Friday 30 August
M1 is going to be closed tomoorrow and DART is closed beyond Connolly so AERDART from Howth Juncition is out.
1. Buy DART ticket for tomorrow to avoid danger of missing DART because of queues at the ticket window in Bray (It happens).
2. Ask for a timetable - sorry sold out
3. Ring Dublin Bus re frequency fo the 747 bus to the airport and does it stop at Connolly. Answers - every 10 minutes and Yes.
Saturday 31 August
1. Ring IE re times of DART - there's one at 10.55
2. 10.35 - leave house to walk to the station
3. DART departs 10.55 (so far so good)
4. DART arrives Connolly approx 12 noon
5. Ask guys at ticket check where to get the 747. There is no 747 from Coonolly. The 747 runs from Busarus. The 748 runs from Connolly every 30 minutes. Allow standard deviation from scheduleed time plus an allowance for the M1 being clsoed and the conclusion was walk to Busarus and get the 747.
6. At Busarus the 747 arrived, we got on, everyone paid and we departed, two stops in O'Connell St. and its non stop to the Airport. Yeah, right!!! A long delay getting through the junction at Whitehall/Collins avenue. followed by a crawl up in a single lane through road works through Ballymun with anxiety levels going through the roof. (there has to be a better alternative route than this) It's now nearly one. EVENTUALLY, the 747 gets to the M50 and 5 minutes or so later we're in the ariport after a journey time of two and a half hours. With an hour to spare before the flight time. So, no problem! Yeah, right! again.
7. Aer Lingus check in passenger on a first come first served basis and they had overbooked the flight so we were TOO LATE. They offered an alternative flying Aer Lingus to Frankfurt and onwards to Rome with Alitalia arriving in Rome a few hours later than the direct flight. Fine? Yeah, right! The bag was checked through and arrived at the hotel on Wednesday night four days later.
So Seamus Brennan has cosultants "studying" options for a rail connection to the airport. Under his terms of reference a direct route isn't important, any old roundabout way will do. Can I suggest that there may be some cheap rails from the Sligo and Westport lines that might be used and maybe, somewhere, there's an old steam engine from the West Clare railway!