Quote:
Originally Posted by James Howard
The staggering thing here is that 25% of the country's population gets their travel needs provided for 61 million euro. At the rate of an annual "All Service" pass (€5340.00), this would actually cost €5.8 billion!
All right, so a 50% bulk discount is somewhat fair - what do Eircom charge the government for the roughly 25% of all landlines paid for by the state?
But at that rate, all of Irish Rail's money worries would be over. We would have TGVs to Westport on that sort of budget.
|
Slightly bogus calculations - someone would only buy an annual pass if they knew they were going to use it (and frequently). Pensioners (who afaik make up the bulk of the free travel scheme) get their pass whether they plan to use it or not. My folks have free travel but rarely use it.
Maybe they should charge a nominal fee for the pass (€100?), or as suggested by many make it a discount card rather than a free pass.