Runwayedge, if you live in Cork, you would know that the city boundary is only 3 miles...thus the majority of Cork's suburbs are not included in the census!! However, the county figures include suburbs + commuter towns = almost 1/2 milliion! As a Belfast native living in Cork for the last 10 years, it is not much smaller than Belfast! I travelled the GX Cork to Belfast service many times, always good loads! The reason why RE Dublin to Belfast service didn't work was that the cities are only 100 miles apart...too close and crappy flight schedule.