear that. There was sick and whatever on the floors”.
Redmond said that toilets were out of order on the train and that was the responsibility of Irish Rail. “There was one toilet among 160 drunk students,” Redmond said. Irish Rail have confirmed that two toilets on board the train were out of service.
SU President, Kim Sweeney was in attendance at the event.
” When we got off in Galway all the stewarts cleaned up the train and any bottles left around,” Sweeney said. “They were actually complimented by, I don’t know if it was the train security or.. but they were complimented for cleaning up in Galway.”
“When we were getting off, there was rubbish but there wasn’t enough bins for them,” she followed up.
Redmond expressed that Engineering Society and Science & Health Society did everything on their side in terms of the event management plan and that “the student organisation on this event was top-class. Whatever a student chooses to do outside of that is a matter for them as individuals.”
“It’s disappointing for societies like ourselves who put all the footwork and hours on hours of planning, to then have to go back and cancel an event due to recklessness and unprofessionalism of another society,” ESoc Chairperson, Shane Carter said.
ESoc are refunding all members that have put a deposit down for their cancelled trip.
The Engineering Society declined to comment to The College View.
Although it was rumoured that legal action would be taken, Irish Rail have denied that any legal action will take place. They will be dealing with DCU to further resolve with the matter.
Hayley Halpin
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