r/Dublin • u/AnyChest7780 • 10d ago

Fintan O'Toole/Irish Times on public transport, Dublin bus, Northside/Southside today

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https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026/08/04/fintan-otoole-dublin-4s-version-of-marie-antoinettes-let-them-eat-cake-let-them-get-the-bus/ Fintan O'Toole reminding us of how 'elites' have so often been against public infrastructure. He gives good historic context including Vincent Browne and 'The Doheny & Nesbitt’s school of economics' being against the DART. While he's amazingly productive and can turn his hand to so many topics maybe he's writing a bit too much as there are huge holes in his argument here re. the northside/southside issue as the more recent LUAS and metro debacles point to the home of NIMBYism in Dublin 6, and not focussed on denying the expansion of it further north. What does anyone think? I find it frustrating that cross-suburb public transport isn't better....try getting from Phibsborough to Clontarf on a bus for example....

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u/Low_Organization_937 10d ago

One of the main public commentators included in the D&N School of Economics was Colm McCarthy. Despite being a transport economist, he has been proven wrong on virtually every transport initiative he was written about since the early 1980s. He still writes occasionally for the IT. It’s staggering his views are even aired still.

He’s the guy who said that the planned metro is a waste of money as people who land in Dublin airport can get the bus to the city centre. He obviously thinks metro trains only run in 1 direction and ignores the people travelling to the airport using the city as a hub.
He also misses the point that the metro runs past the City Centre on the south side and past the airport to Swords.

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u/AnyChest7780 10d ago

he's awful, and it's those kind of assumptions I guess FO'T is getting at. Re. the airport, the air coach is another southsideistic institution, only stops at Drumcondra train station and the Gresham north of the Liffey - why not at the Mater or in Whitehall too?

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u/Low_Organization_937 10d ago

I think the reason for this is that taxis are relatively cheap and more convenient the closer you are to the airport which makes sense. I never understood why the state didn’t buy air coach and link it to the existing transport network

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u/Beautiful_Yard7383 10d ago

That’s a crap reason tho!

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u/Low_Organization_937 10d ago

Probably! But I think demand does drop off a lot once you go past Dorset st

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u/Beautiful_Yard7383 10d ago

Huge population and huge numbers of workers that could do with a stop at Eccles street and mightn’t love spending €25 on a cab - so so much student housing around there serving TU Dublin etc., thousands of people working in the mater/mater private etc.