[Article] 'Carer' airbrushed from Luas stamp

Victor

http://www.thepost.ie/web/DocumentView/did-318347962-pageUrl--2FThe-Newspaper-2FSundays-Paper-2FNews.asp

'Carer' airbrushed from Luas stamp
27/06/04 00:00
By Sean Mac Carthaigh

An Post has air-brushed a carer assisting a wheelchair bound passenger onto a Luas train from the face of a stamp to be unveiled tomorrow.

The 48 cent stamp commemorating the Luas tram system is due to be launched tomorrow by the Minister for Transport Seamus Brennan.

The original drawing showed an able-bodied carer assisting the wheelchair- bound passenger, but in the version to be unveiled tomorrow, the carer has been airbrushed away.

Sources said ``thought police'' at An Post insisted it was politically incorrect to show someone assisting another passenger in a wheelchair because it implied ``dependence'' on the part of the disabled person.

The Sandyford to St Stephen's Green Luas line is due to open to the public on Wednesday, but sources said there were still major problems with the system.

``It's a disaster. It's the worst, most jolting trip I've ever made on a train,'' said one recent traveller.

Political sources said Mary Coughlan, the minister for social and family affairs recently took a group of five senior citizens for a preview ride on the Luas. The first tram broke down, forcing them to get out and wait for a replacement.

The second tram also broke down. The party then abandoned the Luas completely and piled into the minister's car.

"Serious safety questions remain,'' one source said. "Also, the stations haven't been finished.''

Dozens of desk-bound staff at the Railway Procurement Agency have been ordered to don T-shirts and man information counters from 7am to 7pm at Luas stations next week.

Such a task would normally fall to Connex, the company being paid by the state to operate the Luas.

Steve Conway

That newspaper really has it in for LUAS doesn't it????

Week after week after week they have been spewing out the anti-LUAS propaganda.

The story about the trams breaking down for the publicity run is a complete fiction, as anyone who sees the pictures and reads the account of the run in Saturday's Herald will know.

Now, I *have* made a full return trip on the LUAS from Sandyford to Stephens Green. I am also a regular traveller on systems ranging from the London Underground, the Croydon Tramlink, the Docklands Light Railway, to the DART.

I found the ride on the LUAS to be smooth and swift. Not a jolt, and the only time there was notable vibration or noise was going round the tight curves at Adelaide/Harcourt.

The acceleration to top speed from standing start was impressive.

Yes, it's true that work continues on the stations. But to say it is "the worst, most jolting ride" is another work of fiction by a paper that is rapidly losing its cred on transport issues.

Someone miffed because they can no longer double-park their BMW outside the office perhaps?

jd

Seems a bit too politically correct for me.

There was a bit in the paper about Donal Toolan meeting some people who had finished their classes in Political Correctness. He asked them if a guy in a wheelchair made a joke in a club would it make him a standup comic..

West Briton

A quote from the RPA: "Just yesterday there was a story about a tram breaking down for a photo opportunity for the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Coughlan. There was no truth in it whatsoever. But I`m not sure these urban myths are going to disappear overnight."

A few muppets rang into The Last Word and came up with the myth that trams on the Red Line can't run on the Green and vice versa. Matt Cooper has been so indoctrinated by the Luas bashers that he said that he'd have to check tomorrow night if that was true or not.

One wonders if there is a Luas rebuttal unit somewhere for some reason coming up with this cack.