Never was the resentment more evident than during last week's Galway Races. Cabinet Ministers, many of whom would have arrived by air, were photographed ad nauseam happily placing bets at Ballybrit.
Even if they had decided to travel by public transport, they could still have come west by train and taken a "heli-taxi" from the city. Apart from one morning last week, when the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association (ILDA) picketed Heuston Station in Dublin, Galway has been relatively unaffected by the rail dispute, in sharp contrast to the neighbouring county of Mayo.
For Mr Ernie Melvin, president of Ballina Chamber of Commerce, it was like a slap in the face. "We can be shouting away here in Ballina, as in Westport and in Kerry, but what is it going to do? Any self-employed business person won't go to the Galway Races when there is work to be done. Yet there they all are, the Taoiseach and several Ministers, as if there was nothing wrong and no important decisions had to be made."
There has been no train service to Ballina since June 18th, and throughout the seven weeks of the dispute travellers have been bussed between Mayo and Athlone. Apart from commuter traffic, freight west is also affected. "Ballina's cargo terminal has been hit, and this is having a knock-on effect," Mr Melvin says.
"If much of that freight has to be taken by road, what does that do to roads which are already badly congested?" he asks. "It all points to a lack of political will on the part of a Government which doesn't seem to be interested in partnership. Politicians can't walk away from this and say there is no problem."
Like Mr Peter Shanley, chairman of the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland (CCI), West Region, in Westport, Mr Melvin is concerned about the long-term effect on a rail link which has never been given priority.
"North Mayo has already been hit by the loss of Asahi, and Coca-Cola's arrival here will not replace all those jobs," he says. "When services like banks, post offices and public transport are threatened, the so-called quality of life isn't even a compensation for lack of economic opportunity any more."
However, if people are angry, the ILDA's man in Mayo is not feeling it. Mr Finbarr Masterson, chairman of the IDLA's western division and member of the executive, has been reporting for work every morning at Westport station. He has worked with CIE for 42 years.
He has driven the Westport train for 33 years, and missed many family occasions due to staff shortages, he says. "One was a wedding, and one was a funeral that my wife will never forget."
Several summers ago he worked double shifts due to lack of staff. This was "thrown back at me" in last year's High Court case taken by the ILDA.
"What I had done voluntarily to keep the service going was used against me. So I may have been paid, but it was an underhand tactic that I won't forget."
For Mr Masterson and his family - they had six children, five of them living - the dispute is about, not pay, but working conditions. In pursuit of this principle, he and his wife and one dependent child are living on £60.20 per week, which his wife receives as family income supplement.
"For the first few weeks I had some back tax I could draw on, but that has all dried up," Mr Masterson says. "If I went back to work in the morning, I still wouldn't be earning for the next three weeks." He is adamant that there is a legal basis for direct negotiations between the company and the union.
"The ILDA is an `excepted' body under the 1941 Transport Act, and we are the largest single train drivers' union in the State," Mr Masterson says. "If between now and November we get 15 more members, we will be larger than SIPTU and NBRU membership among the drivers combined, and we will be automatically representative."
Friends and family have remained loyal, and Mrs Masterson has taken several very public stands in support of her husband's actions. Last month she sat on the Westport-Athlone railway line for several hours until gardai came, in protest at the removal of the train from the Westport station while the dispute was in progress.
And last week she and her four daughters joined other ILDA families outside the Department of Public Enterprise, demanding that their grievances be heard.