Limerick Bus Drivers are a Disgrace

i was in town today and this happened before to me and other people were getting on the bus he just closed the door just as i arrived

he didnt pull out of anything and he wouldnt let me on some chinese guy wtf (why couldnt he just open the door)

this happens alot in town to other people i see it all the time :mad:

MarkR

Was the bus full?

hightower1

Thats odd? I regularly get the 306 and 303 bus in the morning which always makes me laugh. the bus is very rarely on time and when the driver pulls up late half of the time he hops out for a smoke. Some cheek considering hes just standing there infront of the people he is holding up. Dont even ask about the return journey....bus regularly doesnt show up and if it does it can be anything from 10 - 30 mins late. Just seems to be a couple bad drivers on that route although some are great.

Builderfromhell

Ever tried to use the Bus Eireann web site?
Painful experience.

Clareboy

There is no point in reporting bus drivers to Bus Eireann management as they are all unionised and the management are afraid of them.

Poxyshamrock

hightower1 wrote: »

Thats odd? I regularly get the 306 and 303 bus in the morning which always makes me laugh. the bus is very rarely on time and when the driver pulls up late half of the time he hops out for a smoke. Some cheek considering hes just standing there infront of the people he is holding up. Dont even ask about the return journey....bus regularly doesnt show up and if it does it can be anything from 10 - 30 mins late. Just seems to be a couple bad drivers on that route although some are great.

I think the 303 and 306 are very reliable 90% of the time.

When it does run late, instead of leaving straight away to continue running late, I would say it waits til the next timetabled departure to get the service back on track.

Arciphel

And when the 303 is late or not running they will blame people parking their cars in the road on Colbert Abenue anyway. And if you complain, the depot will say "thanks for your complaint, but actually there is no problem".

Flincher

Leaving early is a pain in the arse as well. Missed the 305 yesterday. It left Dunnes at 6:27 as I turned the corner from Bedford Row.

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy

Would like to throw in a good experience story.
A few months ago I was late running to get the bus, before getting there the bus passed the stop, I gave up and started walking the other way. It stopped right beside me instead "just wave at me if you don't get to the bus stop on time, I'd still stop and let you on"
Very much appreciated since it was lashing.

Itsdacraic

Sera wrote: »

Would like to throw in a good experience story.
A few months ago I was late running to get the bus, before getting there the bus passed the stop, I gave up and started walking the other way. It stopped right beside me instead "just wave at me if you don't get to the bus stop on time, I'd still stop and let you on"
Very much appreciated since it was lashing.

You must be good looking :pac:

phog

Clareboy wrote: »

There is no point in reporting bus drivers to Bus Eireann management as they are all unionised and the management are afraid of them.

and with all due respect to the OP what's the point coming on here bitching about it either, other than getting it off your chest. Fiirst point of complaint should always have to be with the employers.

MarkR

MarkR wrote: »

Was the bus full?

no it wasent

highlydebased

Flincher wrote: »

Leaving early is a pain in the arse as well. Missed the 305 yesterday. It left Dunnes at 6:27 as I turned the corner from Bedford Row.

Happens me alot with the 305. Very annoying.

Birdie086

I am driving since June but before that my bus was the 308, (UL), I live on childers road. Waiting for the 308 at the childers road stop(near Dunnes) is akin to playing bus stop lottery, you could wait 5 mins or anything up to two hours for a bus.

The buses pass you on their way out of town and magically they disappear in some magical mystical abyss in Castletroy and don't seem to come back towards town!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even gettin the 308 from town can prove tricky, there is a 308(childers rd) and 308A(Dublin rd), however it usually comes down which route the bus driver himself wants to take and not the actual route displayed. Get on the 308 and half the times he/she will go will go the Dublin rd route instead. makes for fun times when you have paid for the bus and yet have to walk a fair distance int he rain with your child in a buggy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank god I inherited an eleven year old car!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Birdie086

highlydebased wrote: »

Happens me alot with the 305. Very annoying.

The 305 was my alternative to my regular(irregular) bus - 308, at the stop in Granville and if you wanted to get it you would have to be there at least ten minutes early - just in case, but more often then not it wouldnt turn up at all, the 1.05/ and 2.05 notoriously renowned for no shows

Jofspring

I remember regularly I used to see the Coonagh bus come out as far as ashbrook, go into ashbrook but instead of continuing out the Ennis Rd to Coonagh it would turn back in towards town on its way out of ashbrook meaning anybody waiting further down the road would not see the bus at all. Pure laziness.

