The Iron Road

national | environment | opinion/analysis Sunday July 30, 2006 21:46 by Dolours

Starvation of Transport Infrastructure in 'Celtic Tiger' economy.

The train's rolling stock and interior :dated.

The exterior: over the carriage couplings, new paint-work, inside each one had a leak, which wet all
luggage of passengers.

The Bathrooms: smelly and small.

No trolley, food car or facilities to heat bottles, change diapers, breast feed.

No facilities for disposing hygenically of sanitary equipment.

Exacberated by a 25 minute delay outside Heuston.
Intending greeting parties waited and left, as the board lit up 'on time'
and then the Castlebar train vanished off the board. This is travelling, Celtic Tiger style.

It can be looked at from the point of view of the main users of the Public transport Network
in this State. The roads programme gathers pace and the people of Navan still do not have a railway connection,
though 'Transport 21' states that there will be a connection opened in the next ten year period.

Meantime, an existent road ,the N3 is to be bisected, as well as the projected
bisection of the Tara-Gabhra Valley and the imposition of corrupt planning on communities.
The Blundelstown inter-change and the re-zoning potential of lands around the proposed
M3 will enrich the few speculators, whilst the people who have called for a dedicated commuter
and rail service are still calling. The school bus system , after nine years of wealth and corruption
is starved of investment and seat-belting young children comes as a result of tragedies.

So, what is wrong with the transport infrastructure of the biggest growing wealthiest nation in
Europe: is it that everyone has a car?

Take the average nuclear family: a round trip ticket on a train to the regions costs
upward of eighty euros, up to a hundred. For this you get a printed timetable , which
asserts that yes, there is a trolley service, wherin you can buy over-priced food, drinks
and the necessities of the journey.

Except that when you board the train on the iron road, the dining car is locked.
The water supply is falling gently on your suitcases, the staff cannot answer
and suggest you write a letter "don't kill the messenger", hands up, "I only collect the tickets"
Two of the toilets are continously engaged. In which the bored mother of the toilet
trainee, who may or may not be on her period cannot dispose of the sanitary napkin, tampon,
and has to wear the same one for four hours and knows that it is beginning to seep
through her clothing. The smell is becoming rank. The kids have no water, coke, (tea)
no-where to warm a bottle to stuff in the gob of the teething, screaming one. And
she is rather glad she has given up breast-feeding , because there is no-where
quiet and comfortable on the train to nurse the infant, who is becoming very agigtated
because the train has unaccountably stopped to allow three ingresses and egresses from
Heuston.

Meanwhile fond nanny and grandad are mystified by the delay and the board
which says that the due train is on time and they are still waiting.
People who are a bit faster had jumped off at Athlone and got bottles of water
and are playing with playing cards, which have pictures of pneumatically
inflated page three girls and all is well with the world, except that the nicotine ban
is starting to really make the parents edgy, the kids are admiring the graffiti on the
bridge by which the train is nestled and therestaurant car is still padlocked.

You go to the back of the train and have a fag, then you get a camera and photograph
the surroundings, the padlocked door, the damaged luggage, the bored faces and
the screaming child.

The train arrives 25 minutes late, at the farthest platform from the station and mysteriously
all the staff who would apologise have vanished.

This is the reality of travelling on the iron road. It has been deprived of infratructural investment.
It has been deliberately run-down. weeds grow all over the Manulla junction depot
and still, the responsible commuter who desires to leave the car cannot have the confidence
in a rotten corrupt administration to put their children on a school bus, or to get a train
because they are aware of the shit that flies around inrelation to a transportation system dedicated
to the SUV driver and the land-grabbers that wait to cash in on the re-zoning potentialities
of the projected routes of the crony lobby.

The company who were given the contract to fit seat-belts to school buses have out-sourced
the work to a company who pay their employees below the minimum wage.

The Three in a seat rule which added to the death of beautiful Navan girls just before
their leaving cert was in operation for many years. The dropped adherence to this expedience
has caused some children to lose access to even that transport.

The Navan railway pressure group have consistently highlighted the dearth of investment
in their region and the focus on the un-needed road.

The mother on the train , who was bleeding had to pay money to use the bathrooms in Heuston and for a taxi to get the tired and agigtaed children home.

She is wondering whether she should publish the photos of the neglect and lack of service on the iron-road.