MICHAEL P. O'SULLIVAN,
Madam, - I was amused to read of the embarrassing U-turn which Dublin Bus was forced to make on its fare increases (The Irish Times, December 7th).
Roman public transport is by no means perfect, but here I can travel throughout the city for up to 75 minutes using bus, metro, tramway and suburban trains (and even all four, if necessary) for a mere 77 cent.
Will there come a day when public transport in all EU capitals will cost the same? - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL P. O'SULLIVAN, Via Aurelia, Rome, Italy.
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Madam, - I note with some amusement the attempt by Iarnród Éireann's public relations manager, Barry Kenny (December 7th), to justify the massive increases in monthly and yearly Short Hop commuter tickets by labelling them "promotional".
Surely a promotional tariff, in the public transport context, would be designed to encourage off-peak travel in an attempt to maximise the use of company assets and increase profits or reduce losses.
Is he seriously suggesting that tariffs that have been availed of by a generation of peak-time daily commuters in Dublin can be in any way regarded as promotional? This makes sense only if one considers Iarnród Éireann's definition of promotional tariffs to be a designation designed to enable a State monopoly to ignore government price orders. - Yours, etc.,
ANDREW MARTIN, Town Parks, Skerries, Co Dublin.