‘It’s torture’: Cork commuters complain of ‘dangerous and disgusting’ train tripsOne of the 50 most serious complaints told of a large group of teenagers drinking alcohol, standing on tables, and even smoking weed on the train after the National Ploughing Championships Fri, 04 Sep, 2026 – 05:51Amy Campbell
Racist chanting, homophobia, brawling, and open drug taking were among 50 of the most serious complaints from passengers on Cork train routes in the past 12 months.
A large group of teenagers drinking alcohol, standing on tables, and even smoking weed on the train after the National Ploughing Championships was reported to Iarnród Éireann last summer.
The complainant wrote: “I actually cannot believe how dangerous and disgusting the train from Dublin Heuston to Cork Kent is.
“It looks like approximately 100 drunk teenagers got on the train at Portarlington and have spent the entire journey standing on chairs and tables, screaming and shouting and banging the ceiling.
“They’re openly drinking out of glass bottles (and mixing drinks in plastic ones) as well as doing shots in the middle of the carriage. I saw one light up a joint and just smoke it in the middle of the carriage.”
The complaint about antisocial behaviour was provided alongside others from the last year on foot of a Freedom of Information request.
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The same complaint also noted racist language. “Not to mention having to listen to them screaming things like ‘I’d rather be a P**i than a Prod’,” it said.
The person said they never normally complain about anything, but they “feel so unsafe surrounded by drunk teenagers holding hurleys and screaming. I’ve seen security on the trains plenty of times, but apparently none was needed when you knew the train was going to be overbooked with a school going to the Ploughing?”
They added: “I have another hour and a half of this and I could actually cry; it’s torture. If you experienced 10 minutes of this, you would feel the same way.”
Another complaint, on behalf of a young woman, said that a man was sitting in her booked first-class seat. “She asked him to move; he did, but then got abusive, saying she was a ‘posh bitch’ and her daddy had bought the ticket.
“He continued for his journey, making abusive comments and being aggressive and intimidating,” before getting off the train at Charleville, the person said.
Another said that a group of six young men aged between 13 and 15 started shouting and punching one another. “They then produced water pistols and proceeded to spray water at each other, myself, and other commuters.”
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A third person detailed racist abuse of train staff, saying that as they passed through the carriage, a man was saying “two jabs and that will do them, and we can just fuck them off the train”.
One woman said that throughout the whole journey from Dublin to Cork, “a number of passengers spewed homophobic comments while drinking heavily between carriages.
“This made myself and my partner feel very unsafe as a lesbian couple,” she said, criticising the lack of intervention by train staff.
One complaint said they suspected drug taking by two adults who were travelling with a child who “smelled strongly of urine and faeces, making the environment for surrounding passengers unbearable”.
They said the adults were “cycling in and out of the toilets for extended periods… I strongly suspect illicit activity was taking place.”
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