My mother also got given out to by a driver because she got on the bus when it was heading towards coonagh and she wanted to go to town. He told her she should have stayed on the opposite side of the road and waited for it and not got on outside Northside shopping centre. He embarrassed her in front of the whole bus and she thought she had done something wrong. She reported him and was told there would be words with the driver but I don't know if anything happened after that.

The Snipe

I was getting the bus out to Knockillasheen before, (I was getting the Pineview bus I think it was!) Twould be about 2and a half years ago at this stage.


But, I was there - and I was getting on the bus, and I handed the bus driver a €10 note, because I didn't have change. And he refused to take it! Point blank refused! So me in a bit of shock and embarrassment (I was holding up the que for everyone else as I was trying to pay!) decides to ask him why, taking none of his **** for excuses, eventually decide **** this, after him telling me "Oh just go back and sit down and shut up you ****ing little ejit!" And I storm off the bus, grab the licence plate number and walk down to the train station, to then be sent down to the other depot, for them to do sweet ****all!


They said they would have words with the driver, and they'd be in contact, but there was not even a single word of contact from them.

I then actually had to walk out to Knockillasheen from the depot (In the pissing rain ofc!)

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy

Itsdacraic wrote: »

You must be good looking :pac:

bullets

Only had 1 bad experience with a bus driver when I was in my teens
where where he refused to take my change because I had it all in coppers.
(back in the days of pence and pounds) Apparently at the time they could refuse if you had more than 20p in Copper coins. I remember my mother furious over the incident she rang up and kicked up an awful fuss. it may be complete fiction but the Station did ring my mother back several days later with a story along the lines to say the driver was given out to, and he was docked money from his pay. (Same Driver still works there today he looked like Jim Fenner from Bad Girls Prison TV series)

I feel sorry for Bus Drivers these days the amount of crap they
have to put up with from the general public no wonder some of them
look grumpy and sour.

I'm not a bus driver but if I was...here is what would annoy me!


Knackers getting on the bus being disruptive and loud.
Knackers deciding they can light up in the back seat.

Chip eaters on the buss. The ones that smell up the entire bus
with the smell of salt n vinegar from a brown paper bag.

Teenagers with there chatter and loud ring tones playing music on their phones.

Adults talking really loud on the phone as if if they were in the privacy of
their own home, Nobody else wants to hear your business.

People trying to get away with paying "half" when they are obviously over age.

Every weirdo and nut-case loves getting on the bus and talking to the bus driver.

Drunks falling asleep and vomiting and pissing themselves on the bus.

People complaining if they leave the stop too early and if they get caught in traffic and are too late.

Old people getting on and back off two stops later.

The Buggy brigade where a mother will get on with all of her shopping
bags on some super large buggy, takes over and blocks the bus
and argues with the bus driver that here kid in the buggy should be free,
despite it looking about 10 years of age. I swear there is a trend where
mothers try and make their kids look younger shove em in a buggy to get them on for free.

The amount of people that appear to have free bus passe's despite them
looking like there is nothing at all wrong with them. There are some routes
where I'd swear nearly everyone has a bus pass.

Students with day saver tickets getting off the bus and handing their tickets
to random strangers getting on the bus. While a Nice gesture for the person who gets a free ride, as a bus driver (if I was a bus driver) it would annoy the feck out of me.

Halloween: Eggs and sometimes Rocks being fired at windows each year.

Ignorance/Rudeness/Lack of manners.
All those people that talk on their phone while paying the driver.
All the people that fire change at the driver without even saying Hi or Hello
People that don't bother their arse saying please/thankyou when getting on and off the buss.

~B

seachto7

Nobody forces them to drive buses...........???

Builderfromhell

Thanks for giving the other side of the story Bullets. I hadn't considered all that.

Still think Bus eireann web site needs improving.

Itsdacraic

Sera wrote: »

I never knew you were from Clare

SarahBeep!

I really irks me when THEY are early or late and dont give a flying fcuk that you have to go to work!
Or when they don't let people on just before it pulls away, do you not WANT their money??

hightower1

Ironicly the 306@ 0845 didnt show again this monring. Had to get a taxi. Pulled away from the stop at 0850 and there was no sign of it. Good job bus driver.

seachto7

I know a guy who got the bus a few times, and your man refused to take a fiver or tenner. So the guy paying rang CIE in front of him and asked for his boss...
Not had any bad experiences, but don't use the bus often

highlydebased

Most the drivers I've met are alright. No bad experiences. Some of them seem to ignore the "timetable" and don't show any effort to make up time if.

