Full coverage: Transport

Six years on from founding CitySwift, Brian O’Rourke and Alan Farrelly explain how they developed AI to optimise bus fleets, sold it to the UK’s major operators and are now going international – having raised funds from A-list investors including Ryanair’s founding family along the way.

Analysis of official traffic data and results from private toll road operators paint a grim financial picture. Another private operator is in serious financial trouble, while the taxpayer is shouldering most of the sector’s continuing pandemic burden.

Of the many transport situations where driving a car makes little sense, business trips are the most obvious. The tax treatment of expenses claims offers one of the many avenues needed to tackle the disproportionate cost of the drive-everywhere mindset.

DirectRoute lost €8.4m in toll revenue from Cork and Limerick motorways last year as travel restrictions hit traffic. Taxpayers have covered more than half of it for the benefit of its overseas investors.

From wage subsidy schemes to public-private partnerships, recently filed accounts show that some companies have benefited handsomely from state handouts triggered by the pandemic – whether they needed them or not.

From butter to forklifts, companies shipping Irish-made products around the world have faced a six-fold increase in the cost of container freight and multiple transport delays since the start of the pandemic. The crisis shows no sign of immediate resolution and their margins are taking the hit.

The N25 motorway toll features a spectacular toll bridge over the River Suir in Waterford. Loss-making and underperforming from the start, it is now being acquired by two of its secured lenders. So, just what happened?

When it sold down its investment in Irish toll roads, Ferrovial was hit with an unexpected CGT bill. Five years on, the company has won a tax appeal with far-reaching implications for foreign direct investment.

Colorado start-up Boom is promising to bring back supersonic travel. To understand if it can succeed, you have to understand why Concorde ultimately failed, and also examine the competing interests of aircraft manufacturers and airlines.

Damian Young worked at Bank of Ireland for 25 years before leaving for a job in Silicon Valley. Having seen how transport is changing, he launched an e-scooter business in Germany last year. Now he wants to expand the business elsewhere while also looking to raise €10m.