Iron Road Aaron

Well I thought I had it figured. Park at Barberstown, walk the canal towpath to Clonsilla - allowing me to photograph the completed railway bridge over the Royal Canal and get a return ticket from Clonsilla to M3 Parkway. Of course, I made the mistake of actually trusting Irish Rail to have their ticket machines updated. But then, when you see this inside the station, preceded by the old timetable still proudly on display outside the station, what would you expect.

I have photos of the pages for stations with D (for Dunboyne), M (for M3 Parkway) and just for good measure, I took a photo of the page for P (Pace) - just in case. Not one of the pages has the new stations on it. I also decided to look at the zone tickets. After all, it is about the same distance from Clonsilla to M3 Parkway as it is to Maynooth. Therefore, common sense would suggest that the inner and outer short hop zone tickets would apply. The zone map in the ticket machine is here. But then, these haven’t been updated for the new stations on the Kildare line either, so quelle surprise.

You cannot buy a ticket to access the new line. But wait you say, board the train and pay at the other end. Obviously, you are unaware of the penalty fare system. So, a trip to M3 Parkway costs €100.

Rather than pay this fare (whatever kick I may get from travelling on a new railway, it ain’t worth €100 and a civil penalty which would cost me my professional qualification), so I was left with no choice but to see the train to M3 Parkway come and go, without me on it.

When you voted for the Lisbon Treaty, you assumed that Ireland would be subject to the laws of the European Union, right? Wrong. Where is the EU now that the State needs to be forced to sell rolling stock and provide open access to our railway network to third parties to interested in operating the South Wexford Line.

The new EU president was referred to as a damp rag by UKIP MEP Nigel Farage. I would go further than that. Herman Van Rompuy isn’t even fit for use as toilet paper.

To those accountants in IR who have massaged the figures to load the line with network costs based on the misuse of full overhead absorption costing, a complaint of professional misconduct awaits you in due course.