Bus Éireann Wtf

Prominent_Dawg

I’m actually in disbelief how this is our national bus service, l was on the airport bus today paid for express Bus Éireann nearly 30 euro , and what showed up was like a bus from the 60s not Bus Éireann, some random driver not even working for Bus Éireann, the bus stank of smoke, mold and damp, like it hadn’t been used in years, I had to tell the driver to let me off the bus as I was going to vomit, and had to pay an additional 30 euro for the train, how is this are national bus service

HeidiHeidi

Have you told Bus Eireann this?

Prominent_Dawg

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Have you told Bus Eireann this?

I would imagine they are well aware of the service they are providing, it’s a ****ing disgrace to the country

HeidiHeidi

Prominent_Dawg wrote: »

I would imagine they are well aware of the service they are providing, it’s a ****ing disgrace to the country

But if they repeatedly get tolf what a ****ing disgraceful service they are providing, they might actually do something about it.


They might not, admittedly - but if nobody complains they why would they bother?

Prominent_Dawg

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

But if they repeatedly get tolf what a ****ing disgraceful service they are providing, they might actually do something about it.


They might not, admittedly - but if nobody complains they why would they bother?

I wouldn’t waste my time reporting it to BE, this is the standard of service they deem acceptable to paying customers, I just find it baffling how we accept this standard here in Ireland when every other country’s national transport service is on another level, I will report it to tfi today

TheQuietFella

Prominent_Dawg wrote: »

I wouldn’t waste my time reporting it to BE, this is the standard of service they deem acceptable to paying customers, I just find it baffling how we accept this standard here in Ireland when every other country’s national transport service is on another level, I will report it to tfi today

In my opinion it's all to do with our 'National Debt'
That still hasn't gone away people!
Nurses, transport, workers pay, social housing have all been hit and
will continue to do so! We're going backwards!

Prominent_Dawg

TheQuietFella wrote: »

In my opinion it's all to do with our 'National Debt'
That still hasn't gone away people!
Nurses, transport, workers pay, social housing have all been hit and
will continue to do so! We're going backwards!

The national transport service here is one of the most expensive in Europe, and five times the price they pay for the same service in the uk, the least we should expect is to be provided with an acceptable standard of service

Del.Monte

Prominent_Dawg wrote: »

The national transport service here is one of the most expensive in Europe, and five times the price they pay for the same service in the uk, the least we should expect is to be provided with an acceptable standard of s, rvice

Links, please!

Prominent_Dawg

Del.Monte wrote: »

Links, please!

Links to what?

punisher5112

Op contact BE as they do have private operators do runs for them as short of coaches and driver's also.

I would suggest contacting them on twitter, by email and also including the CEO and did you find the name of the private operators as it should have had it's company address printed on the side near the front axle.

LessOutragePlz

Prominent_Dawg wrote: »

I wouldn’t waste my time reporting it to BE, this is the standard of service they deem acceptable to paying customers, I just find it baffling how we accept this standard here in Ireland when every other country’s national transport service is on another level, I will report it to tfi today

The problem is that in a lot of places there is no other alternative to BE so there is no competition. Therefore, there is no pressure from competitors on BE to improve their service since it's the only relatively cheap transport option for people especially in rural areas. So it's either accept a crap service at times and get where you need to go or don't bother using BE but don't get to where you need to go unless you spend a lot more money on a taxi.

Prominent_Dawg

punisher5112 wrote: »

Op contact BE as they do have private operators do runs for them as short of coaches and driver's also.

I would suggest contacting them on twitter, by email and also including the CEO and did you find the name of the private operators as it should have had it's company address printed on the side near the front axle.

I didn’t, as my issue is not with that operator, as they are only doing there job, it’s with BE, but I’m sure they will know by the time the bus was scheduled for, after all it was operating on behalf of BE on what’s probably the main route from Dublin Airport

colm_mcm

Why didn’t you say in the OP that you just want to moan?

Surely if the subcontractor is providing a bus from the 60s that smells of smoke, where you had to leave the bus for fear of vomiting, you should complain to the subcontractor at the very least? Saying that they’re only doing their job and it’s all bus eireanns fault is bizzare.

