ThomasS

Sadly Alex, public transport users in this country do not count unless they are on CityGold chatting about playing golf in Bali with the CIE union offical beside them.

You are so right about the bendy-buses. You consatantly hear about how they are as good as Luas and for so much less cost. But the reality is they are only as good as Luas if they are operated like Luas with dedicated stops and routing to allow the bendy buses to really fullfill the purpose they were designed for. One has to wonder how long it''l be before the new tri-axels buses are carrying 3 or four passengers around the back streets.

This is what happens when you have property developers (CIE managers) running public transport in this country. You never get proper public transport because their hearts are in building apartments on former railfreight yards, while running buses and trains the way they should be operated is little more than a side show to signing leases, hiring architects, allocating car parking spaces were once there were centrally located public transport sites. Dublin City Council is even worse in many ways. When the city centre traders lobbied Bertie not to join the two Luas lines did these City Fathers bother to fight for Luas?

I'm really hoping this new Dublin Transport Authority is not some senior civil servant talking shop and will actually have statutory powers in relation to public transport operations and development. Otherwise it'll be pointless really. CIE really have to be told how to run public transport and what a shocking and tragic reality this is when you think about it.

Seriously, if you were a CIE manager would you rather tell people that you are a big player in the Irish property market, than one of the muppets who runs one of the worst public transport companies in the history of the western world? Think about it. Big big time property development allows CIE to feel good about themselves rather than doing the mucky work of sorting out the public transport abomination which they provide us with.

I feel for you Alex I really do. I don't know how you stand it at all. Having to work everyday on the frontline among all this madness which is handed down from the CIE boardroom.