If CIE doesn't exist in the public then why was it Dr. Lynch announcing the ordering of the 30 extra IC DMUs?
CIE does exist and it's culture certainly does. It's easier to refer to CIE than IE/BAC/BE, that's why I refer to CIE and will continue doing so. We are a rail lobby group, fair enough, but we above all recognise that without integration (with buses in the main) that rail isn't really worth a whole hill of beans.
Has anybody thought that if CIE operated services on xmas day that Connex would too? I think Connex look at their two lines (they don't even operate a network thanks to Mary O'Rourke) and realise that with BAC at least running that their passenger numbers would be far too small. I'm not blaming CIE for Connex's decisions but it will certainly be a big factor. I know that I personally can only use Luas if IE services are running to get me to Connolly, and I have made these journeys quite a few times.
I hear what you're saying about CIE bashing Derek, but Connex are a brand new outfit with a tiny passenger base compared to CIE, who had 50 years as a virtual national monopoly to provide integrated transport & ticketing. They failed miserably and you still have to pay two fares on two buses to make one journey across Dublin. That's why people are so angry with them-they could have done all this years ago but they have never really been interested in provided a quality experience for the public.
Our own board shows this ever day-they repeatedly fail to display the most basic information at stations, on trains etc. That is happening today, not 25 years ago. They really haven't improved at all in decades and looking at old maps of a fragmented tram system (pre-CIE) you can see flat 1p fare boundaries so we have actually gone backwards under CIE.
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