Customer Charter
Our Commitment to Customer Service
Contents
- Welcome to our Customer Charter
- Our Commitments to You
- Our Performance
- Compensation Payments in the event of a delay
- Complaints, Comments and Suggestions
- Contact Details
Welcome to our Customer Charter
Our Customer Charter sets out our commitments to customer service, as part of the Transport for Ireland network under our contract with the National Transport Authority (NTA). Our aim is to provide a safe, reliable, and accessible service for our customers.
At Iarnród Éireann, every customer is important to us whether you travel with us every day or it’s your first journey. The Customer Charter represents our commitment to put the customer at the heart of our business.
The introduction of Passenger Rights and Regulations for Rail Travel, Regulation (EC) No 1371/2007 of the European Parliament also outlines specific rights for rail customers and have been incorporated in this charter.
Since we first introduced the charter in 1999, our business and our customers’ expectations have dramatically changed. We have upgraded our trains, upgraded our stations to make more accessible for all and introduced onboard Customer Service Officers on our Intercity Services.
The commitment of my Iarnród Éireann colleagues across the country will allow us to meet our promises to you in this Customer Charter, and to continue improving customer experience into the future.
Jim Meade
Chief Executive
Our Commitment to you
In line with the Customer Action Plans and Charters Guidelines, which is part of the Governments Quality Customer Service (QCS) Initiative, our Customer Charter sets out the standards and targets we plan to achieve and how we will deliver them.
- Availability: We will make every effort to ensure that our facilities and services are available as advertised.
- Comfort: We will provide facilities and services that help you to enjoy a comfortable travel experience.
- Accessibility: We will continue to make our network as accessible as possible for everyone in our community.
- Information: We will endeavour to keep you well-informed at all stages of the journey, particularly if things go wrong.
- Care: We will deliver our services with due care and treat you with respect and dignity.
- Diversity and Inclusion: We will treat everyone equally regardless of gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race or membership of the Traveller community.
- Innovation: We will use the feedback we receive from you to look for new ways to enhance the travel experience.
- Safety and security: We will provide a safe and secure travelling environment.
- Timeliness: We will focus on getting you to where you want to be on time.
- Presentation: We will maintain our facilities, information and signage to keep them clean, well-presented and in good condition.
- Sustainability: We will consider the environmental impact of our services and strive to ensure they are increasingly sustainable.
Our performance
We are committed to improving our service and regularly measure and monitor our performance to make sure we’re offering you the best service.
Our targets: Customer satisfaction 90%
We employ an independent research company to interview customers all year round about their experiences with our services. The data is used to work out our customer satisfaction score. This is the percentage of our customers who are satisfied with our service. We use the research from the Customer Satisfaction Survey to tell us about how we can continue to deliver high levels of customer satisfaction.
Service punctuality: 90% of services depart within five minutes of their advertised departure time
We measure the punctuality of all our services at every station. The data is used to work out our service punctuality score. We use this data to keep monitoring our performance and to identify areas where we can improve our timetables.
Service quality performance
The National Transport Authority undertakes regular inspections of our services to monitor performance against a set of high service standards. These inspections are used to work out Performance Points, which are added up each time we are unable to deliver the standards in full. If we breach a defined number of points, we are penalised by the National Transport Authority for failing to meet the agreed standard. Details of the criteria and our latest performance can be found the National Transport website www.nationaltransport.ie.
Compensation Payments in the event of a delay
Discounts if you are delayed
If, you are more than 60 minutes late arriving at your destination station, we will offer you discount vouchers to use when you buy future tickets or, issue cash compensation under EC Regulation 1371.
The value of the vouchers, or cash compensation*, is based on the length of delay and the fare paid for the single journey affected, as follows:
| Delay | Compensation |
|---|---|
| If you’re delayed by 60 to 120 minutes | 50% of the value of the single journey in vouchers or 25% in cash |
| If you’re delayed by 120 minutes or more | 100% of the value of the single journey in vouchers or 50% in cash |
|
* We will not pay cash compensation for amounts under €4. |
|
Discounts if we fail to give you the service you pay for
If the seat you reserved is not available, and there is no other available seat of the same standard on the same train, we will refund you the fare of your single journey back to the card on which the booking was made.
Cancellation of your train, delay before you started your journey or during it
If your train is cancelled, or 60 minutes or more late, then we offer you the choice between the following options:
- You may abandon your journey before starting it and receive a full refund of your fare or apply for a refund if your ticket was booked online or via our telephone sales line.
- You may discontinue a journey you have already started and receive a refund for the part of the journey not made
- If the journey you began has become pointless, you may return immediately to the starting point of your journey by train and receive a full refund of the fare or apply for a refund if your ticket was booked online or via our telephone sales line.
Missing the last connection of the day
If you are not able to reach your final rail destination the same day because you missed a connection, you may be entitled to compensation for the reasonable costs of hotel accommodation and of notifying relatives or other persons expecting you. This only applies if the cause of the delay was within the control of the railway.
How to claim your discount vouchers or refund
To claim any discounts or refunds you’re entitled to, you need to fill in an application form, which is available from the ticket offices in main stations or from the PDF below.
Foirm Cairt Do Phaisinéirí.pdf
Charter Refund Form.pdf
When you apply for discount vouchers you must:
- attach your ticket to the completed form;
- include the reservation number if your ticket was purchased online – we will refund the equivalent back to the card on which the booking was made.
European Legislation - Your Rights
When making a journey by rail, your rights are outlined under the Passenger Charter. The recent introduction of Passenger Rights and Regulations for Rail Travel, Regulation (EC) No 1371/2007 of the European Parliament also outlines specific rights for rail customers, which have been incorporated in this charter. For further details see Regulation (EC) No 1371/2007 of the European Parliament.
If you are not satisfied with how our Customer Care office has responded to a complaint made under Regulation (EC) No 1371/2007, you can contact the National Transportation Authority (NTA) to have your complaint reviewed independently.
Complaints, comments and suggestions
If you’d like to make a complaint, a comment or a suggestion about your journey, we would like to hear from you.
We are available on the phone at:
LoCall 0818 294 015 or on +353 1575 6110 from outside the Republic of Ireland.
- From 07:00 to 19:00, Monday to Friday (not including public holidays)
- From 08:00 to 18:00 on Saturday
- From 10:00 to 16:00 on Sundays and public holidays (not including Christmas Day)
If you call, we will aim to speak to you within 60 seconds.
Also, if you ask, we have staff who can talk to you in the Irish language.
If you would like to send us an e-mail, you can contact us through the Transport for Ireland website.
We aim to respond to messages within one working day and to give a full response within fifteen working days.
We will respond in Irish to messages received in Irish and in English to all other messages.
Complaints
We value every complaint we receive. Some complaints may take longer to investigate, but we will keep you informed while an investigation is taking place.
If you are not happy with the response to a complaint, you can ask for the complaint to be reviewed.
Lost Property
Property found on our service will be handed in to the nearest lost property office, within one working day. Lost property is generally held for a period of one month.
We may charge a handling fee to return your lost property.
Contact details
Phone: 0818 294 015 or +353 1575 6110
X: @TFIUpdates
Letter: Transport for Ireland, PO Box 13739, Clonakilty, Co. Cork
In person
Customer Care, Connolly Station, Amiens Street, Dublin 1.
Lost Property
Email: lostproperty@irishrail.ie
Accessibility Officer
If you need to get in touch with our Accessibility Officer, please contact:
access@irishrail.ie
Data Protection
If you have any questions about our use of your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer: dpo@irishrail.ie