Would Bus Eireann run better as a fully private company

yer man!

I go to college in Galway and am one of the unfortunate people who have to get the bus everyday. The Bus Eireann serivices are just terrible in Ireland, it's over priced as it costs me €3.40 to go 5 miles, it adds up everyday, they don't to a hop on hop off oyster card type service which would be dead handy and the intercity buses go on the hour. Do they not realise that if you get off college or work on the hour, you have to wait a whole hour to get the next bus which will be probably full. Like GoBus ad Citylink run very efficent services, provide free wifi, and are quick and regular, these are private companies. Would bus eireann run better if they no longer got govt funding? maybe they'd pull the finger out and actually make their bus network actually usable, cheap, efficent and a real alternative than the car. Rant over

Corkfeen

I'm gonna say that the service would probably get worse. Alot of the more rural services would probably shut down due to lack of them being profitable etc... Granted the service is bloody expensive.:D

yer man!

Fair enough but could they not for god's sake put a hop on hop off swipe card system where you top up prior to journey and simply have account deductef for your journey, and have discounts for regular users. It just amazes me how bad the management and PR depts of Bua eireann are. Once they get paid they couldn't give a F**k about anyone else.

AlekSmart

Yerman posted...

.Fair enough but could they not for god's sake put a hop on hop off swipe card system where you top up prior to journey and simply have account deductef for your journey, and have discounts for regular users. It just amazes me how bad the management and PR depts of Bua eireann are.

What zactly are ye studying yerman..?

Current Affairs,Sociology,Ancient History...?...cos each would be relevant to your complaint whilst,oddly enough,Bus Éireann management would not


http://www.cttc.ie/integrated-ticketing-system.php

In this instance I would direct any pithy observations to the chairman of the Integrated Ticketing Implimentation Group which has a suitably intense oversight role in relation to a National IT Scheme mooted sometime back in the last century....by the way it has thus far cost us in the region of €36 Million,mostly on Consultancy Fee`s....lets us know how you get on ? :P

antoinolachtnai

Bus Eireann's is a commercial company. It does not have any unprofitable routes in its regional or commuter service. Where the fares from the service are less than what it costs to run, BE is paid to run these routes under a private service contract. It does not run them as a charity.

It is complete rubbish to say that if BE was a private company, it would shut down these routes. BE is run (or supposed to be run) as a commercial operation.

call the police

yer man! wrote: »

I go to college in Galway and am one of the unfortunate people who have to get the bus everyday. The Bus Eireann serivices are just terrible in Ireland, it's over priced as it costs me €3.40 to go 5 miles, it adds up everyday, they don't to a hop on hop off oyster card type service.

why pay for each trip every day , check out the net, there are hop on hop off cards, looks like these are for unlimited travel on all of their routes
"Student Weekly and Monthly Commuter tickets are available on Provincial City Services".

http://www.buseireann.ie/inner.php?id=52

eia340600

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

Bus Eireann's is a commercial company. It does not have any unprofitable routes in its regional or commuter service. Where the fares from the service are less than what it costs to run, BE is paid to run these routes under a private service contract. It does not run them as a charity.

It is complete rubbish to say that if BE was a private company, it would shut down these routes. BE is run (or supposed to be run) as a commercial operation.

You just nullified the validity of your own post.

It's not necessarily meant to run as a profitable commercial business.It's supposed to provide a service to the people of the country.If every service was profitable then there'd be many a private company wanting a slice of the profit.But there isn't.

danbohan

yer man! wrote: »

I go to college in Galway and am one of the unfortunate people who have to get the bus everyday. The Bus Eireann serivices are just terrible in Ireland, it's over priced as it costs me €3.40 to go 5 miles, it adds up everyday, they don't to a hop on hop off oyster card type service which would be dead handy and the intercity buses go on the hour. Do they not realise that if you get off college or work on the hour, you have to wait a whole hour to get the next bus which will be probably full. Like GoBus ad Citylink run very efficent services, provide free wifi, and are quick and regular, these are private companies. Would bus eireann run better if they no longer got govt funding? maybe they'd pull the finger out and actually make their bus network actually usable, cheap, efficent and a real alternative than the car. Rant over

it would work better provided it was de unionised and all employment contracts renegotiated as well as substancial redundacys
piss poor attitudes prevail in a lot of irish semi state workforces .

yer man!

