'Drunken teens' causing problems on Crosshaven bus route
Representatives of Bus Éireann were grilled at a meeting of the Carrigaline Municipal District Council over anti-social behaviour on 220 bus route. Picture David Creedon
Bus Éireann has been asked to take steps to address anti-social behaviour on some of its Cork services, especially on the Crosshaven route, amid claims it is often full of large numbers of ‘drunk teenagers’ causing trouble during good weather.
Representatives of Bus Éireann were grilled at a meeting of the Carrigaline Municipal District Council by Fianna Fáil councillor Audrey Buckley.
She claimed anti-social behaviour was on the rise on Bus Éireann services, and highlighted the 220 route into the picturesque coastal village of Crosshaven as posing a particular problem.
Ms Buckley said during good weather there is an influx of youngsters, many whom are drunk and then cause trouble in the area as they wait to get buses home.
She pointed to a recent incident when fights broke out among some youths waiting for buses in Crosshaven to return home, footage of which was widely circulated on social media.
Ms Buckley asked the company what it was doing to address the problem, especially as there “could be 100 kids at a time” waiting to get buses home.
Aled Williams, the company’s senior operations manager for the southern region, said they try to pre-empt any potential issues by asking security to travel on such buses.
He said Bus Éireann employs a private security contractor whose operators are dispatched from "the control centre" at its Capwell headquarters in Cork as the need arises, or on some occasions beforehand when potential trouble spots are identified.
Ms Buckley said anti-social issues had been identified on the 220 route two years ago and asked Mr Williams to say how many passengers the company had fined or taken to court since then.
Mr Williams said he did not have the figures to hand but would get them and revert to the municipal district council.
Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil councillor Seamus McGrath and Fine Gael councillor Jack White said they had received a lot of complaints from people living in the greater Carrigaline area about the unreliability of bus services to the area.
“There are reliability issues. I appreciate that Covid has had an impact on drivers being out sick, but many buses are failing to turn up, or are very late,” Mr McGrath said.
Mr Williams acknowledged there were difficulties with the service. He said these were due to Covid-19 sickness, a lack of drivers and increased traffic on the roads, which “is challenging timetables”. He said the company was recruiting more drivers for the Cork region.
