I believe that all public transport should be free to the user, and instead should be funded fully from tax revenues.
Not because the (minor) individual savings would encourage people to switch to public transport, but rather for the sake of efficiency. How often has a road full of cars been held up because someone can't find the last 20c at the bottom of their pocket for the bus fare? How bad are the queues at train stations every Monday morning as people buy their weekly tickets? This puts people off travelling and results in them crowding our roads.
How many bus / train inspectors could be freed to actually drive buses/trains etc., rather than fighting a useless battle trying to catch the odd fare dodger?
There seems to be an obsession in Irish civil service / political thinking that the public transport sector should be cost neutral and/or recoup as much of its costs as possible. This is not what a public transport sector should be about.
Public transport should be solely dedicated to transporting people from A to B.
The collection of monies to pay for it should be farmed out to a different sector of the State apparatus better equipped to collect and allocate monies. Let's face it, we subsidise the public transport sector massively through direct taxation anyway - straight-up subsidies, wages, pensions, buildings etc. Why not go the whole hog and free up all that wasted administrative, security, accounting and collection overhead and allow the public transport sector to focus 100% on what management consultants would call it's 'core competence' - namely, moving the public around?
This would significantly decrease the amount of time buses spend parked at bus stops holding up traffic behind, and would probably realise significant cost savings in terms of admin and security costs.
Yes, it would be 'expensive' on the face of it. But I believe the efficiency improvements, both in terms of overhead savings in Iarnrod Eireann and in terms of the general economy having roads moving more freely, would help offset the expense to a degree that would make such a move worthwhile.
Not because the (minor) individual savings would encourage people to switch to public transport, but rather for the sake of efficiency. How often has a road full of cars been held up because someone can't find the last 20c at the bottom of their pocket for the bus fare? How bad are the queues at train stations every Monday morning as people buy their weekly tickets? This puts people off travelling and results in them crowding our roads.
How many bus / train inspectors could be freed to actually drive buses/trains etc., rather than fighting a useless battle trying to catch the odd fare dodger?
There seems to be an obsession in Irish civil service / political thinking that the public transport sector should be cost neutral and/or recoup as much of its costs as possible. This is not what a public transport sector should be about.
Public transport should be solely dedicated to transporting people from A to B.
The collection of monies to pay for it should be farmed out to a different sector of the State apparatus better equipped to collect and allocate monies. Let's face it, we subsidise the public transport sector massively through direct taxation anyway - straight-up subsidies, wages, pensions, buildings etc. Why not go the whole hog and free up all that wasted administrative, security, accounting and collection overhead and allow the public transport sector to focus 100% on what management consultants would call it's 'core competence' - namely, moving the public around?
This would significantly decrease the amount of time buses spend parked at bus stops holding up traffic behind, and would probably realise significant cost savings in terms of admin and security costs.
Yes, it would be 'expensive' on the face of it. But I believe the efficiency improvements, both in terms of overhead savings in Iarnrod Eireann and in terms of the general economy having roads moving more freely, would help offset the expense to a degree that would make such a move worthwhile.