Returned to using bus afters years. Bus Eireann and their drivers still incompetent.

rat_race

Started using the commuter bus again a few years after saying "never again". The 133, from Wicklow Town to Dublin.

Was impressed by the double deckers & WiFi. I thought maybe I'd give CIE some of my money for a while.

Four or five journeys in and I've had enough. Missed my stop because the bus driver failed to hear repeated STOP button alarms (too busy chatting to someone).

Then missed a last bus home from Dublin, at the Leeson Street stop. Bus drove straight past me. Because, for some reason, and arm sticking out and attempted eye contact isn't enough for some of these baboons.

Back to not using public transport, and back to listening to them say they don't have enough money. Clowns.

end of the road

i presume you have made a report to both the company and the national transport authority?
such issues cannot be left to go unchallenged. both need to be made aware of the issues.

Dyr

The Bus Eireann services to Dublin from parts foreign are notorious for this kind of carry on

end of the road

Bambi wrote: »

The Bus Eireann services to Dublin from parts foreign are notorious for this kind of carry on

i had the odd experience myself when i used the busses. however it's ridiculous to judge every single bus eireann driver like the op has done.

Dyr

end of the road wrote: »

i had the odd experience myself when i used the busses. however it's ridiculous to judge every single bus eireann driver like the op has done.

Basing that on the experience of pretty much every colleague I've had who relied on Bus Eireann for their commute. Total Wacky races carry on

LeinsterDub

end of the road wrote: »

i presume you have made a report to both the company and the national transport authority?
such issues cannot be left to go unchallenged. both need to be made aware of the issues.

I prefer to cut out the middle man and pay lip service to my own complaint

Nomis21

I bought a ticket in Cork bus station to Clara with a connection in Portlaoise. When I got on the bus in Cork the driver said I was going to miss my bus connection because he was going to make an unscheduled restaurant stop in Abbeylix even though there was no other bus that day from Portlaoise to Clara. I ended up taking the train from Portlaoise and paying for it myself. Yes Bus Eirann did eventually refund my train fare but why are the Bus Eirann drivers a law unto themselves?

Del.Monte

With the OP's attitude I'm not surprised that they have found themselves left waiting at the bus stop. Though not a bus fan, I have travelled on many buses over the decades and have for the most part found Bus Eireann drivers to be normal human beings like the rest of us and doing a stressful job to the best of their ability.

strandroad

Nomis21 wrote: »

I bought a ticket in Cork bus station to Clara with a connection in Portlaoise. When I got on the bus in Cork the driver said I was going to miss my bus connection because he was going to make an unscheduled restaurant stop in Abbeylix even though there was no other bus that day from Portlaoise to Clara. I ended up taking the train from Portlaoise and paying for it myself. Yes Bus Eirann did eventually refund my train fare but why are the Bus Eirann drivers a law unto themselves?

What's an unscheduled restaurant stop?...

LeinsterDub

Del.Monte wrote: »

With the OP's attitude I'm not surprised that they have found themselves left waiting at the bus stop..

Do go on. What has the OP's attitude got to do with the quality of service? Are drivers using mind reading techniques and deciding not to deal with the OP and their attitude?

magentis

Nomis21 wrote: »

I bought a ticket in Cork bus station to Clara with a connection in Portlaoise. When I got on the bus in Cork the driver said I was going to miss my bus connection because he was going to make an unscheduled restaurant stop in Abbeylix even though there was no other bus that day from Portlaoise to Clara. I ended up taking the train from Portlaoise and paying for it myself. Yes Bus Eirann did eventually refund my train fare but why are the Bus Eirann drivers a law unto themselves?

15/20 mins is much too close when getting a connecting bus and cannot be gauranteed in any case,that is addressed in the terms and conditions.Aside from the driver telling you of a rest/toilet stop the bus could also encounter another hold up.

If getting connecting flights,would you leave 15/20 mins between them?Very surprised you got a refund.

Wishbone Ash

strandroad wrote: »

What's an unscheduled restaurant stop?...

Reminds me of being on the Dublin to Letterkenny service about 35 years ago and the driver stopped outside a drapery shop in Strabane and bought himself a new coat in the January Sale.

Del.Monte

LeinsterDub wrote: »

Do go on. What has the OP's attitude got to do with the quality of service? Are drivers using mind reading techniques and deciding not to deal with the OP and their attitude?

Perhaps he tries hailing them with his middle finger? How the hell do I know, but anybody who reverts to calling his fellow human beings baboons doesn't get any sympathy from me.

LeinsterDub

Del.Monte wrote: »

Perhaps he tries hailing them with his middle finger? How the hell do I know, but anybody who reverts to calling his fellow human beings baboons doesn't get any sympathy from me.

