The production of the book form of the timetable is yet another ongoing farce. It should be an important marketing tool for the railway and I have been chasing CIE/IE for a number of years to advertise their own products in it - such as the former "Rail Rambler" ticket, Fastrack, their own late lamented" Brasserie na Mara" but like so much else in CIE/IE it couldn't be done! In years gone by (1950s and 1960s) Sweet Afton cigarettes used to be the main external advertisers. A list of station buffets (!) used to also be included and while these are now an endangered species there are a few survivors.
Many people travel countrywide by rail and the book timetable is what they require not a handful of pocket sized leaflets which always end up mislaid. I am amused to see that another moribund concern "Tourism Ireland" is now embarking on a major promotion of Ireland in Britain and what better way to get people around the country than rail - of course that would be using the much trumpeted but rarely seen concept of
'joined-up thinking'.
