Transports of Delight?

The way our chauffeur-driven government continues its war of attrition against the private motorist (NCT, VRT, more tolls on the way, and of course the impending speed cameras) you would imagine we had a reasonable alternative. But of course the Luas lines don't connect, the DART serves only those based around around Dublin bay, the buses are slow, infrequent and finish too early, the trains lack basic amenities, and there's no coordinated ticketing strategy. Beyond all this is an endemic contempt for customers from all these bloated unionised semi-state organisations. I remember travelling in first class from Cork to Dublin a while back and having to endure what seemed like a union meeting in the next section. A bunch of uniformed staff ate sandwiches and argued vociferously as the snail like breakfast service dragged on around them. Getting the Luas from Sandyford recently at 09:00 there was only one ticket machine working and a long line of agitated commuters watched as their fellow travellers fumbled with the one machine - a touch screen system almost unusable in the bright sunlight. Later that morning I was getting a DART from Tara street and found that the decrepit ticket machines took neither my debit card nor a 50 Euro note. When I finally located a tiny ticket desk, the pimpled churl behind the counter took major umbrage at my temerity in proffering a 50 Euro note.