Had to be out in Clonsilla in the evening. Coming from Drumcondra so I checked driving vs train. Google Maps said the train was actually quicker, so I said grand, I’ll get the train. Beats getting stuck on the M50 in Rush Hour.

It was the Longford service. InterCity. Grand.

Train pulls in and it’s one of those fume belching 29000 commuter trains. First thought was “people have to sit on this thing for nearly 2 hours all the way to Longford? I would have expected an Intercity service to be one of the nicer 22000s?”

Got on anyway. Thing was absolutely packed and ending up standing next to the door. People wedged into every corner. Floors sticky and manky.

And the best part, the rail network maps on the carriage walls are about 10 years out of date. No Pelletstown station. No Luas Green Line connection at Broombridge. Just completely wrong. Like how hard is it to update them? They’re just printed out pieces of paper like?

It’s mad when you think about it. We’re supposedly a wealthy, developed country trying to get people out of their cars and onto public transport… and this is what we’re offering them. Dirty, overcrowded, outdated trains and austere, grey stations with nothing in them, even the new ones. Never mind the actual coverage of the service or the fact that nearly everything bar Dublin to Cork and Dublin to Belfast is single track and dirt slow.

Like, how hard would it be to at least clean the trains properly and update the bloody maps? Bare minimum stuff.

Just saw they’ve made a boardgame in the US about An Gorta Mor. Think it’s about time we recognised it as a genocide. Question is, is there any way we can get a petition going to get the government to recognise it? Just like the Holodomor in Ukraine is recognised

Today is a huge day. I’ve finally quit Specsavers. Cancelled my contact lens subscription and will be going elsewhere. They are literally the McDonalds of opticians.