Extent it to everyone by all means but as long as poorer younger people have to pay for it then rich older people should have to as well.
Ironically free travel is the reason Brendan why rural roads around Cavan and presumably elsewhere are clogged with 30- & 40-seater buses that are 95% empty 95% of the time.
There is a local link bus network that caters mainly for free-travel customers. It's almost always empty and only survives by subsidy. There is never much of an upsurge in usage. It is grossly inefficient in environmental terms.
It's more of an observation than an argument, Brendan.
What is the contradiction? That public transport is less environmentally friendly than private cars?
No, that if the world is really burning, shouldn't we be having less transport rather than more?
Subsidize public transport. Get 30 people onto a bus. That's up to 30 cars car journeys being replaced by one bus trip. I don't see how that is a contradiction.
By that logic, public transport should only be subsidised for car owners and drivers and should be discouraged for everyone else?
A small downside. Insignificant, I'd suggest, in the greater scheme of things and better than the status quo.
That neither addresses nor rebuts the contradiction I spotted earlier.
Well if you keep the little blighters away from the GAA pitches you won't be doing much to combat obesity. But you will save money, and maybe stop the planet burning.
Maybe just let the planet burn, I didn't know that was happening, I though Climate Change was the issue, but either way in the longer term letting it happen will sort out many of the other problems as there'll be fewer people.
When was the last time you checked train fares in Ireland? Apart from Cork/Kerry most other journeys are very reasonable if you book online. What sort of price would be acceptable to you? Whilst 1m people may have access to free travel there certainly weren't hordes of them using it when I was going up and down from Galway to Dublin for a few months.
www.locallinkcm.ie
It should be subsidized for all. If you subsidize for car owners then that incentivizes car ownership which not all can afford or need.
Never said anything about keeping them away from GAA pitches.
What sort of evidence would satisfy you, Derek?It would be great if Tommy could provide even a scintilla of evidence of the roads of Cavan being clogged up with empty buses, the timetables don't suggest a massive amount of bus journeys (empty or otherwise).
Timetable - TFI Local Link Cavan Monaghan
Our Regular Rural Services operate on a daily bases. They travel along a fixed route and run to a timetable with reduced stops on weekends. These local bus services are low cost accessible public transport services for anyone wishing to travel. Click on a service route number for more...
Sadly, a family I know lost their teen daughter who was hit by a car while walking to/from our local GAA pitch some years ago, a few hundred yards from the pitch.
Then you're subsidising what the environmentalists call unnecessary journeys.