You have all these opinions/facts about BE yet you still booked them?

punisher5112

Prominent_Dawg wrote: »

I didn’t, as my issue is not with that operator, as they are only doing there job, it’s with BE, but I’m sure they will know by the time the bus was scheduled for, after all it was operating on behalf of BE on what’s probably the main route from Dublin Airport

BE wouldn't know the bus is in bits though unless advised by the likes of yourself or anyone else that found it to be in such a condition.

You actually think they inspected that coach????

Obviously I would complain to BE but you could have also complained to the private operator also.

DesperateDan

I like the new buses. Tables, toilets, leather, sockets for laptops, usb for phones, internet, radio, little cameras to watch the road, nice lady telling you how many minutes away you are.

For example for my local ticket, return from Edgeworthstown to Heuston is €18 and gets there in 1 hour 15 mins. Same ticket for the train is €25, at least 1 hour 50 mins, and sometimes you have to stand the whole way.

Also, the train station for Edgeworthstown is badly situated in relation to the town itself. You can just hope off the BE bus in the middle of main street Edgeworthstown.

Prominent_Dawg

colm_mcm wrote: »

Why didn’t you say in the OP that you just want to moan?

Surely if the subcontractor is providing a bus from the 60s that smells of smoke, where you had to leave the bus for fear of vomiting, you should complain to the subcontractor at the very least? Saying that they’re only doing their job and it’s all bus eireanns fault is bizzare.

You have all these opinions/facts about BE yet you still booked them?

Yes because it’s the main bus service operating at the airport with not much alternative opinions incase you’re not aware, and yes I’m moaning.. what’s your point? What’s boards for after all?.. I didn’t complain to the driver, as I didn’t purchase my ticket from him, I purchased it from BE, therefore I feel their who’s responsible for the service provided.. maybe I’m wrong!

wirelessdude01

Prominent_Dawg wrote:

I would imagine they are well aware of the service they are providing, it’s a ****ing disgrace to the country

Don't assume anything. Complain.

beachhead

I'd like to see the details of the latest price for transport in the UK,as in national transport here is "5 times the price of the UK".The UK has one of the highest prices for train or bus journeys on the planet.Local council subsidies are minimal ompred to here.

Irish Steve

From recent experience, raising any sort of complaint with BE is a waste of time, we had a recent situation of a service 109A that was due from Ashbourne at 0430 was a no show, so we had to make alternative arrangements to avoid missing the flight.

Sent mail to the area manager, NTA and also put in an online formal complaint. The formal complaint was acknowledged on submission, so I knew they got it, the eventual reply did nothing to address the reason for the no show.

I refer to your recent correspondence in reference to the 109A service.

The difficulties experienced by you are unfortunate. I have brought your comments to the attention of our Service Delivery Team and request that they monitor this service and I would like to assure you that every effort will be made to provide the best possible services to passengers at all times, within the resources available to us.

On behalf of Bus Éireann, please accept my apologies for any inconvenience caused to you.

I have been in the town on a number of occasions recently, and seen 109A services passing through, and a significant number of them are running 30 minutes late, which for an airport service is not exactly helpful, given they run every hour, but it seems that BE are not worried, given the lack of response from their management.

There are also regularly reported issues with the 103/105 and related X services, the most significant being no shows of the 103X service in the morning peak, which is causing significant problems for the people in the Ratoath area that depend on that service.

Unfortunately, it will be some time before these routes come up for tender again, so the chances of a real improvement in the reliability of the service are looking very slim. From a response to the local council from BE, it would seem that they have problems with recruiting and retaining staff, and are also suffering a high absentee rate at some depots.

The NTA are aware of the problems, but as is all too often the case, there is no system in place to take effective action to resolve the problems, a semi state regulating or monitoring another semi state is a very easy way to ensure that there is no accountability or responsibility for any service failings, but there's nothing new there.

Irish Steve

Oh yes, I forgot, there's another even better indication of just how bad BE are. I also reported to them some weeks ago now that their real time tracker on the web site is not working, and the reason for that is simple, they're not paying the licence fee that's needed to allow Google maps to be used as part of their web site.

Nearly a month later, that's still the case, I've just checked now, and plastered all across the map, which doesn't load correctly, is the clear statement " for development use only", and the pop up window that's also displayed can take you to a web page that clearly explains exactly how to resolve the issue.

Seems that BE can't afford to pay the licence fee, as it's still not been resolved, and they're not prepared to resolve issues that are reported to them. It will be interesting to see how long it takes them to get this sorted, it should have taken a few hours, not weeks to fix this.

