BUSRAGE Discussions » General Issues

1. Derek Wheeler
   Member

   Public Transport Users Protest
   
   Platform11 are in the process of organising a public protest outside the Dail within the coming month demanding that the Department of Transport and the Transport Unions finally recognise that public transport users are sick and tired of being treated like a forgotten child in a custody divorce hearing between the DoT and SIPTU/NBRU. We are fed-up, we want this sorted out and we demand that public transport users finally have their frustrations listened to.
   
   Irish public transport users have their right to avail of dependable, integrated public transport just as in other European countries, and we should not be held hostage or used as pawns. A letter will also be presented to the Minister of Transport Seamus Brennan outlining our issues and demands.
   
   If any individuals or groups would like to join Platform11 for the protest, you all more than welcome. The protest is for ALL Bus and Rail passengers, but groups from cyclists to concerned citizens are very welcome as well.
   
   This protest is still in the planning stage (we are aiming for a weekday at around 1:30PM) and if you want more details, offer suggestions/ideas or just like to show up, then contact us at info@platform.org for updates prior to the protest. This will be your chance to have your voice heard by the government and the media for change.
   
   The title of the demonstration will be (Public Transport Users – WHAT ABOUT US?)
   
   www.platform11.org
   

   Posted 4 years ago #

2. Al
   Member

   WADR, if the protesters are the same mess of maniacs that post on P11's message board, expect them to be all hauled away to St. Loman's in strait jackets...you have a serious troll problem on that board >:-(
   

   Posted 4 years ago #

3. Ray
   Member

   What the hell is Platform 11?

   Posted 4 years ago #

4. Al
   Member

   Platform 11 is an advocacy group who are striving for improved passenger rail service all around the Republic. Their heart is in the right place, but they are suffering from chronic hot-headedness and have a tendency to take it out on those whose views differ from theirs slightly—that is, if their message board is any gauge of the group (which I hope it is not—and there are a lot of migrants from the Irish Railway News MSN Group there, some of the less stable ones).
   
   I wish Platform 11 all the best, but I recommend a more refined tone, especially if they want to unite everyone who is dedicated to improving the railways and not drive away potential supporters.
   
   

   
   www.platform11.org

   Posted 4 years ago #

5. Al
   Member

   I should mention that Platform 11 also advocate increased use of the rails for freight haulage...and their preferred method thereof is to remove the freight end of things from CIE's hands altogether and have such operations fully in private hands. Since such operations would then be profit-driven, it would give impetus to such operators to be thoroughly competitive with the (currently ubiquitous?) lorries that are clogging up the Irish tarmacadam. However, the clock is ticking on that score what with Irish Rail dismantling a lot of the rail freight infrastructure (extremely foolish IMHO)...
   

   Posted 4 years ago #

6. Anonymous
   Member

   Al, if I can recall correctly you were once banned for life from Irish Railway News for calling anybody who disagreed with you a "motherf**ker" and once promise to beat them up.
   
   You are considered a well known eejit on the net among transport groups. I look at the stuff you posted on the P11 message board and some person there remarked that the comment you made was meaningless. Which it was.
   
   Platform 11 are a well respected rail transport lobby in poltical and media circles. They are made up of really decent and informed people and were the first public transport users in the history of the Irish state to be invited to address a Dail commitee.
   
   Almost nobody from Irish Rail News is involved with Platform 11. You on the other hand seem to have huge personal demons regarding taking critism from others. You take it personally and then explode.
   [posted by: Mr Joe]

   Posted 4 years ago #

7. Al
   Member

   Well, if you are going to criticise, I suggest you leave the flames off here. I remember IRN quite well, and please do not tell me that I was the sole offender in that respect. Many of the comments that were posted on IRN's message boards long before (and after) I was singled out for banning are just as bad or worse than my own. Case in point, your "eejit" remark, which you seem to not have been able to resist.
   
   You are also misinterpreting what I said above. By "if the message board is any gauge", I meant those that post on the message board who may or may not be members of Platform 11 in any standing—and since I have not looked at a list of Platform 11 members, I cannot repeat that to you nor would repeat that to you on here out of respect for the privacy of those members.
   
   I also did not say that anyone from IRN was "involved with Platform 11" but that people who posted on IRN's message board also posted on the Platform 11 message board. Perhaps you have a disability in regards to understanding what others wrote? I hope you can take that little dose of criticism without "exploding" into another insult like "eejit" which is bad form.
   
   Also, care to offer some true criticism on my "meaningless" posts? Rather than criticism, I saw misinterpretation and denigration. Criticism is supposed to be constructive, otherwise it is flamage—I learned nothing from any "criticism" I received, except that the critic replied solely to build up his/her ego, which is counterproductive. (To wit, any criticism of Luas on my part, or any ill words hurled at Seamus Brennan, or any comments that are pro-Metro, sparks a flame war.) To mask flamage as "criticism" is to damage your honest reputation.
   
   Many transportation lobbies meet with government officials, but if they do not have money to back them up, they will get nowhere. With the current capitalist bent of the Dáil and Seanad, you will discover that all of your lobbying will merely lead to more debate and no action. Not to mention that the recent bombing of the train in Madrid, Spain is against your cause—from the politicans' POV.
   
   I do urge everyone concerned with the transport situation in Ireland to indeed support Platform 11, despite the obstacles to their cause. Are those the words of an eejit? Tell you what...I suggest we take this to e-mail instead of continuing a flame war on here, BTW—you game for that, Mr. Joe?
   

   Posted 4 years ago #

8. Al
   Member

   Just for the record, here are some of my views that caused flame wars on IRN and P11 message boards:
   
   
   
9. Since the DART overhead electrification scheme caused the closure of Carlisle Pier, said electrification should have been third-rail instead
   
10. Line B of Luas should have been DART instead of light rail
    
11. Luas should not have been off-gauge from the general railway network of Ireland
    
12. Luas will be too slow and have too little capacity
    
13. Advocacy groups should communicate with transport unions as well as the Dáil, Seanad and executive department of government instead of blasting them as a scapegoat for all of the woes thereof
    
14. Seamus Brennan is an impediment to revitalising bus and rail transportation in Ireland
    
    
    The "criticism" I received in response to these views is that I was a Luas-basher (false), that Seamus Brennan ought to receive no criticism, that the unions are to blame for all of the ills of all departments of CIÉ, and basically that "we know everything and you are an eejit". To the credit of some of the respondents, I did get some constructive criticism, but the flameage outweighed the positive comments. Now if you are out to help the perceived "eejits", I have no problem with that, but if you throw the "eejit" label around just to feed your own ego, then both "sides" of the argument get absolutely nowhere.