We need to believe in buses to get us on the road to sustainability

I WAS sitting on a Bus Éireann bus at the far western fringes of the island one rainy summer’s night when I woman got on. She sat at the front of the bus, chatting to the driver and to the only other customer on the bus.

The shouted conversation was a series of set pieces with gaps left for the laughs. I soon realised she was intellectually disabled. I think she probably had the same conversation on the bus every Saturday night. But no one minded. A busy day was over and home was beckoning through the western rain.

Suddenly the bus turned off the road and drove down a little lane. The woman was helped off the bus and brought, laughing and chatting, to her own front door.