Prominent_Dawg

beachhead wrote: »

I'd like to see the details of the latest price for transport in the UK,as in national transport here is "5 times the price of the UK".The UK has one of the highest prices for train or bus journeys on the planet.Local council subsidies are minimal ompred to here.

If you just check out national express fares you will see that or like many other European national transport providers flixbus, megabus, eurolines, IDBUS, Berlin linien bus, Mein Fernbus, Simple Express, PolskiBus, Onnibus, Westbus, Alsa our standard and price of transport is laughable to any

colm_mcm

Prominent_Dawg wrote: »

Yes because it’s the main bus service operating at the airport with not much alternative opinions incase you’re not aware, and yes I’m moaning.. what’s your point? What’s boards for after all?.. I didn’t complain to the driver, as I didn’t purchase my ticket from him, I purchased it from BE, therefore I feel their who’s responsible for the service provided.. maybe I’m wrong!

I don’t know where you were going, but I know I’ve used 3 alternatives to BE from Dublin Airport.

Prominent_Dawg

colm_mcm wrote: »

I don’t know where you were going, but I know I’ve used 3 alternatives to BE from Dublin Airport.

That’s great that those opinions are available to you!

elperello

What was the year of registration of the bus?

Did it look obviously decrepit from outside?

The company that supplied the bus will be paid the same fee as if they provided a proper standard of bus.

If nobody tells BE then they will continue to get away with it.

Prominent_Dawg

elperello wrote: »

What was the year of registration of the bus?

Did it look obviously decrepit from outside?

The company that supplied the bus will be paid the same fee as if they provided a proper standard of bus.

If nobody tells BE then they will continue to get away with it.

I dunno what year it was, I thing is it’s not what’s advertised when you purchase your ticket from Bus Éireann

wally1990

Prominent_Dawg wrote: »

I’m actually in disbelief how this is our national bus service, l was on the airport bus today paid for express Bus Éireann nearly 30 euro , and what showed up was like a bus from the 60s not Bus Éireann, some random driver not even working for Bus Éireann, the bus stank of smoke, mold and damp, like it hadn’t been used in years, I had to tell the driver to let me off the bus as I was going to vomit, and had to pay an additional 30 euro for the train, how is this are national bus service

My first thought was if the bus is in the terrible state you said it is(which I belive)

,, how embarrassing for us when our tourist's see this...
We should have a good standard quality bus service

Prominent_Dawg

wally1990 wrote: »

My first thought was if the bus is in the terrible state you said it is(which I belive)

,, how embarrassing for us when our tourist's see this...
We should have a good standard quality bus service

Exactly, we are not lucky enough to have a rail service from the airport like many other main cities, the least the national transport authority could do is provide a good standard bus service, I don’t think you realize how bad our transport service is until you travel abroad

Rubberchikken

nothing will be achieved if customers dont complain to the actual company.
its pointless saying they know what type of service/bus they provide.

Stephen15

What route was this was it an Expressway service or just a regular BE service? Reason I ask is if it was a regular BE service it would be PSO and if so you should also complain to the NTA aswell as BE.

Prominent_Dawg

Rubberchikken wrote: »

nothing will be achieved if customers dont complain to the actual company.
its pointless saying they know what type of service/bus they provide.

I have complained, I’m sure they receive complaints daily, would love to see the role taking over my by a company like city link or an international transport company that knew how to operate

Prominent_Dawg

Stephen15 wrote: »

What route was this was it an Expressway service or just a regular BE service? Reason I ask is if it was a regular BE service it would be PSO and if so you should also complain to the NTA aswell as BE.

It was Expressway

Stephen15

Prominent_Dawg wrote: »

If you just check out national express fares you will see that or like many other European national transport providers flixbus, megabus, eurolines, IDBUS, Berlin linien bus, Mein Fernbus, Simple Express, PolskiBus, Onnibus, Westbus, Alsa our standard and price of transport is laughable to any

Well those are all private companies who could set up if they thought it was profitable here and the NTA gave them a licence.

