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Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland
that's my seat

Irish Rail is fixing something that really annoys customers

Hurrah.

Updated at 5pm

IF YOU’VE BOOKED a seat on an Irish Rail train, you’ll know that it offers a handy seat booking service, which includes your name being displayed above your seat.

You’ll also know that sometimes, that name isn’t displayed; or that on other occasions the wrong person is in your seat – possibly because there’s no name above it.

Irish Rail is now hoping a new system will help to prevent instances of this happening.

The changes

Its spokesperson Barry Kenny visited TheJournal.ie offices for a livestreamed interview, and told us that a new means of displaying the names above seats will be tested soon.

Kenny said that currently, when the driver of a train enters the train’s ID number into the system before he or she leaves the station, the seat booking details are then displayed.

However, this currently depends on the stations’ wi-fi, which can be patchy.

Instead, the information will be transmitted using a 3G sim, which will mean better system coverage and a more reliable service for displaying names, said Kenny.

“It will be tested in the next few weeks,” he said. If successful, it will then be rolled out throughout all train routes.

Watch:

Video TheJournal.ie / YouTube

Read: The Hotseat: Irish Rail and the National Roads Authority answer your questions LIVE>

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