This bus isn’t the bus you think it is
After nearly 20 minutes I approached the driver and asked him when was the bus supposed to leave.
He showed me his schedule and informed me it was the 4.20pm service sure enough, it was.
But there was no sign of the 4pm service. I just had time to speak about this to the inspector, who told me he thought the 4pm service had broken down.
Exasperated, I asked why Bus Éireann couldn't have made an announcement to that effect so that passengers were aware of what was going on. He just shrugged helplessly. It wasn't his day.
Only a few minutes before another passenger had been complaining to him that a Carrigaline bus routinely arrives as many as 15 minutes early at the stop and leaves immediately when it has taken on whatever number of passengers happen to be there.
Anyone arriving at the stop at the scheduled time must either wait for the next bus (perhaps being late for work) or get a taxi (at their own expense).
I wrote to the manager about this as far back as January last, so it is an ongoing problem. In fairness, he wrote a nice reply saying he would take the points into consideration. However, little has changed since then.
In addition, the 222 has broken down on at least three occasions in the last two months and passengers had to wait to transfer to another bus.
On another occasion the smell of cigarette smoke caused a few heads to turn to the back of the bus where some teenage lads were sitting. We owe you an apology, lads it turned out to be the driver who was smoking!
On Tuesday, January 6, I got on the bus to find I had to pay an extra 30 cents (an increase of 7.5%, way above the inflation rate). For what? For a shoddy service that seems to keep on getting worse?
I was opposed to privatisation of public transport, but now I'm beginning to wonder if it might not be a good thing.
Nick Folley,
36, Ardcarrig,
Carrigaline,
Co Cork.
