Dublin Bus fails to put customers first

LIKE a lot of people I often find myself wondering how much thought is given to the logic and practicality of measures that are taken by “officialdom” in this country.

The recent decision by Dublin Bus to summarily discontinue their range of pre-paid, “two easy” bus tickets which allow two individual bus journeys, and which were most useful and convenient for those of us making minimum fare journeys, without producing any effective replacement, flies in the face of their website’s promise to facilitate “integrated transport” and “all your travel needs”.

This decision leaves the commuter with a “Hobson's choice” of either always having the exact change for their chosen journey (impractical), taking a change ticket, traipsing down to Dublin Bus’ head office and redeeming this change ticket (inconvenient), paying for the nearest equivalent ticket, which in my case is 75 cent dearer per journey or lastly, walking (healthier, and better in these recessionary times, but, most times wholly impractical).

This is a wholly retrograde step, without rhyme or reason (they claim economies of scale and lack of customer interest in these tickets), resulting only in unnecessary inconvenience to the already stressed commuter and it needs to be revisited without delay.

I did contact Dublin Bus about this and admittedly got a prompt and pleasant response from their public affairs section, with much superfluous explanation about their new range of tickets but with a final admittance that these new tickets “may not suit your journey type”.

So what now?

My point is, why on earth would a company who professes to put their customers first, alienate and needlessly inconvenience a sizeable portion these customers by discontinuing a series of useful, eminently practical tickets without putting in place some viable alternative?

David Marlborough

Kenilworth Park

Dublin 6