There's one particularly jovial man who, when he see's me just gives the thumbs up and doesnt want to see my monthly ticket!

Mc Love

Its the auld wans getting the bus that are a disgrace! When I used to get the bus a loooong time ago, it didnt matter that you were waiting there for fecking ages, they'd make sure they did as much pushing and shoving as possible to get on in front of you! Feckin aul biddies!

bullets

Some of the Bus Drivers can be characters.

One of them I used to work with over 16-17 years ago when I
worked with HB ice cream where he was a driver and I was the kid
that packed the freezers was a real character
with the gift of the gab. Totally Totally nuts if you started
a conversation he would talk the legs off ya.

There was the sour sour Jim Fenner character I had my run in with.
I always remembered him as being a sour ****. I still remained polite to
the fecker any time I got on a bus he was driving.

There was an old white haired fella that would remind ya of Leslie Nealson
from the Naked Gun films that was sound out and a bit mad and appeared
to have the same personality as the movie character.

There was a bloke that was young but looked like he became a bus driver
at a really really young age without ever getting any education and never did anything else in his life, he was jittery and looked like he may have had torrets syndrome, and chain smoked out the bus window. Fantastic personality, if the bus route was nearly done he would not charge ya if you got on the bus with only a few stops to go,
he was always friendly no matter what and had a bit of friendly banter in him if there was only a few people on board.

There's an Asian Looking lad that takes no **** from no-one when it comes to his job, he never makes any facial expressions whatsoever though. He takes his job pretty seriously. The same bloke I've heard from different people appears to have on several occasions gone a little nuts while driving
and started to drive in a bit of a scary way.

There's a black lad with dread's (not being racist but he's the only bus driver
I've seen thats black) He appears to be really into fitness/running/sports as
I've often overheard him in conversation with some of the other drivers where they would be attempting to take the piss out of him and slagging him off and making bets about runs.

I've only seen ever 2 Women Drivers (not been sexist but I've only ever seen 2) One of them seems to have disappeared which leaves only one other that I've seen drive on the local Limerick Bus Route. She looks like a tough cookie
that wont put up with any ****! and seems to be well respected and can sure
drive a bus.

hightower1

hightower1 wrote: »

Ironicly the 306@ 0845 didnt show again this monring. Had to get a taxi. Pulled away from the stop at 0850 and there was no sign of it. Good job bus driver.

Same again tis morning, hung around out of curiosity and it arrrived @ ten to when Its meant to be leaving @quarter to. I dunno TBH, you have two main responsabilities as a bus driver ... be on time and dont crash... yet some drivers can only manage 50% of that.

phill106

hightower1 wrote: »

Same again tis morning, hung around out of curiosity and it arrrived @ ten to when Its meant to be leaving @quarter to. I dunno TBH, you have two main responsabilities as a bus driver ... be on time and dont crash... yet some drivers can only manage 50% of that.

Be kind of impressive though if they crashed and still made it on time!

PJTierney

Can't comment on the city drivers but the Bus Éireann drivers at the station are always quite nice/helpful. Even when I'm getting the bus home (out by NCW) they overshoot the bus stop by 300m so that it stops right outside my house

Poxyshamrock

hightower1 wrote: »

Same again tis morning, hung around out of curiosity and it arrrived @ ten to when Its meant to be leaving @quarter to. I dunno TBH, you have two main responsabilities as a bus driver ... be on time and dont crash... yet some drivers can only manage 50% of that.

It is 'rush hour' at that time so it's not that big a deal that a bus is five minutes late in their eyes. There's probably nothing they can do about traffic, etc.

Maybe just Get the 8.15 bus or the 8.30 303.

Kess73

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

It is 'rush hour' at that time so it's not that big a deal that a bus is five minutes late in their eyes. There's probably nothing they can do about traffic, etc.

Maybe just Get the 8.15 bus or the 8.30 303.

It puts the people waiting at the stop in a bit of a bind though as they then don't know if the bus is late or if it came early and left early.

Have never gotten an inner city bus in Ireland in my life, but have a lot of experience of getting inner city buses in Germany and I have to say that the bus services over there are a pleasure.

Lovely digital bus signs that let you know the exact arrival and departure times of the bus you are waiting for and also how long before that bus reaches it's stop. Plus buses there get to their stops on time even during rush hour despite the route I used over there not having bus lanes.


