An Hour and ten minutes

[Ronald Binge]

I'm stranded in Heuston until 2145, waiting for a train to the Hatch. Being a good citizen my car is parked there. In what way is such a huge gap justifiable between trains on one of the major routes out of Dublin? I can't help feeling that public transport timetables are designed around civil servants and bank officials finishing up after 5.30pm and not people like me running around sorting out tax in the mad scramble before 16 November.

The evidence around me doesn't give me any hope that a fundamental rethink on supply and demand for public transport is going to happen anytime soon. Jammed roads are going to continue to be the public's response to inadequate public transport, because the existing timetables, except for Luas and to a certain extent DART are a strait-jacket around commuting requirements for a growing number of people in this country.