Who cares who does or doesn't get your sympathy or who called people baboons. This is just Ad Hominem. Your not addressing the issues regarding the lack of service

Del.Monte

LeinsterDub wrote: »

Who cares who does or doesn't get your sympathy or who called people baboons. This is just Ad Hominem. Your not addressing the issues regarding the lack of service

I was going to reply to this post with the response it deserves, but it's Christmas and anyway I don't want a forum ban.

Nomis21

magentis wrote: »

15/20 mins is much too close when getting a connecting bus and cannot be gauranteed in any case,that is addressed in the terms and conditions.Aside from the driver telling you of a rest/toilet stop the bus could also encounter another hold up.

If getting connecting flights,would you leave 15/20 mins between them?Very surprised you got a refund.

It was a 30 minute unscheduled stop.

jimmycrackcorm

Wishbone Ash wrote:

Reminds me of being on the Dublin to Letterkenny service about 35 years ago and the driver stopped outside a drapery shop in Strabane and bought himself a new coat in the January Sale.

Used to take the 32 regularly. The last time though was the 1:45am and the driver never made a stop the whole journey as it's normal. I was nursing for the loo but when I asked at the end why there was no break he lied and said it was to keep to the schedule.

On a night journey. With no traffic to be held up.

I hope his post strike pay cut might teach him that his pay depends on not losing customers like me just because he wanted to finish his shift early.

end of the road

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Used to take the 32 regularly. The last time though was the 1:45am and the driver never made a stop the whole journey as it's normal. I was nursing for the loo but when I asked at the end why there was no break he lied and said it was to keep to the schedule.

On a night journey. With no traffic to be held up.

I hope his post strike pay cut might teach him that his pay depends on not losing customers like me just because he wanted to finish his shift early.

it wouldn't have no as he doesn't need teaching it.
out of interest how do you know he was lieing? i know the service may normally stop but maybe control told him not to stop, maybe he ran late during an earlier part of his shift and would have gone over his hours had he stopped?

horseburger

end of the road wrote: »

i had the odd experience myself when i used the busses. however it's ridiculous to judge every single bus eireann driver like the op has done.

Indeed. You'll get the odd bad experience, no matter if it's Bus Éireann or any other bus company. But most drivers are sound, no matter what bus company it is.

Another aspect of hailing buses down is that in areas with no street lighting, drivers might not see people who are not wearing reflective clothing, and might pass by them without stopping. It doesn't mean they deliberately didn't stop.

Even if you have a reflective top on, a driver might also ask you, in future, to also have a light shining, because even if someone is wearing a reflective jacket, it isn't necessarily obvious to the driver, if that person is trying to hail the bus down, or if that person is just walking. It can be difficult for the driver to see the arm waving, until they are passing by the person.

On the 109 coming from Dublin, about a year ago or maybe less than a year ago, I saw a guy getting up, between Dunshaughlin and Navan, and going up to the driver, asking why the driver hadn't stopped at a bus stop that the bus had just passed.

The driver rightly said to the passenger that he had not rang the bell, nor gone up to the driver, before the bus passed the particular stop, to indicate to the driver, to stop at that bus stop.

The passenger seemed to think that the bus should have stopped at that bus stop, even though there was no one waiting at that stop to get on the bus.

horseburger

rat_race wrote: »

Started using the commuter bus again a few years after saying "never again". The 133, from Wicklow Town to Dublin.

Was impressed by the double deckers & WiFi. I thought maybe I'd give CIE some of my money for a while.

Four or five journeys in and I've had enough. Missed my stop because the bus driver failed to hear repeated STOP button alarms (too busy chatting to someone).

Then missed a last bus home from Dublin, at the Leeson Street stop. Bus drove straight past me. Because, for some reason, and arm sticking out and attempted eye contact isn't enough for some of these baboons.

Back to not using public transport, and back to listening to them say they don't have enough money. Clowns.

Why didn't you get up and go and sit at the first row of the bus before you passed your stop, and let the driver know you wanted to get off at the next stop?

Did you get a chance to examine the appearance of the driver long enough - considering it drove by you - to know for certain, if the driver was an actual baboon?

cgcsb

Last time I got a BÉ bus it was the Galway bus from Athlone, scheduled to go straight to Dublin City Centre via Dublin airport, according to the timetable. Got to the airport and driver said this was his last stop and he wasn't going any further. I definitely won't be using it again. If the regional cities got their own independent services, I'd say most would be happy to just let BÉ go south.

end of the road

cgcsb wrote: »

Last time I got a BÉ bus it was the Galway bus from Athlone, scheduled to go straight to Dublin City Centre via Dublin airport, according to the timetable. Got to the airport and driver said this was his last stop and he wasn't going any further. I definitely won't be using it again. If the regional cities got their own independent services, I'd say most would be happy to just let BÉ go south.

be would likely be operating a number of, if not most of those services. so the regional cities can be happy to see it go south all they like but they aren't going to get floods of interest from others. + if that route you used is a commercial service then there is nothing anyone can do unfortunately, especially the regional cities.
the likely hood of regional cities getting independance i'd suggest is low anyway thankfully as it would be a ridiculous waste of money. could you imagine the councils been given more powers? no thanks. we have a government, we don't need more of it.

in relation to your experience, the driver could have been told to terminate at the airport by control before you got on the bus. he is not going to be able to simply terminate where he feels like it, bus eireann management may be a lot of things but they aren't going to put up with that.

cgcsb

end of the road wrote: »

in relation to your experience, the driver could have been told to terminate at the airport by control before you got on the bus. he is not going to be able to simply terminate where he feels like it, bus eireann management may be a lot of things but they aren't going to put up with that.