AlekSmart wrote: »

Yerman posted...

What zactly are ye studying yerman..?

Current Affairs,Sociology,Ancient History...?...cos each would be relevant to your complaint whilst,oddly enough,Bus Éireann management would not


http://www.cttc.ie/integrated-ticketing-system.php

In this instance I would direct any pithy observations to the chairman of the Integrated Ticketing Implimentation Group which has a suitably intense oversight role in relation to a National IT Scheme mooted sometime back in the last century....by the way it has thus far cost us in the region of €36 Million,mostly on Consultancy Fee`s....lets us know how you get on ? :P

Ok why do dublin bus have it then? Hmmmm?

WhodahWoodah

€3.40 x twice a day = €6.80

€6.80 x 5 days a week = €34

€34 x 4.333 weeks in a calendar month = €147.33

Add on taxis etc for non-college travel = presumably at least €200 per month

Would you not think of getting a cheap runaround student car and just driving? Less aggro, no bus timetables and problem solved?? Might cos more, might cost less. Definitely handier.

I'm assuming here that you have a licence and don't have a history of crashing / a million penalty points / bad credit...lol!

yer man!

call the police wrote: »

why pay for each trip every day , check out the net, there are hop on hop off cards, looks like these are for unlimited travel on all of their routes
"Student Weekly and Monthly Commuter tickets are available on Provincial City Services".

http://www.buseireann.ie/inner.php?id=52

I have to use an intercity bus in order to get to Galway city, the weekly tickets are 12 journey tickets or something which have to be used on consecutive days. "Student 10 Jny: Valid for ten journeys for a period of seven consecutive days inclusive of date of issue and including Sundays, for journey selected only." It wouldn't work out any cheaper as i can get lifts the odd time in and out. If they had a smart card like on luas or dublin bus which basically acts like a debit card for the bus/tram that would be handy.

yer man!

WhodahWoodah wrote: »

€3.40 x twice a day = €6.80

€6.80 x 5 days a week = €34

€34 x 4.333 weeks in a calendar month = €147.33

Add on taxis etc for non-college travel = presumably at least €200 per month

Would you not think of getting a cheap runaround student car and just driving? Less aggro, no bus timetables and problem solved?? Might cos more, might cost less. Definitely handier.

I'm assuming here that you have a licence and don't have a history of crashing / a million penalty points / bad credit...lol!

Yes i've full licence, 1 year named driving experience and no point, but still that's not the point. why make PUBLIC transport more expensive than having a car? Last time i checked the govt's aim was to get people to not rely on the car so much, so by raising ticket prices and having s**t timetables is going to do that yes?

WhodahWoodah

yer man! wrote: »

Yes i've full licence, 1 year named driving experience and no point, but still that's not the point. why make PUBLIC transport more expensive than having a car? Last time i checked the govt's aim was to get people to not rely on the car so much, so by raising ticket prices and having s**t timetables is going to do that yes?

I agree with you - I was just trying to help solve your problem. IMO public transport should be far reaching and affordable. That's not going to happen during your college career so I was just making a suggestion that might make your life easier. That's all.

call the police

yer man! wrote: »

it costs me €3.40 to go 5 miles, it adds up everyday,

yer man! wrote: »

I have to use an intercity bus in order to get to Galway city, the weekly tickets are 12 journey tickets or something which have to be used on consecutive days. It wouldn't work out any cheaper as i can get lifts the odd time in and out. If they had a smart card like on luas or dublin bus which basically acts like a debit card for the bus/tram that would be handy.

yer man! wrote: »

by raising ticket prices

you're paying €34 a week , with a debit card or whatever, how would you save money, you'd still pay €34, as you're still paying for each individual trip
a weekly or monthly commuter ticket is the way to go, it should cover 5 miles from the college,

btw you're wrong weekly commuter tickets are for unlimited travel not just 12 journeys, i looked into it

ILA

No. JJ Kavanagh's are a private company and nearly have a monopoly on service my college and they're an overpriced disaster, costing €45 a week return to go 30 miles, or if you buy a daily return its €15 per day.