Are inner city bus services are poor as people in this thread are saying, or are they good in Ireland?

I am getting the impression of a somewhat functional service that just about does it's role.

I'm almost tempted to get on a bus or two to see what they are like but am worried that some grouchy bus driver won't give me change.

BTW how much is it to travel in the city by bus?

Flincher

€1.70

I'm not on the bus too often any more thankfully, but its a fairly frustrating experience, mainly because they've apparently no intention of fixing fairly obvious problems.

Take for example, the 302. That is due every 20 mins. Now a bus has its work cut out getting from town to the stop near Ivans in 20 mins at 5 in the evening. LIT is finishing up at that time, Shelbourne Road is mad, etc, so the bus is often late getting to Ivans, which means the 5:20 into town in running late. Again, that bus is hardly going to make it into town in 20mins, given the traffic on the road up to LIT from Ivans, and obviously the traffic in Thomondgate at the quays. This means the 5:40 from town is going to be late.

But I can't remember them adjusting the timetable to deal with this in years.

Then in the evening, if the bus is leaving town at 8, its hardly going to take 20 mins to make it out, so it is sitting near Ivans at 8:15. However, half the drivers dont wait until 8:20, they just leave straight away, meaning people miss the 8:20 back into town. This gets even worse at, say, 10:20 in the evening, where the driver isn't arsed waiting 10 mins, but just heads straight back into town.

With the Coonagh, the 6:30 is the last service that evening, and I presume the driver's last route of the day, so fairly often, they just leave at 6:25. Again, it has been going on for years and hasn't been sorted out.

And yes, I have made complaints.

Poxyshamrock

Kess73 wrote: »

Lovely digital bus signs that let you know the exact arrival and departure times of the bus you are waiting for and also how long before that bus reaches it's stop. Plus buses there get to their stops on time even during rush hour despite the route I used over there not having bus lanes.

Due during the Summer in Limerick afaik.


I use the bus regularly but have to admit I live in a handy area. The bus passes my house on the way to its destination so that I can always wait in my house til its passes and then head to the local bus stop to meet it on the way back. Saves the uncertainty of waiting at a bus stop.

source

Yeah €1.70 one way, The missus and I decided to get the bus into town one day about a year ago it was €1.60 then, We got on, paid our €3.20 to get into town and about 2 hours later paid another €3.20 to get back out.

It cost us €6.40 to get into and out of town on the bus, fine, but what annoys me about it is, we could have drove in, parked in the most expensive car park in town which at the time was €1.80 an hour, it would have cost us €3.60 in total, given the distance involved (punches cross area to town) the petrol cost to us would have been negligible.

So that's the biggest issue I see with city bus services in Limerick......It's too bloody expensive.

I've never really had an issue with the drivers, I always greet them with a smile and thank them when getting off, the worst I've ever had back was a neutral blank look. Not exactly pleasant but not worth getting annoyed over.

Flincher

source wrote: »

Yeah €1.70 one way, The missus and I decided to get the bus into town one day about a year ago it was €1.60 then, We got on, paid our €3.20 to get into town and about 2 hours later paid another €3.20 to get back out.

It cost us €6.40 to get into and out of town on the bus, fine, but what annoys me about it is, we could have drove in, parked in the most expensive car park in town which at the time was €1.80 an hour, it would have cost us €3.60 in total, given the distance involved (punches cross area to town) the petrol cost to us would have been negligible.

So that's the biggest issue I see with city bus services in Limerick......It's too bloody expensive.

Punches into town? Ye should be walking. Its all feckin downhill

It is a bit pricey alright. Its a pain in the arse that you have to go up to the bus station to get some monthly pass. Weekly passes for people going in and out to work, day return, should all be available.

source

Flincher wrote: »

Punches into town? Ye should be walking. Its all feckin downhill

It is a bit pricey alright. Its a pain in the arse that you have to go up to the bus station to get some monthly pass. Weekly passes for people going in and out to work, day return, should all be available.

We normally would but it was raining, honest!!!!

bullets

source wrote: »

Yeah €1.70 one way,

I dont drive so my only transport is my bicycle so I rely on
Public transport a bit.

I find 1.70 for a fair price for going into town,
compared to the amount of times people will hop into a taxi
and get charged anything from 7-10 Euros for a similar length journey.

