The ability to use commuting time is the main advantage of the train. The car is definitely dead time and a bus is largely dead time unless they can give you as much space as on a 22k. You can get some work done on a 29k but only if you arrive early enough to monopolise one of the 6 tables per car in the groups of 4 seats. So basically the space on a 22k is the main selling point for Irish Rail in people who are spending more than and 2 hours per day on the train.
Irish Rail's best bet for people going further than an hour each way is to do what it takes for these commuters to be able to effectively use their time on the train. Maybe they should consider reconfiguring a car or two per group of 4 29ks as working space where the seats were in a configuration more similar to the 22Ks. Maybe include a seat-booking facility to commuter passes where for a couple of hundred a year you could hold a seat on one train per day each way.
This is how you can justify charging people a thousand euro a year more than the bus. The same argument applies to occasional business travellers and college students who can be persuaded to cough up a few quid more if they can use their time on the train. But then I reckon most of the college student on the train I take are travelling on a Sydney Parade to Connolly ticket because there is no chance of them being checked and there is no way the bus can compete with that
