Photo by Maria Celeste Gomez

It’s a bit hard for me to assess what kind of topic might actually be interesting for my few frequent readers here. After over six months in Dublin, the most important stories have been told, and the phase of settling in is definitely over. There are changes coming up that I will mention in one of the next posts, but until then, I don’t want to bore anyone with articles about Dublin weather. That would be the same story, over and over.

For today, let’s take a look at the Dublin transportation system. Have you ever been to $yourfavouritecapital ? If so, you have probably been relying on a not perfect, but probably so-so functioning public transportation system. – In Dublin, you’d be screwed, if you did.

Let’s start with buses. I’m talking about these really nice and modern double decker Volvos, that you’ll see pretty often on Dublin streets. Fine. But what if you’re planning on taking the bus to a suburb far away, maybe for dinner with friends? Of course, you could take a look at the online time tables, which thankfully they’ve introduced here as well. Thing is: There is only one of those per route and direction, and not one per stop. In other words: You cannot find out when exactly a bus will arrive at a selected stop. You simply can’t. Instead, you are forced to do the maths by taking the time mentioned in the table (= the time the bus starts its journey at the original stop), and then re-calculating the arrival time by adding an approximate (of course, not exact) journey time listed on the time table.

Then there’s DART. Introduced in 1984, it has become increasingly popular linking southern and northern Dublin suburbs, crossing the city centre on its way. Often packed (mostly in the mornings and evenings, of course), and sometimes even on time! You wouldn’t actually believe there is an electronic arrival time display? (There is.) There are signs and wonders, after all.

Oh, and not to forget the city’s newest symbol of modernism: LUAS. Whatever that stands for. Two lines, “red” and “green”, cross Dublin and link the outer suburbs with the city center. Would you have guessed: Of course, the lines do not connect with each other. The closest you can get from red to green is a 15 minute walk. Argh!

See this hilarious video regarding pretty much all of these issues:

To say something positive: The new Aircoach fleet, that brings you from and to Dublin airport (cause guess what, neither DART nor LUAS go there) is very luxurious and even has Wi-Fi on board, so the one hour trip to the city centre becomes a little less boring. This, however, has got it’s price: a return ticket is 14 Euro.