Article originally published in Issue 4 of Rupture, Ireland’s eco-socialist quarterly, buy the print issue:

A wide open road through a rugged landscape, relaxed driver smiling at the wheel, uplifting music...Even outside the fantasy world of advertising, for most people in Ireland, access to a car is both a freedom and a necessity.[1] It’s seen as the ‘convenient “hassle- free” travel option’ that provides ‘easy access, door-to-door service, seating, space for companions and belongings, and the freedom to travel at any time.’[2] This indispensability will have been reinforced by the pandemic with public transport portrayed as a teeming cauldron of virus. Better to be hermetically sealed off in your car, belching life-destroying carbon into the atmosphere and increasingly stuck in traffic again, but safe in the here and now.

Compared to the car, public transport has a negative image. While only committed Fine Gaelers might agree with Thatcher that ‘A man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure,’ a broader perception exists (especially in rural areas) that buses, like rental accommodation and the minimum wage, are for the poor, young people and immigrants. On the other hand, proximity to the DART or the Green Line Luas is a major driver of Dublin house prices. Somehow, it’s possible to build desirable public transport in better-off areas, and often better cycling and walking infrastructure too, whereas more working-class areas are left with a handful of winding, irregular bus routes to the city centre and little connectivity to neighbouring areas.

Snobbery aside, public transport is seen, often justifiably, as slow, infrequent, unreliable, inconvenient and expensive. Often it’s quicker to cycle or even walk - and not just short distances. In Dublin, which has by far the best public transport in the country, only 13% of the population is accessible in a 30-minute journey by public transport (including average wait times and how long it takes to get to a stop) compared to 71% by bike and 43% on foot. This is the second-worst public transport accessibility out of 42 EU cities.[3] Going further afield, according to Google Maps, right now it would take me seven hours and five minutes to get from where I live in Dublin to my parents’ house in rural Tipperary by public transport. Assuming Tour de France levels of endurance and peeing ability, the same journey would take seven hours and 48 minutes by bike - but less than two hours by car.

So why is public transport in Ireland so bad and what should be done about it?

Lack of public investment

An obvious place to start is the lack of public investment. Ireland’s rail system was originally built by the British to facilitate colonial resource extraction, was largely dismantled post-independence and partition, and only a fraction of it has been re-built. The first railway in Ireland - and the first commuter railway in the world - was built between Dún Laoghaire and Westland Row in 1834 as part of the Royal Mail route between London and Dublin. The network peaked in 1920 with over 5,500 kilometres of track, including in Donegal, Monaghan and West Cork. From the 1950s to the 1980s, thousands of kilometres were closed, reducing the network to less than half that size today. The Luas is also less than half the length of Dublin’s previous privately-owned tram network, which closed down in the 1950s once it stopped turning a profit.

Much of the rail infrastructure opened in recent years, like the Luas Green Line, has been constructed along old routes. Docklands station, which opened in 2007, was the first new train station in Dublin city centre in 116 years and largely serves finance and tech multinationals. Flowing from this historic under-investment, a mere 3.3% of passenger kilometres in 2018 were travelled by train. This is well under half the EU average and compares to 12.9% in Austria and 19.3% in Switzerland.[4]

““Since the first Irish motorway was built in 1983, the number of cars has jumped from around 800,000 to 2.1 million.””

The mirror image of closing the railways was the growth of the road network and private cars. Since the first Irish motorway was built in 1983, the number of cars has jumped from around 800,000 to 2.1 million.[5] This led Ireland’s transport emissions to grow by 136% between 1990 and 2019, far out-stripping the EU average of 20%.[6] Roads received 60% of land transport funding from 2005-2020 compared to only 37% for public transport. Even under the Greens, ‘sustainable mobility investment’ will account for just under 37% of the land transport capital budget in 2021 compared to 52% for roads.[7] The Public Service Obligation levy which supports current bus and rail expenses was €184 million in 2019[8] - 40% less than in 2009.

As well as limiting services, under-investment makes them expensive. The average Irish household spends €736 annually on transport services compared to an EU average of €411.[9] This is despite low public transport use overall (18.3% of passenger kilometres in 2018) and the dominance of buses, which account for 82% of Irish public transport travel kilometres compared to an EU average of 54%.[10]

Planning & transport designed for profit not people

If lack of investment was the only problem, improving public transport could be relatively easy. However, a long history of depopulation and bad planning has left Ireland with one of the most dispersed populations in Europe: 70 people per square kilometre compared to an EU average of 117.[11] Dublin is used in planning conferences as an exemplar of uncontrolled urban sprawl.

