A disabled student who spends six hours a day commuting has said it is a “miserable” experience. 

Alex Connell lives in Carbury, County Kildare on the border with Offaly but studies politics and philosophy at UCD in south Dublin. 

Every day thousands of Kildare people head into Dublin - but most of them live far closer to the capital than he does. 

“You tend to say Kildare and people expect somewhere a lot closer but it’s much further into the Midlands,” he said. 

“I leave my house every morning, usually, three hours in advance. 

“It takes me roughly 2.15, 2.20 hours to get from my house into the city centre and from there I change bus into the city centre and get another one to UCD which brings it to about three hours each way every day.”  

Housing crisis

Alex describes his bus service as “reliable” but infrequent as it only comes once an hour; at the beginning of the year, he did have a cursory look for accommodation but the cheapest he found was €600. 

“I can’t work and I can’t drive,” he said. 

“I get €220 per week - or €880 per month… Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock for the past 10 years knows that there’s nowhere in Dublin that [would be affordable].” 

Alex is entitled to a free travel pass and thinks he would not be in college without it. 

“I don’t know how someone who doesn’t have the free travel would do it from where I’m living,” he said.  

Still, even if the travel is free, it is not a pleasant existence. 

“You’re leaving at 6am and the earliest you can hope to get home is 8 o’clock or 9 o’clock at night, it’s going from dark to dark,” he said.  

“And you’re just living in a windowless lecture hall in lecture, [so] you’re just getting no sunlight at all.

“It’s miserable.”

UCD Student Union President Molly Greenough said stories like Alex’s are becoming “more and more commonplace”.

Main image: Alex Connell