Mr. Billy Gilpin:

Regarding Carlow and the way we have reshaped our customer experience offer, previously we had nobody or very few travelling on the trains and we had station staff. The reality is that our customers spend the majority of their time interacting with Irish Rail on the train so we consciously decided to employ a complement of staff with the right skill set to act as customer service officers on our Intercity services. That has been a significant success for us and that means that people have a customer experience involving having an Iarnród Éireann employee with them the entire journey and not just for the couple of minutes when they get off or on the train. That worked for us. That customer service officer can assist any passenger with needs on the train on the train, off the train and during the journey. Regarding the Waterford line, we continue to look at service options and where we can improve and increase, that will happen in support and with the co-operation of the NTA as funding becomes available or where we believe there is a demand.

Regarding assisting with ticketing and booking offices, the overwhelming majority of our customers of all types do not go near a booking office. The percentage of those who do is in single digits. We have drastically reduced the number of booking offices over the years because people generally do it online or through ticket vending machines. We also have the customer service centre. Mr. Murphy might elaborate on how we can support people on their journey through it.