The role of corruption in this is well known but even more significant is the overall orientation of planning towards promoting the profits of developers, multinationals and big business generally, rather than the needs of people and communities. Shopping centres and large multiples like Lidl and Aldi are allowed to set up on the outskirts of towns, sucking the life out of town centres and encouraging car dependency. Zoning policies and high property prices separate where people live from where they work and government policies have enabled economic investment to concentrate overwhelmingly in Dublin. Gridlock is the inevitable result. Without dedicated bus lanes or proper train networks, traffic jams slow down public transport more than cars. Dublin was the 15th most congested city in the world in 2019; drivers spend 154 hours a year sitting in traffic.[12]

The same pro-capitalist logic is embedded in the design of public transport. Routes are designed for commuting for work and go to town centres, rather than for social or caring purposes in neighbouring areas. This was starkly revealed at the start of the first lockdown when public transport was initially reserved for essential workers only. All other purposes, including care, were deemed non-essential and of fundamentally less importance than paid work.

Organising public transport in this way has a major gender bias given the main reason women travel is to drop off and collect family members, whereas the main reason men travel is for work.[13] The failure to provide for these needs is evident in how ‘companion/escort journeys’ make up 20% of all journeys but only 2.5% of journeys by public transport.[14] Women are also more likely to ‘trip chain’, for example dropping kids off at school before catching another bus to work. This female journey pattern is penalised by fare systems that charge for each leg of a journey, meaning women pay more for public transport despite earning less than men. Women are also worse affected by unreliable services, which disrupt trip-chains, cause them to miss relatives’ medical appointments or to feel unsafe waiting, or stress them out trying to entertain bored children. Women are also more likely to be carrying stuff - from buggies to groceries - and public transport lacks storage space. All this means having a family is often a turning point in terms of car dependency.[15] Yet despite all these issues, men of all ages are more likely never to take the bus.[16] This is likely because women are poorer than men overall, less likely to own a car and nearly four times more likely to travel as a passenger in a car than men[17] - despite being safer drivers! People with disabilities face even greater difficulties accessing public transport. They are often forced to compete for space with buggies and prams and 85% of hackneys/taxis are not wheelchair accessible.[18]

““Women are also more likely to “trip chain”...dropping kids off at school before catching another bus to work. This female journey pattern is penalised by fare systems that charge separately for each leg of a journey...” ”

Public transport, not just in Ireland but everywhere, systemically fails to cater to people’s needs. It’s organised to serve the needs of profit and working-class people in general and women, people with disabilities and public transport workers, in particular, are excluded from designing it. Like much of the working class, transport workers suffer from worsening pay and conditions linked to public spending cuts, outsourcing and privatisation. Private coach companies, which cater for tourists as well as scheduled services and run the vast majority of school buses, have grown 90% since 2005. They now own 80% of buses in the country and employ 11,500 full-time staff, generally on much worse pay and conditions than the 6,000 workers for Bus Eireann and Dublin Bus.[19] This has created an inconvenient, expensive and un-integrated public transport system with separate ticketing systems for different operators and incompatible timetables.

Solutions

Every year, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) asks people what would encourage them to use public transport more. In 2019, they said ‘more direct routes’, ‘ease of use’, ‘better access to services’, improved disability access, ‘better value’, ‘greater frequency’, more reliable journey times and timetables, ‘shorter journey times’, ‘closer stops to my destination’, ‘more enjoyment using services’ and ‘to help improve the environment’.[20] In other words, people want public transport that is fast, frequent and free and also accessible, reliable, safe, enjoyable and green.

This might seem like a long list but many of these qualities go hand in hand. Free public transport would be much faster without having to pay for or check tickets. Frequent services would reduce waiting times - a major part of the time spent on using public transport - and boost reliability, safety and enjoyment. Public transport is also inherently more environmentally-friendly than cars, which spew out a whopping 10% of Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions[21] compared to less than 1% for public transport.[22]

Fast & frequent

““A rule of thumb should be that everyone living in a town or city is within five minutes walk of a transport stop.” ”

