Bus Éireann route 111 - Singe Decker and new driver!

chewed

This is an email I just sent to Bus Eireann regarding the 111 5.30 bus yesterday. Very frustrated as I'm sure most of the passengers were on that bus with the inexperienced driver giving us a tour of Meath on the way home!

Hi there,

I'm emailing you to complain about the 5.30 bus (111 route) from Dublin to Athboy yesterday evening (Dec 20). This is a peak time service with the queue in Busaras nearly stretching to the main door of the building, yet only a single decker bus was provided!

To add to this frustration, the driver was not familiar with the route! He took the wrong turn and travelled through Clonee and then to the M3 parkway (The 5.30 service should continue on the M3 and not go to the Parkway). When I told him "Next stop" coming up to my bus stop, he rudely shouted "I don't know where that stop is!", instead of asking me to tell him where it was. It took me over 2 hours to get home!

I would like to know why external drivers that are taking these peak time slots are not trained or informed as to what the correct route is and why only single decker buses are provided at this time, leaving many commuters stranded at the various bus routes in the city and suburbs?

Andru93

Unfortunately there are a few drivers on the 111 that can be annoying/ outright rude.

My sister ran into one which wouldn't stop the bus until she pressed the stop button. He had driven a kilometre pass her stop by the time she found the button. So she had an interesting walk home.

October

I was on that bus too and I also emailed Bus Eireann last night. The driver also used his mobile a few times, not for calls, think he might have been reading texts.

chewed

Andru93 wrote: »

Unfortunately there are a few drivers on the 111 that can be annoying/ outright rude.

My sister ran into one which wouldn't stop the bus until she pressed the stop button. He had driven a kilometre pass her stop by the time she found the button. So she had an interesting walk home.

Yeah I've encountered him a few times! Very odd driver. I wasn't even aware there was a bell. Myself and a girl told him to stop at our stop and he asked if she pressed the bell as he was driving past. She said she did and then he slams on the brakes, 200m past our stop, gets of his seat walks back and presses the bell, then lets us off so we can walk back to the stop through the mud and into oncoming traffic!

What is the point of all this?

LXFlyer

chewed wrote: »

This is an email I just sent to Bus Eireann regarding the 111 5.30 bus yesterday. Very frustrated as I'm sure most of the passengers were on that bus with the inexperienced driver giving us a tour of Meath on the way home!

It might be worth correcting your email as yesterday was January 20th and not December.

Whatever about the driver's behaviour, there may have been a breakdown somewhere? I'm guessing that service is normally a double deck? Maybe the usual vehicle broke down and this was an emergency replacement?

I'd suspect all of the double decks are on the road and that the only available spare would have been a standard coach? I doubt very much that they would deliberately put a single deck on without good reason.

chewed

lxflyer wrote: »

It might be worth correcting your email as yesterday was January 20th and not December.

Whatever about the driver's behaviour, there may have been a breakdown somewhere? I'm guessing that service is normally a double deck? Maybe the usual vehicle broke down and this was an emergency replacement?

I'd suspect all of the double decks are on the road and that the only available spare would have been a standard coach? I doubt very much that they would deliberately put a single deck on without good reason.

Thanks! Yes, wrong date which I re-sent. That's what a head cold does to you!

The thing is that BE often stick on single deckers for the 5.30, 6 and 6.30 buses when there is full capacity needs! I also understand that buses break down and they then rely on external companies to take these routes, but can they not provide sat navs or a detailed route maps to the drivers?

And also provide customer care tips!

lucernarian

chewed wrote: »

When I told him "Next stop" coming up to my bus stop, he rudely shouted "I don't know where that stop is!", instead of asking me to tell him where it was. It took me over 2 hours to get home!

In my head, if I heard "I don't know where that stop is!" I would just think he was stating a fact. Was he definitely saying it with an attitude?

Sounds like a frustrating trip home anyway.

currins_02

My experience is that staff in Bus Aras in particular don't care once the people leave the station. It is common practice to call in a hired bus for whatever reason and stick them on a route the driver doesn't know. Often the best the driver can hope for is to be told what direction to head from the station (North quays, south quays, NCR or whatever) but little else beyond that.

It's easy to say ask the passengers but often they don't know (sounds crazy but have come across it often) the route (as they normally are sleeping, on laptop, on ipod....whatever), others will ignore you and in one case I know of a passenger complained to Bus Eireann because a strange driver asked for assistance (on the basis that she had paid for a service and it was unacceptable to have a driver who didn't know the route). Sometimes it works great by asking passengers but often you're as far back as ever.

chewed

lucernarian wrote: »

In my head, if I heard "I don't know where that stop is!" I would just think he was stating a fact. Was he definitely saying it with an attitude?

Well, if you read the post, I did say "he rudely shouted...". So yes, he did say with an attitude!

Tickityboo

chewed wrote: »

Well, if you read the post, I did say "he rudely shouted...". So yes, he did say with an attitude!

I would say it was more down to stress than rudeness to be honest.

chrysagon

customer care is a non runner at BE.. and wouldnt mind but those drivers are on good money, and yes many a time have seen drivers on their mobiles.

lucernarian

chewed wrote: »

Well, if you read the post, I did say "he rudely shouted...". So yes, he did say with an attitude!

You can safely assume that I read your post, but I've seen situations on buses before where things can be interpreted as rude or as being forceful or simply an effort to communicate without ambiguity in a noisy environment.

The circumstances suggest that the driver would be stressed and already had shown inadequate route knowledge so in this situation I would have expected he wouldn't know where my stop is. I'm assuming this was in a rural area or where there is no pole available. For whenever I am making certain rural journeys I just skip to default and describe where it is, "my stop is about 300 metres away beside xyz signpost. The bus Eireann signs are only put up on one side of the road in that example and impossible to see at night.

I'm just exploring the possibility that he sounded stressed instead of rude. Its wrong if he took out his frustration on a customer.

October

I was on the bus too and sitting near the front and I can confirm he was rude! And he was far from frustrated! He was very relaxed looking and didn't appear in the least bit bothered that he didn't know the route!

Mrs OBumble

chewed wrote: »

This is an email I just sent to Bus Eireann regarding the 111 5.30 bus yesterday.

Just to warn you how how BE might see this:

"This complaint is invalid, because there is no 5:30 bus".

Why? Later on you refer to yesterday evening, so obviously you really mean the 17:30 bus. If they're of a mind to be thick, then it's an easy out.

Hopefully they won't see it that way.

chewed

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Just to warn you how how BE might see this:

"This complaint is invalid, because there is no 5:30 bus".

Why? Later on you refer to yesterday evening, so obviously you really mean the 17:30 bus. If they're of a mind to be thick, then it's an easy out.

Hopefully they won't see it that way.

Well, I did get a positive response from BE!

I refer to your e-mail of 21st January, 2015.

The difficulties experienced by you while availing of our services are unfortunate and regretted. Unfortunately on Tuesday evening due to operation difficulties we had to hire in a private company to provide replacement coach to operate our 17.30 Dublin-Trim/Athboy 111 service. We were unable to source a high capacity coach at such short notice. We expect these coaches to adhere to the same standards that we offer our customers. I have requested the Director of the private company concerned, to provide a full and detailed report and would like to assure you that suitable steps will be taken to prevent a recurrence in the future.

On behalf of Bus Éireann, please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused to you on this occasion and thank you for taking the time to bring this matter to my attention

lucernarian

I think two sources can comprehensively rule out any matter of personal interpretation. Glad to see Bus Éireann follow up, which they haven't done when I use their customer services contact us form...