Sir, - Tadhg O'Brien (May 29th) makes a number of points about the Greystones DART service. Although the service provided at Greystones is not as comprehensive as that at Bray, it does provide an attractive choice of services for the commuter base in Greystones, operating within the restrictions of the single line between Bray and Greystones and the availability of time slots to the city centre at peak periods.
We have already indicated that we will be introducing a further three morning peak services by way of a Greystones-Bray DART shuttle from October, when new carriages and new drivers are in place.
The single rail fare from Greystones to the city centre works out at approximately 13p per mile. This fare is extremely competitive compared with most other forms of transport, particularly motoring costs. We also encourage our customers to avail of our range of pre-paid discount tickets to save their time and money. A monthly rail ticket sees the rate per mile drop to under 7p.
In encouraging customers to purchase these tickets, we also encourage customers to purchase weekly and monthly tickets in the days prior to the first day of each period if possible, to ease pressure on ticket offices at peak times, and avoid the queues which can result. A staff member was assaulted in the incident Mr O'Brien refers to, and this is an occurrence that no staff member should have to face. - Yours, etc.,
Barry Kenny, Manager, Media and Public Relations, Iarnrod Eireann, Connolly Station, Dublin 1.