I got my refund for the ticket plus the leap fare into town after sending a string of toxic emails. But then I had to queue up to get onto a packed 16, which only runs every 20 mins at most. It's not ok to get on a bus that's timetabled to go somewhere and then it doesn't go there. This kind of thing is common based on comments from other posters. This isn't outer Mongolia, it wouldn't be tolerated in any western society, but it's tolerated here for some reason. Fortunately for the bus driver most people were going to the airport, it was only myself and 4 others left stranded.

horseburger

cgcsb wrote: »

I got my refund for the ticket plus the leap fare into town after sending a string of toxic emails. But then I had to queue up to get onto a packed 16, which only runs every 20 mins at most. It's not ok to get on a bus that's timetabled to go somewhere and then it doesn't go there. This kind of thing is common based on comments from other posters. This isn't outer Mongolia, it wouldn't be tolerated in any western society, but it's tolerated here for some reason. Fortunately for the bus driver most people were going to the airport, it was only myself and 4 others left stranded.

Did you ask the driver what the reason was that he didn't go into town, or are you just assuming that he didn't go into town for the fun of it?

SusieBlue

I'll be the first to criticise the bus service, its perpetually late and cannot be depended on. It has made me late for work, meetings and appointments on a somewhat regular basis.
But I can't fault the drivers. At least on my route, they are very friendly and helpful and particularly nice to the elderly passengers.
The reason my bus is always late is because they cut 4/5 journeys a day and if I'm unlucky enough, it might happen to be the one I was hoping to get. Annoying, but not the fault of the driver.

Arcade_Tryer

Find the 22 Expressway from Ballina to Dublin return a fabulous service. Very efficient, and provides an incredibly important service transporting college students and workers from the west to the city. Can't speak for other services/routes.

LeinsterDub

WhiteRoses wrote: »

The reason my bus is always late is because they cut 4/5 journeys a day and if I'm unlucky enough, it might happen to be the one I was hoping to get. Annoying, but not the fault of the driver.

Why would cutting services impact the remaining services? Dwell time?

SusieBlue

LeinsterDub wrote: »

Why would cutting services impact the remaining services? Dwell time?

Pretty much, my bus is meant to be every 10 minutes, sometimes I might have to wait 30/40 minutes for one though. And when I asked a driver one day he said he wasn't late, he was right on time. The two busses in between were cut. So rather than waiting 10 minutes, I had to wait 30/40.

LeinsterDub

WhiteRoses wrote: »

Pretty much, my bus is meant to be every 10 minutes, sometimes I might have to wait 30/40 minutes for one though. And when I asked a driver one day he said he wasn't late, he was right on time. The two busses in between were cut. So rather than waiting 10 minutes, I had to wait 30/40.

That appears like BÉ are cutting buses at random. If so it should be reported to the NTA.

horseburger

Deedsie wrote: »

I get the X12 expressway bus and i find it ok. A few small changes and it could be an excellent service. If they could get the rtpi working properly and people could have faith in it the service would be really handy and reliable.

The timetable is never met. Always at least 20 mins late for the return journey in the evening. I'd get over that if I could at least be assured by rtpi that it will eventually arrive.

Rtpi needs more investment if they really want people to use the bus.

Do you mean going from Dublin to Limerick?

I guess it gets delayed in traffic coming from Dublin Airport and Dublin City Centre to Limerick?

The long distance bus services can get delayed arriving at intermediate stops.

On the previous 109 timetable, before 17th September 2017, when leaving Cavan on the hour, the bus would often be five to ten minutes later than scheduled arriving in Navan, on the way to Dublin.

It was due at Navan Market Square at five past the next hour, but it could be 10 past the hour or 15 minutes past the hour when the 109 from Cavan arrived in Navan.

But I find that the 109s that start in Kells at 15 minutes past the hour, would regularly arrive in Navan between 30 minutes past the hour and 35 minutes past the hour, and leave at 35 minutes past the hour as scheduled

http://www.buseireann.ie/timetables/1497283811-X12.pdf

cgcsb

horseburger wrote: »

Did you ask the driver what the reason was that he didn't go into town, or are you just assuming that he didn't go into town for the fun of it?

He said he wasn't rostered to go into the City