The column below appears in this week's INM Irish regional newspapers.
By Michael Commane
I had an appointment in Tralee on Friday at 3.15pm. It meant taking the 11.00 rail service from Dublin Heuston. Its schedule arrival time in Tralee was 2.58pm. It would take me less than 10 minutes to walk to the venue.
The train was full. There was a large number of senior citizens on the train, which meant they were availing of their free travel passes.
Somewhere south of Sallins I overheard an elderly lady talking about her holiday in the Caribbean to be quickly corrected by the man beside her, saying that they had been in the Canaries.
The train arrived on time in Mallow, where passengers for Tralee changed trains. The Tralee train was due to leave Mallow at 1.30pm. It was a relatively new train - a South Korean built rail car. Anyone who uses the Dublin Cork railway will have noticed that in recent years Irish Rail has built a dedicated workshop south of Portlaoise, which is dedicated to servicing this fleet of rail cars.
It was 1.30 and the train was still at the platform. People were standing on the train. The seat reservation digital display system was out of order so passengers who had no reservations were sitting in seats that most probably were booked. Others with bookings were standing and annoyed. The doors of the train were closed and the air conditioning was not working.
1.45 and still not a move. People were beginning to get 'edgy'. Sitting opposite me were a German couple. They were obviously going on a walking holiday in south Kerry. They were reading their holiday guide and a book on walking tours.
Circa 1.50 the driver did tell us that there was a problem with the braking system on the train. Modern trains use an air brake that requires the brakes building up air in the system. Our train was not managing to do that so there was no way we could move off.
At about 2pm people were beginning to get more agitated and the woman who mistook the Canaries for the Caribbean was talking about calling the Joe Duffy Show to explain her plight on the stationary train.
Sometime about 2.10 Irish Rail decided that our train was going nowhere and buses arrived to bring passengers to Tralee and all the intermediate stations.
The German couple opposite me took it in their stride and as the woman was getting off the train she commented in a friendly and nice way that it could happen anywhere. And off the two of them went to the bus with not a bother on them. The Irish lady with the free travel pass was greatly agitated and giving out hell that this could only happen in Ireland and that probably all the bosses at Irish Rail are living in colossal houses and never use the train but travel about in their big company cars.
It was now approximately 2.20 and I decided that there was no way I could get to Tralee on time for my appointment and made the decision to return on the next up train back to Heuston.
Irish Rail could not have been more pleasant and caring. They supplied me with a complimentary single ticket back to Dublin and assured me that the company would listen to my case when I explained to the them that I had missed my appointment.
Of course the State has an obligation to care for its citizens, to see to it that there are adequate health, educational, social facilities available for all its citizens. But it did cross my mind on that stationary train in
Mallow it's hardly a God-given right that the State is obliged to ferry pensioners all over the country for free, especially if you have spent the last few weeks in the Caribbean, or even the Canaries.
A special word of thanks to the Station Master in Mallow and the ticket agent. If I had one quibble with Irish Rail it would be; how safe is it to run passenger trains with no Irish Rail personnel travelling on the train?
Commiseration to the Irish Rail personnel at the platform, who had to listen to loads of silly guff from a number of Irish passengers holding free travel passes.
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5 comments:
Michael, I find myself strongly disagreeing with your views on free travel for over 65s. In this article you conflate two things : the free travel question and the complaints of the elderly woman recent,y returned from holiday abroad. Would her complaint be any more acceptable or justified if she had paid for a ticket? If free travelling over 65s behave like the Germans in your story would that be a case for supporting free travel? Clearly the two issues are entirely unconnected and it is a form of ad hominem argument in this case to use the woman's complaints to attack free travel!
I believe that free travel is a terrific asset to the over 65s. It provides opportunity for many to travel and have a different set of experiences that would otherwise be available to them. My late mother, like many elderly people of her generation, lived alone and did not drive. Free travel was a boon to her, allowing her mobility which would otherwise have restricted her to her home.
Thee are arguments about crowding and capacity, to be sure, and abuses of the system, but the manner in which the state provides for its most vulnerable says a great deal about our values. At a time when the state is cutting pensions, raising taxes especially by stealth, imposing new charges and heightening fear especially among the elderly, the existence of the free travel scheme is one small low-cost support that should not be removed. The additional increase in safety on the roads, by movi some older folk whose driving is now less than it was, is also a factor! Long may free travel continue.
My column was attempting to be funny. Had you been on the train I think you too would have smiled. Not a whimper from the two Germans. They might be teachers in Tempelhof, earning far less than their counterparts in Thurles.
When the woman with the free Travel Pass suggested she call the Joe Duffy Show, well, it was just so funny.
I'd prefer if the State gave more care to the dental health of the nation, education, social care, everything, rather than ferrying people for free. And really should a person on a pension of €150,000 have a free Travel Pass?
As the Minister for Education keeps says: "We are in receivership".
On that day I was travelling on a return Tralee Dublin ticket, which cost €79.00.
And I'm not far from retirement.
Michael, I think some empirical data would help in this question. You talk of 'ferrying people for free' and would prefer that that the state gave more to dental health, education and social care as examples.
First, what is the actual cost of the free travel for over 65s? Given that trains and buses run anyway, it must be marginal. I don't believe that there is a pot of money that can be directed elsewhere by removing this entitlement.
Second, what would the downside of such a removal be? Clearly, for a number of pensioners, they would be unable to travel. The wealthier would continue to travel, free or not. So your proposal is one that would inevitably hit those in need far more. It is most certainly not equitable. Further, many of our poorer pensioners, a group which would have included my late mother, have no access to private transport. For them it is a double whammy.
A wider question you raise when you mention €150,000 pensions is that of universal benefit, and whether there should be means testing for all. As you know that raises its own ethical questions, none of which admit of tidy answers.
One proponent of small government is Mitt Romney's running mate whose agenda is best described as two pronged: (1) Give tax breaks to the rich (2) Balance the budget by slashing the entitlements of everybody else, especially the poor. I am not suggesting that is your position (I know of course that it is not) but I do believe that your approach to free travel for pensioners participates to some degree in that malign philosophy of letting the poor go without while the rich can afford what they want.
A friend of mine sent me an SMS yesterday saying how she laughed reading my column in The Kerryman.
The column was meant to be funny. On one seat was an Irish woman travelling for free and sounding off. On another seat two Germans, staying calm and happy.
The Germans were probably paying not just for the Irish woman's ticket but also for the carriage in which we were sitting.
The steel on which the train was standing had been smelted on the Ruhr. I think the braking system was designed by Siemens. The train windows were German glass.
I was trying to be funny. It was ahilarious 30 minutes, full of stupid issues.
Michael, earlier in this blogebate, I referred to free travel as being low cost. I have seen figures recently which suggest it costs 46 MILLION annually. Ibam nit sure if this is simpy the cost of what might haveeb paid by those who travel free. But it seems I was profoundly wong in my estimate of the cost. Only arrogance comes cheap :)
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