Then there is the day saver ticket, I'm not sure how much it costs
its 3 something. but you could get every bus in the city as many times as you wanted all day and all evening for the same price, cant really fault that.
As a non car owner If I had to use the alternative public transport such as a cab that would be fair pricey.

A few times I've had to go from Raheen to UL and back which ment
Bus from Raheen into town, Bus from Town to UL, Bus from UL to town, Bus
from Town to Raheen. so 4 bus journeys for under 4 Euros seems an OK price to pay to me.

What we really lack in Limerick is a Night Link service. When I used
to visit Dublin to go clubbing years ago I always found it fantastic I could
get a bus at 1 or 2 in the morning out to where I was staying which was
always outside the city, and again it was less that 2 Euros to get there late at night/early morning.

Here were stuck with either walking home or getting screwed with high cab/taxi fairs.

~B

Poxyshamrock

bullets wrote: »

I dont drive so my only transport is my bicycle so I rely on
Public transport a bit.

I find 1.70 for a fair price for going into town,
compared to the amount of times people will hop into a taxi
and get charged anything from 7-10 Euros for a similar length journey.

Then there is the day saver ticket, I'm not sure how much it costs
its 3 something. but you could get every bus in the city as many times as you wanted all day and all evening for the same price, cant really fault that.
As a non car owner If I had to use the alternative public transport such as a cab that would be fair pricey.

A few times I've had to go from Raheen to UL and back which ment
Bus from Raheen into town, Bus from Town to UL, Bus from UL to town, Bus
from Town to Raheen. so 4 bus journeys for under 4 Euros seems an OK price to pay to me.

What we really lack in Limerick is a Night Link service. When I used
to visit Dublin to go clubbing years ago I always found it fantastic I could
get a bus at 1 or 2 in the morning out to where I was staying which was
always outside the city, and again it was less that 2 Euros to get there late at night/early morning.

Here were stuck with either walking home or getting screwed with high cab/taxi fairs.

~B

Would love to see a direct bus from Raheen to Castletroy via the Childers Road. Even an hourly service would be fantastic. They are two massive suburbs.
They have similar routes in Galway and Cork operating as orbital routes where they don't go near the city centre and they seem to work.
I hear there is a review of the Limerick bus network in a couple of months similar to Galway's in January so here's hoping!

As for the night-bus, there was talks of them in 2007 but I remember the risk factor was a big off-put. They were worried that a lot of people might be put off about having to walk from a bus stop to their door as opposed to the security of a taxi which brings you from town right to your garden gate.

Comhrá

I use the 302 from Caherdavin into town fairly regularly and to be honest I think the drivers do a fine job. OK, they're not always beaming from ear to ear but I don't expect anything more than courtesy and civility and I've always found them fine in that respect. They do a fairly boring and demanding job so I'm happy to cut them some slack.

They can't really be blamed if buses aren't on time, or doesn't turn up at all.....mostly due to circumstances outside their control.

Give 'em a break, I say -

seachto7

I sued to be able to get a direct bus from Raheen to UL, at certain times. Is this still going?

Poxyshamrock

seachto7 wrote: »

I sued to be able to get a direct bus from Raheen to UL, at certain times. Is this still going?

There's a Raheen to UL bus around 7/8am
And two UL to Raheen buses in the evening around 4/5pm.
Under utilised because of a lack of information and their punctuality.

Got on the evening bus to Raheen one evening in 2009 and of the 6 passengers, 4 had wanted to go the city centre! :rolleyes:

hightower1

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

It is 'rush hour' at that time so it's not that big a deal that a bus is five minutes late in their eyes. There's probably nothing they can do about traffic, etc.

Maybe just Get the 8.15 bus or the 8.30 303.

Common sense would say they should adjust the timetable acordingly based on the known "rush hour" times then or at very least NOT make themselves late by having a nice 'oul chat with one of the passengers while holding the whole bus up and end up leaving 5 mins late again because of this..... yup, this happeed this morning. Im fully convinced the drivers just dont give a flying one about actually being on time.

highlydebased

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

There's a Raheen to UL bus around 7/8am
And two UL to Raheen buses in the evening around 4/5pm.
Under utilised because of a lack of information and their punctuality.

Got on the evening bus to Raheen one evening in 2009 and of the 6 passengers, 4 had wanted to go the city centre! :rolleyes:

I witness that alot. Nothing but general ignorance really when the front of the bus says Raheen!

I think the fare is alright. Comparative journies in the UK are much more expensive! I've taken city buses in many UK cities and a similar journey as Limk-Raheen or UL was around £3 single!