"Commuter Rage"

"Commuter Rage"

A headline I expect to see soon!

Some of my rants: -

Packed like sardines into trains - got to be contravening some kind of Health and Safety law

Our commuter society losing all sense of decorum and manners(myself included I'm ashamed to say) just to get on the train/get the best standing spot/get that elusive seat.

People paying a fortune every year for their tickets but never being able to get a seat.

The 'If I don't make eye contact with that person who's about to faint then I won't have to give up my seat' mentality.

Copious numebrs of houses being built on the train lines but nothing being done to improve the service to cope with this(and yes I did buy one of these houses)

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Hi D,

Understandable reaction (I get the DART to work every day so am well aware of what your trying to say). However, a few things to be borne in mind (some DART specific cos' that is the only service I am (overly) familar with:

1. Those packed conditions you describe only occur at rush hour. The same conditions are seen in every other city around the world during this period - its what happens at rush hour. If we were to invest €xm so everyone could have a seat at rush hour that would lead to huge over-capacity and inefficency for the rest of the day.

2. The DART upgrade programme is lengthening platforms to allow additional carriages onto trains to ease congestion so things are being done - unfortunately these things take time. Bear in mind that this programme will not lead to more frequent DARTS, but rather longer DARTS. Bit of a sticking plaster solution but there you go.

3. The major issue is one of capacity in the city centre. As far as I'm aware only 12 trains an hour are allowed into this central area. Until this capacity issue is changed there will be a severe limits on the frequency of service that will be run.

On the points about giving up seats etc - your right, it is all a bit Darwinian on the railways - but maybe if IE actually ran their trains on time and on a semi-frequent basis then maybe there would would be no need for this attitude :rolleyes

Slightly off topic but I heard someone say on the right hooke one day that "our children are growing up in traffic". An interesting view of things I thought.

Interesting point judge.

Prior to our exit from the rat-race my husband and I were spending more than 15 hours a week commuting. It was crazy.

We opted out of city life. Now we have an extra day each week to spend as we choose.

You choose to live where you do. You choose to work where you do. You choose the lifestyle you want.

You choose to live where you do. You choose to work where you do. You choose the lifestyle you want.

Well said but I doubt that the whingers will take notice. :\

It requires a certain level of financial Independence and/or education to "live where you want to live".
You can't decide to opt out if there is no demand for your skills where you want to go. It's all well and good for comfortable middle class people to "opt out" but if you are living hand to mouth and rely on your extended family's help to survive then the 15 hours a week in the car is unavoidable.

You can't decide to opt out if there is no demand for your skills where you want to go.

But you can develop new skills which allow you more choice in terms of where and how you live your life. We all make choices, consciously or subconsciously, in life which to a large extend determine the situation in which we end up. Seems to me that too many people seem to think that they are passive players to whom life "happens" instead of realising that they "live" it and can control certain aspects (not all obviously) of it.

It's all well and good for comfortable middle class people to "opt out" but if you are living hand to mouth and rely on your extended family's help to survive then the 15 hours a week in the car is unavoidable.

Who said that Henny Penny and family are "comfortable middle class"? They could be eating home grown spuds and living in a caravan for all you know. :\

Hi Clubman,
You are right, I should have been more clear; I was talking in general terms about how people view those who participate in the rat race as doing so only because they are too blinkered or greedy to "opt out". This is usually not the case as life just isn't that simple for most people and considerations like friends, family and paying the mortgage all cloud the picture.

But you can develop new skills which allow you more choice in terms of where and how you live your life

Click to expand...

If you don't mind me saying do that is a pretty middle-class perspective. Many people have low skill levels and due to socio-economic factors do not have the confidence or basic education to develop new skills. I do take your point that many people could make significant changes to their lifestyle and quality of life but don't do so because they don't take control of their surroundings. They are reactive rather than proactive.

What's wrong with home grown spuds?

What's wrong with home grown spuds?

:lol

If you don't mind me saying do that is a pretty middle-class perspective.

Well if you don't mind me saying that's very presumptuous of you given that you know little or nothing about my background. :\

Many people have low skill levels and due to socio-economic factors do not have the confidence or basic education to develop new skills.

I don't think that that trait is peculiar to any particular socio-economic demographic to be honest.

Copious numebrs of houses being built on the train lines but nothing
being done to improve the service to cope with this(and yes I did buy
one of these houses)

Click to expand...

as rubes pointed out, things are being done. unfortunately the rail network basically survived 15 years with zero capital investment. imagine what the roads would be like if all spending on roads had stopped for 15 years. however there is some hope on the horizon. the head of irish rail, joe meagher, gave a [broken link removed] recently on what the future holds. this vision largely coincides with the efforts by the consumer group platform11 as outlined by their [broken link removed]. the last link is getting political support (i.e. a financial commitment from the government) and even on that front there seems to be a shift. the rail network can be fixed; it just requires political will. if you really feel strongly about it, you can get involved with platform11.

what the future holds.

Broken links?

Well if you don't mind me saying that's very presumptuous of you given that you know little or nothing about my background

Click to expand...

Fair point.

I don't think that that trait is peculiar to any particular socio-economic demographic to be honest.

Click to expand...

yet another fair point!
I suppose what I am trying to say is it's not just a case of "you could if you really wanted to", it's more complicated than that...

I went up to jackeen land yesterday on the train. At Malahide an elderley lady was putting her shopping bag on an overhead rack so she could sit beside my wife but whilst she was doing this, an ignorant male in his early 40's pushed past her and sat in the seat.Despite her protestations he refused to move, and it was only when I offered her my seat that others around started to harangue him and after a few expletives he got up . As I am a very infrequent train traveller I thought this was a rare occurance but some of the more seasoned travellers said that it is getting more common in recent years
due to the overloading of trains.
On a related topic, my eldest son was coming back from Cork a few months ago , paid full whack for a ticket and had to stand packed into the corridor the whole way home , despite having pre- booked the ticket!!!!

As the old adage went CIE :Cycling Is Easier.:lol