As long as public transport is slower than driving, people will continue to rely on cars so making it fast and frequent should be a key objective. In Ireland, this means high speed rail between Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Belfast; completing and speeding up all suggested metro, light rail and Bus Connects projects, including abandoned ones like Metro West, South, and South West in Dublin and Luas lines in Galway, Limerick and Cork; significantly increasing capacity on all services; and banning cars from city centres. In villages and rural areas, Local Link and Rural Link services should be massively expanded and shared taxis and public car hire made available. These could also help to fill in gaps in urban and suburban networks without the need for car ownership. A rule of thumb should be that everyone living in a town or city is within five minutes walk of a transport stop. This is key to the ‘15 minute city’ concept currently being promoted by progressive urban planners in cities such as Paris - where everything needed for a fulfilling life, from work to home to leisure and caring facilities, can be reached within 15 minutes.

Publicly owned & democratically planned

In order to have a properly integrated transport system with good pay and conditions for workers, it is essential that the entire system is publicly owned and democratically planned by workers and communities. This will mean nationalising private bus companies and the Luas under workers’ management and control and setting up democratic planning processes before new projects are designed rather than as tick-box “public consultation” processes afterwards.

Free

Freedom of movement, like health, housing and education, is supposed to be a fundamental human right. It shouldn’t depend on the ability to pay. Financially, young adults would benefit the most from free public transport given 18-24-year-olds take the bus more often than anyone else.[23] But so would hundreds of thousands or even millions of people freed from the hassle and expense of owning and running a car. Transport currently accounts for 12.9% of Irish household spending - mostly for cars, which cost the average household €1,764 a year.[24]

Free public transport could be a game-changer from an environmental perspective by maximising public transport use and minimising carbon emissions. In 2019, the “Kids Go Free” summer promotion more than doubled child use on Irish Rail, Luas and Bus Eireann.[25] Making it free for everyone would lead to even greater increases and so is an essential element of a Socialist Green New Deal.[26]

““Free public transport could be extended to public bike, e-bike and e-scooter share schemes, share taxis as well as free taxis for people with impaired mobility and a level of free car hire for occasional journeys.” ”

Abolishing fares will also be important in encouraging people back onto public transport after the pandemic. Public transport use “fell off a cliff” during the first lockdown. Daily passenger numbers dropped 82% compared to a 59% fall in traffic overall.[27] A survey last year found three-quarters of workers were concerned about catching Covid on public transport and a quarter said they would use it less often even after restrictions were lifted.[28]

An international movement for free public transport is growing around the world with active campaigns in many countries, including the US, Germany and Brazil. Close to 100 towns and cities now offer some form of free transport.[29] Luxembourg became the first country to completely abolish fares last year.[30] In several places, it’s turned out that collecting fares cost more than abolishing them or that fares contributed only a small portion of running costs.[31] So far free public transport has generally only been applied to scheduled services but it could be extended to personal mobility devices, including public bike, e-bike and e-scooter schemes, share taxis as well as free taxis for people with impaired mobility and a level of free car hire for occasional journeys. This would help to encourage people out of cars by filling the gaps between transport stops, including the all-important ‘last mile’ of journeys, and facilitating trip-chaining.

Enjoyable

For public transport to supersede the car, it has to be more enjoyable to use it. A basic first step is to ensure no one feels unsafe.

A survey last year found one in three public transport users had seen or experienced harassment or violence on public transport, with seven per cent of women in Dublin reporting they personally had experienced sexual harassment on public transport. Fifty five per cent of women said they would not use public transport at night and a third of women and a quarter of men said feelings of insecurity had prevented them from travelling. With findings like these, it’s unsurprising women in Ireland rank the car as the most pleasant, safe, child-friendly and least stressful way to travel.[32]

This is the reverse of what could be. A big advantage of public transport should be that passengers can relax and do things they can’t do while driving - like reading, watching TV, playing games, using social media, eating a meal, having a glass of wine or a pint, talking on the phone or even just going to the toilet. This could be facilitated by providing fast broadband on all services, dining cars with high-quality food on trains as exists in many countries, ample storage space and family-friendly seating arrangements.

Making public transport fast, frequent, free and enjoyable would transform it into a busy, universal public service used by all. This would automatically make it safer without the need for repressive measures like transport police. Universalising use could play a major role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by taking tens of thousands of cars off the road. The potential is huge given over 80% of travel is currently by private car.[33]

A socialist right to mobility

In essence, what we’ve been envisioning here is transforming the imaginary liberal concept of freedom of movement into a real socialist right to mobility. This can only be achieved through providing free transport for all as a universal public service. Obviously, this is a question not just of re-designing our transport system but of fundamentally re-organising society.

