Bus Eireann bus breakdown
Writing by aj@lecraic on Sunday, 16 of November , 2008 at 11:23 pm
Righto. Ireland is now officially cranksville. Everyone seems to be pissed off about something. Bertie’s gormless (but strangely reassuring) grin and his “How’s the hard workin’ men” quips are gone. He’s been been replaced by a thick lipped bogtrotter with about as much charisma as a lump of lard. That shows in the polls. In themselves they tell us more about the mental state of the nation than they do about our pet lump of lard, but that’s a whole other story.
So, I’m going declare myself a fully fledged citizen of cranksville with my own little broadside at the national bus transport company, Bus Eireann. I’ve been using their service for over a year now. At the beginning I was delighted. Such a change from driving myself. I could sit back and relax and let someone else do the work. “Why didn’t I do this before?”, I thought to myself. Over time the novelty wore off and I began to see cracks appear in the rose tinted spectacles.
Buses running late, infrequent service times after 6 pm in the evening, heating/air conditioning not working, bad overhead lights. Little things really, mere blips. I just accepted them as part of the status quo. Even 3 breakdowns in the period of 6 or 7 months didn’t change my view. The non-appearance of a morning service back in August was the last straw though.
I fired off an email to Bus Eireann asking what happened on the day. Seperately, I sent an email questioning the safety of the buses and cited the breakdowns over the previous months. Email after email went unanswered although they were opened and read. It was impossible to get through to anyone on the phone. I basically gave up and contacted Andrew Doyle, my local TD. My contact with him was more to do with the frequency of service on the Wicklow route and the fact that Bus Eireann had promised, but had not delivered on, more frequent services and new coaches.
Almost immediately after my contact with him, three separate individuals from Bus Eireann got in contact about the issues I raised. That in itself could be a pointer that Bus Eireann has too many admin staff, but they all seemed to sing from the same hymn sheet. “Bus Eireann maintain buses to the highest possible standards” blah, blah, blah. It’s like they have a canned email response for enquiries about the state of the coaches.
The latest breakdown happened on Friday night. The engine just died completely. It was in Bray, in a built up area going at a slow pace. If the engine and power died at speed on the motorway, it might have been another story completely. Breakdowns happen – I totally accept that. This number of breakdowns shouldn’t happen though.
If a bus breaks down so frequently, it should be put out of service. If people have to keep hats on or pull their hoods up because the heating is broken, the bus should be taken out of service. If a bus has no overhead lights and people resort to using their mobile phone light to read, it should be put out of service. If a bus has broken seats, it should be put out of service. This is not asking for anything more than what Bus Eireann have in their customer charter.
Every evening I watch the Edenderry bus pull up next to the Wicklow stop. It’s a brand new 08 model. A big contrast to the sorry lumps of metal that serve Wicklow. Another contast is the fact they have a 6pm 6.30pm, 7.30pm, 8.30pm service in the early evening. Miss the 6pm to Wicklow and there is none until 8.10pm. Edenderry has a population of under 6,000. Wicklow town has over 10,000. Something doesn’t compute other than the fact that Edenderry is in Co. Offaly, home to a thick lipped bogtrotting lump of lard.
Coincidental? I think not.
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Category: current affairs
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Comment by Ursula
Made Monday, 17 of November , 2008 at 3:40 am
Dearest AJ, obviously I feel for you. As someone who comes from the “Continent”, and this will be no comfort to you at all, once you hop the channel onto these isles your public transport destiny is your own; most certainly don’t expect to be on time. Though seems that the Irish have taken it to a slightly higher level than, say, the English.
Do remind me to tell you sorry saga of missing my plane back to civilization - as I knew it then - when shortly after boarding Glasgow Sleeper in Carlisle and making myself comfortable in lower bunk the window shattered into millions of pieces - landing on my bed. Miraculously I escaped unscathed - neither was there anywhere else on train to accommodate me. Wouldn’t have been allowed on, say, the Orient Express. On top of which this high speed train then arrived in London hours too late for me to catch my flight. Oh, AJ, that’s just the beginning of an odyssee and a story I have been dining out on for years.
For a long time, confirmed in my experience again and again, I blamed myself that public transport over here and I don’t mix. Reading your account I now wish I’d moved to Ireland in the first place to send me back screaming to some mainland European woods for good.
Wishing you a safe, if not guaranteed, journey into Cranksville,
U
Comment by Debbie
Made Monday, 17 of November , 2008 at 10:26 am
Brilliant post AJ, well said.
Comment by aj@lecraic
Made Tuesday, 18 of November , 2008 at 11:53 pm
Sounds like you had a time of it Ursula. Lucky escape too with the glass shattering like that.
Hi Debbie, thanks - I’ve just got fed up with their lack of response. Posting to the blog helps with the frustration!
Comment by Ed
Made Sunday, 23 of November , 2008 at 10:51 pm
the edenderry bus serves celbridge, straffan, clane, prosperous, allenwood… if you tot it all up. it’s quite a lot of poeple..there are something like six services between 7 am and 8am to town from edendrery..it’s always full by clane ..ditto the return services at rush-hour.. there’s a lot wrong with bus eireann but i think whinging about the edenderry service is a bit wide of the mark as, along with the newbridge bus, it’s the only major service into north kildare… which is one of most heavily populated commuter sprawls south of dublin….
Comment by aj@lecraic
Made Sunday, 23 of November , 2008 at 11:18 pm
ditto the Wicklow route serves other areas through to Wicklow town too - which I didn’t tot up into the equation. Regards “whingeing” - we’ve been promised new buses and services for a long time and Bus Eireann keep giving excuses. If the situation were reversed and you were subject to buses breaking down (we had another incident last Wednesday), and saw other routes with shiny new coaches, you might wonder the same thing. What should we do - say nothing like the Irish usually do?
