They would have gotten money from fare increases whether or not the cut back the service levels. The problem this year was the double-whammy of service cutbacks and fare increases in the same week. Each on their own is a problem but it is utter lunacy to implement both in the same week - not least because they lose the ability to separate out the effects of both items. To me, there is no doubt that Irish Rail are doing themselves long-term harm with these cutbacks - they are talking about saving 1.5% of their annual budget and there is no way that they can have inflicted less damage to their revenue than this.
Also, we already have had service cuts on the Longford service - we lost two services per day each way last year although they were pretty useless services so it affected very few people. But what they have done this year is far worse as they have effectively made the prime-time evening commuter train unusable. If Irish Rail senior management had to spend 10 or 20 hours per week on a 29k, they would change their tune pretty quickly.
Personally I am faced with a choice now between two comfortable trains which are persistently 15 minutes late every day or one that is so uncomfortable that by the end of the week I just want to go to bed when I get home. I am lucky in that my employer is happy for me to operate on a leave early one day, late the next basis but I would still rather not be getting home after 9PM two evenings a week.
The worst thing about this is that when I started commuting 9 years ago, we had a Mark 2 at 1810 and it was timetabled 5 minutes faster than the current 1805 and had at least as good a punctuality record. It was also more comfortable than anything currently offered. And now after having sunk hundreds of millions into the railway we are back to the noise and discomfort of the 29k. It would have been better if they hadn't spent any of it.
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