This article is from page 4 of the 2008-02-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
aETSMR OU Tes Ona neren A price check carried out by north Clare county councillor, Martin Con- way (FG), revealed that a single one- way ticket from Maynooth to Dublin costs just €3, compared to a fare of €8.60 from Ennis to Limerick. This is despite both journeys covering roughly the same distance and run- ning high levels of occupancy. In addition to this, a day return ticket from Maynooth to Dublin
coast €5.40 compared to €15.70 for the same type of ticket on the Ennis to Limerick line.
“This is a clear example of double standards for people living in Clare and is not encouraging people to take the environmental option. If it was a private company operating the rail service, it would be a different story but this service is funded by all the tax-payers in the country, not just the people in Dublin,” said Cllr Soe
“What we have here is a situation where the taxpayer in the east of the country 1s effectively getting a dis- count compared to the taxpayer in Clare. This is a public State-spon-
sored body. There should be no argu- ment about this. It’s a criminal situ- ation, totally unbelievable when you consider the amount of people who use this service.”
Responding to the survey, business development manager with larnrod Eireann in Limerick, Jim Gallivan, claimed that rates on the Ennis-Lim- erick line compared favourable to bus charges on the route.
“We feel that this survey is not comparing like with like. They are different categories of stations. The Maynooth to Dublin service is an in- ter-urban service while the Ennis to Limerick service 1s an inter-city serv- ice,’ he said. “The rates we have on
the Ennis to Limerick service com- pare well to the bus service between Ennis and Limerick and the route has proved very popular to date.”
Cllr Conway has called for a pay- per-kilometre system to be intro- duced. ““Irain fares throughout the country should be charged on a per- kilometre basis, not discriminating against people in different parts on the country,’ he said yesterday.
“If we are talking about real equity in this situation, this is the only way that we can continue. I am now call- ing on Minister Tony Kileen and his colleague Timmy Dooley to raise this matter with Noel Dempsey as a matter of urgency.”