If you want to generalise this argument, I think there is a happy medium in this. For example, "traditionally" there was no need for busses leaving the city for the west after 6PM. When I was in college the furthest west you could get on Bus Éireann after 6 was Kilcock. Yet now there is a bus to Sligo at 11PM and you can get a bus the opposite direction that puts you in the airport at something like 5AM. Obviously tradition was wrong in that case.
I think there is a very strong case to be made for running the trains a bit later at night. It is simply ludicrous that the last train to Longford is 7:05. At the very least, Irish Rail could come to an arrangement with Bus Éireann to allow people with passes free or discounted travel on the later buses but with all of the investment in automation on the rail network over the last few years, there should be a train going at least as far as Mullingar. It would serve a lot more more people than the soon to be combined 7:05 and 9:05 services to Sligo.
The point is that the contribution of late services is more than just the passengers on that service. For each person on a 9PM train to Longford there would probably be a couple of extra passengers on the 7:05 who have either not bought a car or left it home because they have figured that the train is flexible enough to suit their needs.
That being said, to return to the original topic, the lack of services on Christmas day is of very little concern to 99% of the population. A skeleton service on Stephens' day might be desirable for Irish Rail's own benefit to avoid forcing people to try out direct airport buses (or city centre) that are probably easier for a lot of people than taking the train to Heuston.
|