Anytime I've traveled Bus Eireann I've found them good value for money, probably the best you'll get in terms of public transport in this country which is often a bad joke in some areas.

troposphere

Could still privatize it and subsidize some of the ruaral routes like they do with airlines.

AlekSmart

Ok why do dublin bus have it then? Hmmmm?

They don`t....at least not the type of universal contactless card you most certainly wopuld appreciate (along with hundreds of thousands of others)

What Dublin Bus has is it`s own stand-alone system which in due course will be integrated with all the other systems developed alongside it......Alfred Hithcock could not have written stuff as scary as this .....:o

Trampas

public transport will always run at a lost so having it a private company will be disaster for off peak services

mikemac

Like the OP, I went to college in Galway but I used JJ Kavanagh's.

As regards quality of service, reliability and price I'd say Bus Eireann beat them.

I only used JJ Kavanaghs as they had a more direct route home.

And Kavanaghs are one of the largest private bus companies in Ireland.
They have their own improving to do, I'm skeptical if privatizing Bus Éireann would solve a lot of issues

OP, look into getting a cheap runaround car or maybe a 125cc motorcycle
If I was in college that's what I would have done

Mr. Presentable

yer man! wrote: »

I go to college in Galway and am one of the unfortunate people who have to get the bus everyday. The Bus Eireann serivices are just terrible in Ireland, it's over priced as it costs me €3.40 to go 5 miles, it adds up everyday, they don't to a hop on hop off oyster card type service which would be dead handy and the intercity buses go on the hour. Do they not realise that if you get off college or work on the hour, you have to wait a whole hour to get the next bus which will be probably full. Like GoBus ad Citylink run very efficent services, provide free wifi, and are quick and regular, these are private companies. Would bus eireann run better if they no longer got govt funding? maybe they'd pull the finger out and actually make their bus network actually usable, cheap, efficent and a real alternative than the car. Rant over

Five Miles? Get a bicycle.

The only reason you have a service at all is because the tax payer subsidises it.

mickydoomsux

feelingstressed wrote: »

Like the OP, I went to college in Galway but I used JJ Kavanagh's.

As regards quality of service, reliability and price I'd say Bus Eireann beat them.

I only used JJ Kavanaghs as they had a more direct route home.

And Kavanaghs are one of the largest private bus companies in Ireland.
They have their own improving to do, I'm skeptical if privatizing Bus Éireann would solve a lot of issues

OP, look into getting a cheap runaround car or maybe a 125cc motorcycle
If I was in college that's what I would have done

I work for one of the companies within CIE (IE) and even i think Kavanaghs have a better service than BE by a mile.

Maybe it's just the route i've used but they beat BE for service, speed and price hands down.

call the police

mickydoomsux wrote: »

I work for one of the companies within CIE (IE) and even i think Kavanaghs have a better service than BE by a mile.

Maybe it's just the route i've used but they beat BE for service, speed and price hands down.

would have thought you'd free staff travel perks

mickydoomsux

call the police wrote: »

would have thought you'd free staff travel perks

Only on the train what with BE and IE being two seperate entities for more than two decades now

mikemac

mickydoomsux wrote: »

I work for one of the companies within CIE (IE) and even i think Kavanaghs have a better service than BE by a mile.

Maybe it's just the route i've used but they beat BE for service, speed and price hands down.

