I did a comparison for 4 people travelling on public transport via the train/bus and then compared it to a rented car.
The Train:
Dublin -> Galway €24
Galway ->Dublin -> Cork €53.50
Cork -> Limerick Junction -> Waterford €31
*There is no direct connection from Galway to cork.
Cost: €108
Let do the same journey by bus.
Dublin -> Galway €13.50
Galway -> Cork €15.30
Cork -> Waterford € 15.50
Cost: €44.30
Now by Car (Rented).
A Opel astra cost €167 (5 days)
As the cost of travel is depending on distance.
Dublin -> Galway 215~ Km (12 litres)
Galway – Cork 209~ km (12 litres)
Cork -> Waterford 109~ km (6 litres)
Add another 20 litres for good measure ( driving around time)
* The Car has a fuel consumption of 6 litres per 100km
Total cost for 50 Litres would be $66 Euro at €1.32 litre.
Cost: €233
So my simple comparison looks like this.
4 people travelling by train: €424
4 people travelling by bus: €177
4 people travelling by car: €233
There is a lot of things that I am not taking into account.I made no attempt to compare like for like just the cost. I did not for instance compare comfort/ convience /time etc. I just looked at cost for 4 people make a simple tour around Ireland. I would think that the vast majority of people in Ireland know what our public transport is like and I don’t want to be seen taking a pot shot at public transport.I’m sure there is a more indepth report on this somewhere, and would love to see if there is a Government report on it.
Conclusions: It’s cheaper to get the bus, the car comes in second,and last is the train.