UPDATED 1 April 2011: It costs me €22 nowadays for the return bus journey from Cashel to Dublin.
UPDATED 1 July 2006: I regularly ride the Aircoach from Cashel to Dublin and return. It normally costs me €12 for the round trip bus fare.
CREEPING INFLATION always nudges up the cost of bus travel in Ireland. Regular commuters expect to pay a little more than the annual inflation rate year-to-year. What bothers me is the routine increases hit the one-way journey harder than the return trip expenses. For example, it costs me €12 to travel one way aboard Bus Eireann to Dublin or €14 for the day return journey. If I take JJ Kavanagh one way from Clonmel, I pay €8.50 and that means I save enough to have a sandwich in Dublin, thanks to the lower fares levied by the private operator. Backpackers traveling through Ireland should be told these things, so I am revising all the content I have on Route66.com to show applicable bus fares, the bus stops and the operating times.
Today's journey pays the ransom to Bus Eireann on the way up to The Big Smoke. Then I use an image sent to my Nokia 9500 by Aircoach for the €7.50 return leg to Cashel. Buying online costs me 50 cents more than buying a fare from the driver. The scanned images won't work but the code texted to me will do just fine. I get more space--manifested as a quieter journey--aboard Aircoach, That bus from Dublin to Cashel leaves Westmoreland Street at 5 PM (the last one leaves at 7 PM) and gets to Cashel as fast as I can drive the journey. Faster during rush hour since bus lanes are like monorails through gridlock.
Sent via Nokia 9500 O2 Typepad service passing through Kilsheelan, County Tipperary.
