Traffic Problems ???

Rabies

Found this article on skynews.co.uk
It seems some people that can afford it are buying taxi licences so they can use the bus lanes and get to work faster....

click

Another piece of evidence about our backward country....

The world laughs














If only i had enough money to buy a taxi plate..... could make some money driving to college in the morning

Turner

The only catch is that if the vehicle is hailed and is not carrying a passenger the driver is legally obliged to pick them up.

HAH!! When has this ever been the case at 3am in dublin.

DiscoStu

did anyone hear the gift grub this morning with bertie getting a taxi plate to get through traffic on his way to the dail. absolutly hilarious. one of the best ones in a long time.

Borzoi

Of course with Michael O'Leary (of Ryanair) owning aplate the service could be interesting:


You ask for the city centre, and he drops you in ballsbridge.
The fare at 4am is €90, but is free at 8pm
The taxes and surchages are more than double the regular fare.

etc etc

Victor

It was revealed yesterday that Michael O'Leary bought the plate for £4,300 from Westmeath County Council in February.

How does this allow him use bus lanes in Dublin?

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Clever lad that ryanair chap!

seamus

Originally posted by Borzoi
You ask for the city centre, and he drops you in ballsbridge.
The fare at 4am is €90, but is free at 8pm
The taxes and surchages are more than double the regular fare.

Don't forget that when you book the taxi, you have to book a second one to get you halfway there.

How does this allow him use bus lanes in Dublin?

A little loophole in taxi law. Afaik, taxis from any county can operate in any other county. Living in Lucan, I see a lot of hackneys who are registered in Kildare or Meath, but operating in Dublin. It must be cheaper or sumfink.

Funniest I ever saw was a taxi with Dublin Reg. plates, bought from a garage in Westmeath(?), and with Kildare taxi plates.

s10

i was only thinking about this last month as i tore up the bus lane on my bike .....to greystones @ 6;30
i cant believe it
i was thinking the amount of time a millionare would waste travelling " my boss being one " & living in blessinton,
time = money
im gobsmacked but my fingers are typing .

Victor

Just wait till the Revenue Commissioners catch up with them.

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/336312?view=Eircomnet

Yesterday, the Labour Party demanded Transport Minister Seamus Brennan change the law to stop Mr O'Leary using the taxi lanes like a busy Cabinet minister in a hurry.

But, it seems, as long as Mr O'Leary's chauffeur, a Joe English, puts a taxi sign on the roof of his back-seat boss's 02-registered black Mercedes, he can blithely cut in and out of the bus lanes like any other Dublin taxi driver.

Rabies

Originally posted by Borzoi
Of course with Michael O'Leary (of Ryanair) owning aplate the service could be interesting:


You ask for the city centre, and he drops you in ballsbridge.
The fare at 4am is €90, but is free at 8pm
The taxes and surchages are more than double the regular fare.

etc etc

Don't forget if you book a taxi with O'Leary and then don't use it he will keep your taxes and charges fee and not return them

Dampsquid

Would it not be cheaper for Michael O'Leary to just pay the fines if he was caught driving in a bus lane, rather then paying so much for a licence?

Hairy Homer

In the absence of a forum about Transport Issues, despite the best efforts of some lobbyists in the feedback forum, :-) this is possibly slightly off topic but here goes.

O'Leary and the low-cost airlines deserve some credit for putting manners on the incumbents who treated air travel as a luxury and stiffed the ordinary punter for years.

However, his cavalier attitude to customer service, which may be summed up by: 'You're getting it cheap you whinging sods so how dare you complain if we cancel your flight at the last minute, refuse you refunds on reasonable grounds, weasel out of honouring prizes won in marketing schemes, make you unload your own baggage etc etc' hardly endears him to many.

Now though, it appears that some of the old dinosaurs are coming back at him and fair play to them. Next time you want to fly to, say London, then do yourself a favour and check out alternative offers before you post your credit-card details on Ryanair.com. You could be surprised.