Yes, depends on the route

JJ Kavanaghs can be hit and miss

I don't think privatization is going to solve all problems but then nobody claimed it would I suppose

jambofc

cant be any worse than what they are now.
dropped mrs and mum-in-law to Enfield 7.20pm friday night for the 7.45pm bus,it never came!!!!! after numerous attempts to find a contact number to ring them and find out what was going on i gave up when any number i got was closed at 6pm
what a joke when our national bus service has no available contact after 6pm in the evening,so long story short i had to go back and pick them up there night away with friends never happened,not acceptable im afraid.

foggy_lad

there is no consistancy because drivers follow their own rules most of the time, this last bus senario is one example where some drivers will dawdle along making sure they dont leave anyone behind but arrive 20minutes late at the destination while on another night a different driver could be in a hurry to get finished and leave everyone behind as he speeds through the stops several minutes early.

in other countries you could set your watch by the arrival and departure of busses/coaches/trains but ireland is a hit and miss affair so privatisation could only be an improvement at best and the same auld "that will do" attitude at worst, what is needed is a deep rooted cleansing of ALL staff from the cleaners to the very top and anyone that has previously worked in a semi-state job or been appointed to any position before need not apply!

Transportuser09

In fairness, I don't think that a few incidents where a bus did not turn up (very annoying though it is, I speak from personal experience) means the company needs to privatised. Neither is if "some drivers dawdle along". I'm not for one minute saying these things are accectable, but it's not justification for them to be privatised either.

As others have discussed, one concern with privatisation is the lack of interest in local/loss making routes.

In my experience of using Bus Éireann there have been some frustrating occasions when a bus didn't turn up, but 9 times out 10 the service I've gotten has been of excellent standard and I would consider them to offer value for money.

Transportuser09

foggy_lad wrote: »

what is needed is a deep rooted cleansing of ALL staff from the cleaners to the very top and anyone that has previously worked in a semi-state job or been appointed to any position before need not apply!

That would be a ridiculous way to run a company. Most of the staff I've encountered are fine. You'll get a few not-so-fine ones true, but the same could be said of any company, private or state run.

RATM

OP if its only 5 miles buy yourself a 125cc moped. 52 quid a year in tax and around 5 euro a week in petrol for your distance. You can park them in lots of places and go home when you want, not when the timetable dictates it.

I spent the first year of college on DB but 9 months of that crap convinced me to get a summer job and save up for a moped, best decision I ever made- it took the stress out of my day instantly and there's no way I'd ever go back to DB, even on cold winter days.

yer man!

call the police wrote: »

you're paying €34 a week , with a debit card or whatever, how would you save money, you'd still pay €34, as you're still paying for each individual trip
a weekly or monthly commuter ticket is the way to go, it should cover 5 miles from the college,

btw you're wrong weekly commuter tickets are for unlimited travel not just 12 journeys, i looked into it

I'm talking about 12 journey tickets? NOT commuter tickets,

yer man!

WhodahWoodah wrote: »

I agree with you - I was just trying to help solve your problem. IMO public transport should be far reaching and affordable. That's not going to happen during your college career so I was just making a suggestion that might make your life easier. That's all.

Oh i know i'm just having awful week with pr*ck bus drivers and ****e service thanks for the help tho. sorry if i rant too much

call the police

yer man! wrote: »

I'm talking about 12 journey tickets? NOT commuter tickets,

no such thing as 12 journeys tickets on bus eireann, unless you're thinking of a different company

foggy_lad

Transportuser09 wrote: »

That would be a ridiculous way to run a company. Most of the staff I've encountered are fine. You'll get a few not-so-fine ones true, but the same could be said of any company, private or state run.

if i worked with someone who got me a bad name with customers i would want him/her sacked or forced out and then work on rebuilding the reputation of the company

veryangryman

Government makes far more off car drivers than public transport users. Taxes on fuel keep the welfare state alive

veryangryman

foggy_lad wrote: »

if i worked with someone who got me a bad name with customers i would want him/her sacked or forced out and then work on rebuilding the reputation of the company

But would you really care if the complaints were not properly followed up?

I've had a rough couple of days with Dublin Bus. On Saturday night the 79 bus scheduled for 2150 never ran so I was standing on Kylemore Road for a half hour waiting for the next one (and probably not a good idea to be standing around in Ballyfermot that late), then today I asked the driver on a 51D if he went through Clondalkin village, his answer was "I don't know." .... I'm not joking either!

Despite this I still wouldn't feel comfortable with privatising Bus Éireann or Dublin Bus though, reform is needed but I don't think that putting it in private hands is the answer.