““What we’ve been envisioning here is transforming the imaginary liberal concept of freedom of movement into a real socialist right to mobility.””

RISE advocates for a Socialist Green New Deal that puts workers in control of the resources needed to democratically plan our way out of the climate crisis and into an ecosocialist future. There’s little point in having an excellent free public transport system if people are out of work, living in poverty and can’t afford to do anything once they get to their destination. And there’s zero chance of the scale of investment needed to make all this a reality so long as the capitalist class hoards all the wealth in a society designed around their needs rather than those of the majority.

Under capitalism, freedom of movement and the 15 minute city will remain bad jokes for the vast majority of the world’s working class - be they the billions banished to far-flung suburbs and slums or locked out of Fortress Europe. The only conceivable way of achieving free, frequent and fast public transport for all - and averting climate chaos in the process - is through the fight for democratic ecosocialism.

Notes

1. 95% of women outside Dublin and 93% of men consider it ‘a necessity for everyday life’. In Dublin, 88% of men and 79% of women agree. Ly, J U. ‘Travelling in a Woman’s Shoes: Understanding Women’s Travel Needs in Ireland to Inform the Future of Sustainable Transport Policy and Design’. Transport Infrastructure Ireland, July 2020, p. 17

2. Ly, p. 9

3. European Commission Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy, ‘How Many People Can You Reach by Public Transport, Bicycle or on Foot in European Cities?: Measuring Urban Accessibility for Low Carbon Modes’, 2020, p. 17

4. Eurostat, ‘Modal split of passenger transport 2018’

5. Department of Transport, ‘Transport Trends 2020 - An Overview of Ireland’s Transport Sector’, February 2021, p. 8

6. O’Doherty, Caroline. ‘Traffic Drives Greenhouse Gas Emissions Seven Times Faster in Ireland than in the Rest of Europe’, Irish Independent, 24 February 2021

7. Government of Ireland, ‘Revised Estimates for Public Services 2021’, December 2020, p. 131.

8. CIE, ‘CIÉ Group Annual Report Year Ended 31 December 2019’, p. 86

9. Department of Transport, p. 3

10. Eurostat, 2018.

11. McHugh, Robert, ‘Ireland Has One of the Least Dense Populations in the EU Ireland, News for Ireland, Ireland’, 11 May 2017

12. INRIX Research, ‘INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard 2019’, March 2020, p. 8

13. Ly, p. 3

14. CSO, ‘National Travel Survey 2019’ https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-nts/nationaltravelsurvey2019/

15. Ly, p. 32

16. CSO. ‘Use of Public Transport - National Travel Survey 2019’ https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-nts/nationaltravelsurvey2019/useofpublictransport

17. Ly, p. 18

18. Department of Transport, p. 7

19. Hannigan Advisory, ‘The Private Bus & Coach Sector in Ireland’, Coach Tourism & Transport Council of Ireland, February 2020, p. 3 https://www.cttc.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/The-Private-Bus-Coach-Sector-in-Ireland-Review.pdf

20. CSO, ‘National Travel Survey 2019’

21. Department of Transport, 2021, p. 22 https://igees.gov.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Transport-Trends-2020.pdf

22. Minister for Transport. ‘Greenhouse Gas Emissions – Parliamentary Questions (33rd Dáil)’, 24 March 2021 https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2021-03-24/28

23. CSO. ‘Use of Public Transport’, 2019

24. Department of Transport, p. 3

25. Finn, Christina, ‘NTA Says It Would like to Expand Free Public Transport for Kids after “phenomenal” Summer Uptake’. TheJournal.ie, 7 August 2020

26. O’Dwyer, Diana. ‘The Case for a Socialist Green New Deal’. Rupture, Issue 1, 19 August 2020.

27. Department of Transport, p. 24

28. Trinity College Dublin. ‘Employees Fear Contracting COVID-19 If Using Public Transport to Get to Work’, 14 May 2020

29. Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, ‘Conference Report: Steps toward Free Local Public Transportation’, 6 May 2021

30. Papa, Enrica, ‘These Cities Made Public Transportation Free. Here’s What Happened Next.’ Inverse, 3 November 2020.

31. Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, 2021.

32. Ly, p. 3, 23

33. Eurostat, 2018

Free, Frequent & Fast: Public transport & the right to mobility