For example, I'm flying to London this weekend with the better half and discovered to my amazement that it's actually cheaper to fly with Aer Lingus to London City than it is to go RyanAir to Stansted and get the train in.

NB the price of the Ryanair flight is actually cheaper but unless you have friends who live in Bishop's Stortford (God love 'em) you have to shell out another 23 quid sterling to get into Liverpool St. Convert that into Yo Yos and the direct Aer Fungus flight is cheaper as well as being quicker and more convenient.

Aer Lingus direct to LCY 117.44 euro (incl taxes)
Ryanair to Stansted 87.61 euro + Stansted express return 23stg/33.44 euro
= 121.05 euro (incl taxes)

Do note also that this is for a flight leaving Friday evening and returning Sunday evening. If you have more flexibility you might be able to get a really cheap Ryanair flight if you book way in advance but for the ordinary working Joe wanting to get away for the weekend, that is all that's available for a Friday evening/Sunday evening round trip.

NB
I don't work in the airline industry, have no connections with either Ryanair or Aer Lingus and would consider Ryanair again if they were very much cheaper than the competition. All I'm saying is: shop around. It's worth it and now the competition is just a mouse click away.

sceptre

Originally posted by Hairy Homer
For example, I'm flying to London this weekend with the better half and discovered to my amazement that it's actually cheaper to fly with Aer Lingus to London City than it is to go RyanAir to Stansted and get the train in.

Same here - flying in a fortnight. SNN-STN with Ryanair: 96. SNN-LHR with aerlingus: 124. I can take the tube into town and save time and money or take the express and just save the time. Aer Lingus also have a better record of being on time (plus, unlike Ryanair, Aer Lingus have put me on the plane three times when I turned up to checkin with less than 5 minutes before the plane left (sprinting in Heathrow is fun). Those days are probably gone though)



Always a fun link:
http://www.ryanair.ie/fltinfo/flightinfo.html

The tube has one as well, which makes for funnier reading.

pclancy

I imagine his taxi to be like his airline. you get a very cheap fare but land in the middle of nowhere, are packed in like sardines and have to pay for food/drink. All his taxis are made by the same manufacturer and he doesnt train his own drivers.

Victor

Ryanair chief faces charge of speeding in taxi
From:The Irish Independent
Wednesday, 26th March, 2003

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/421921?view=Eircomnet

RYANAIR boss Michael O'Leary has been charged with speeding in his taxi.

The outspoken airline chief hit the headlines earlier this month when it emerged he had paid for a taxi plate and driver so he could reduce travelling time by using taxi and bus lanes.

But yesterday he admitted he himself was facing a charge of speeding.

"Oh, it's me," he said explaining his chauffeur and personal taxi driver was ill in hospital. "I hope he gets out soon," he added.

Given the nature of the court appearance - in Trim, Co Meath on Friday - Mr O'Leary could be forgiven for finding a certain irony in the current Ryanair advertisement which recommends fares to people looking "for quick getaways".

He spoke about the charge after appearing yesterday before a Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, where he insisted there was no question of Ryanair refunding airport charges to "no-show" passengers.

Unmoved by claims his airline had pocketed around €25m by refusing to refund passenger charges, Mr O'Leary said all such payments were "non-refundable". He added that prior to Ryanair entering the market in the mid-1980s, flights from Dublin to London cost an average of £130. A "trade-off" for cheaper seats was that fares were non-refundable.

"We only provide refunds where we screw up, and if you don't like it, don't fly with us," he told the committee.

dmeehan

if a "taxi" is operating outside its licensed area, in O'Leary's case Westmeath then he can only operate as a hackney, therefore, no driving in bus lanes

but who is going to enforce this? not the gardai

Johnmb

if a "taxi" is operating outside its licensed area, in O'Leary's case Westmeath then he can only operate as a hackney, therefore, no driving in bus lanes

No, you can use the bus lanes anywhere in the country, the only problem is that if you are outside your area you cannot pick up any passangers, thus the fare is unmetered.