Fare deal: Ireland joins Europe-wide efforts to coax people out of cars

A train on Ireland’s east coast. ‘We need money to make the infrastructure great. We need the revenue,’ said Cara Augustenborg, an environmental scientist at University College Dublin. Photograph: Dawid Kalisinski/Alamy

The train departs Dublin punctually and glides west through sunlit, verdant countryside, like a glossy advertisement for Irish Rail. Some passengers snooze, others read or chat or simply gaze at the meadows flashing past.

Daisy Arrey, a 19-year-old student heading to Longford, finds the journey relaxing and cheap. Karen Mulligan, 38, returning home to Mullingar after an excursion to the capital, is glad to have avoided motorway tolls and parking hassles. Tom and Marita, a couple in their 60s on their way to Edgeworthstown, appreciate not having to navigate twisting rural roads.