Sallins pay parking

[Thomas J Stamp]

Originally Posted by dowlingm

When the car park is full start charging and funding a connecting bus from the proceeds.

But you see, IE have said that the reason for charging is to:

1. Fund redeveloped Car Parks
2. Discourage non-train users using the car park
3. Disocurage those who live within walking distance from using the car park.

Dosnt square, does it?

This is simply a money generating exercise, nothing more, nothing less. The exact same services - CCTV et all, are going into Templemore and belive me it will be full everyday - but we have been promised that it will be free. Anyone else is being taking for a ride, simple as.

[dowlingm]

NB1/Thomas - I'm not saying that's what IE *are* doing, I'm saying that's what they *should* be doing.

As I've said before though, the centralising instinct in Ireland is partly to blame. Local authorities should be able to start a service like this with a minimum of fuss but instead the instinct is (a) to have central government order it and (b) to jump through all sorts of bureaucratic hoops about route licences.

This is not just about feed from nearby non-rail served towns that I've talked about previously. GO Transit extended their train service to Barrie this week and local bus routes were adjusted to serve the new station. Who runs those buses? Not the federal or provincial governments, not even GO Transit - the municipality of Barrie runs the buses, because in the end it is the municipality that suffers because of traffic jams in dormitory towns, since the people heading to work are doing so in another city.

Local urban councils in Ireland should either contract with a private firm or with Bus Eireann to run buses to stations to meet trains, and demand IE pass part of their car parking revenues to them. Those buses can then conduct other transit services outside of peak rail times. After all, if IE can demand money from local authorities for more rail, maybe local authorities can demand money from IE to deal with the consequences of rail expansion.

[Thomas J Stamp]

cant say I disagree with much of that tbh.

One day i must post about some of the things that really get my goat up, but I'm not in the mood today. In short this country is plagued by both NIMBY-ism and also INBY-ism.

Our rail network cannot cope purely because of this. We have more hospitals than we need, we have an airport in Shannon that isnt needed really, and because we have far more TD's than we need we'll never get out of the failures of the past that we all suffer with today. Why do we have an advance factory unit in almost every town in Ireland? Why is the NSS a waste of time and money? Why, why why?

We are a nation of dopes, thickos, greedy short-sighted morons and we're all fairly happy to wallow in our own filth as long as the money is good.

Does it matter that we're paying for car parks, extra on the Luas , paying over the odds on more things than we have ever paid before? Not at the moment it dont. But one day you will feel the hair snapping on the camels back. It may be a small thing. Perhaps you will turn up at Salins train station and you will not have that €2. You have time to to go the ATM. You dont have funds to take out the tenner and there's not enough petrol in your car to drive to Dublin. You go home and realise you're broke and the DD for the mortgage is going out tomorrow. You wont be the only one, believe me.

Happy Christmas.