Prominent_Dawg

On the bus this morning and again it’s a private coach doing the run on a main route, I noticed they’ve also reduced a lot of their main routes rates by half, something doesn’t seem right.. have Bus Éireann taken the week off or something?

end of the road

Prominent_Dawg wrote: »

I have complained, I’m sure they receive complaints daily, would love to see the role taking over my by a company like city link or an international transport company that knew how to operate

if the route is a PSO route they would be operating the buses given to them just like be is currently doing. if they are short of coaches on the route and don't have any of their own available to bring in because quite frankly they will keep those for their profit making routes, then they would end up with having the same issue as be by where an operator contracted in to run services on their behalf won't have anything available, generally at short notice, but an old bus.

XPS_Zero

Prominent_Dawg wrote: »

I’m actually in disbelief how this is our national bus service, l was on the airport bus today paid for express Bus Éireann nearly 30 euro , and what showed up was like a bus from the 60s not Bus Éireann, some random driver not even working for Bus Éireann, the bus stank of smoke, mold and damp, like it hadn’t been used in years, I had to tell the driver to let me off the bus as I was going to vomit, and had to pay an additional 30 euro for the train, how is this are national bus service

Would it make you feel better to know that senior BE manager ALLEGEDLY (of course) may have, in theory, (but not really) gotten a nice holiday or other defacto bribe to award this company the contract for that service?
Hope that makes you feel better.

TheQuietFella

XPS_Zero wrote: »

Would it make you feel better to know that senior BE manager ALLEGEDLY (of course) may have, in theory, (but not really) gotten a nice holiday or other defacto bribe to award this company the contract for that service?
Hope that makes you feel better.

Hey! Those things don't happen in this country! :p:p

Prominent_Dawg

XPS_Zero wrote: »

Would it make you feel better to know that senior BE manager ALLEGEDLY (of course) may have, in theory, (but not really) gotten a nice holiday or other defacto bribe to award this company the contract for that service?
Hope that makes you feel better.

Holiday season is coming up

Savage_Henry

How about a situation, where their main bus broke down?
"We can use the old bus just to get people home"
"No! People will complain. Let them sit and wait till the main bus is fixed"

EdgeCase

TheQuietFella wrote: »

In my opinion it's all to do with our 'National Debt'
That still hasn't gone away people!
Nurses, transport, workers pay, social housing have all been hit and
will continue to do so! We're going backwards!

I don't really buy that. Even during the height of the money no object Celtic Tiger years CIE was quite capable of providing shockingly inconsistent and poor services. They're not known as Cycling Is Easier for nothing!

Wanderer78

EdgeCase wrote:

I don't really buy that. Even during the height of the money no object Celtic Tiger years CIE was quite capable of providing shockingly inconsistent and poor services. They're not known as Cycling Is Easier for nothing!

It's well known that funding and support for public services has been in decline for decades now, in favour of privatisation, a large proportion of the population would even prefer privatisation of public services

TheQuietFella

Wanderer78 wrote: »

It's well known that funding and support for public services has been in decline for decades now, in favour of privatisation, a large proportion of the population would even prefer privatisation of public services

But will they be prepared to pay for the privatisation?

Wanderer78

TheQuietFella wrote:

But will they be prepared to pay for the privatisation?

And does it actually work at improving things?

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Wanderer78 wrote: »

And does it actually work at improving things?

It certainly improves service, as somebody is actually held accountable for poor service. BE don't care because the NTA don't care, they'll continue to receive funding either way whether the service is crap or not.

I don't think privatisation is the way to go. But it does provide some form of accountability.

Wanderer78

Curb Your Enthusiasm wrote: »

It certainly improves service, as somebody is actually held accountable for poor service. BE don't care because the NTA don't care, they'll continue to receive funding either way whether the service is crap or not.

I don't think privatisation is the way to go. But it does provide some form of accountability.

i will partly agree with this, services can and have been improved since the inclusion of the private sector in running our transport systems, but it hasnt been all that positive either, it can be argued that since its inclusion, worker insecurity to has increased, i also think the private sector should be a part of our transport systems going forward, but we must somehow address some of its negatives.

EdgeCase

I don't see much evidence of the quality getting worse. I remember the state of the bus service in Cork in the 1990s and it was absolutely awful. The city / outer suburban busses used to be cast offs from Dublin Bus, often with all of the green branding inside and a Bus Eireann paint job. A lot of them could barely make it up hills, puffed smoke and were in very poor condition generally.

I also remember Bus Éireann running busses to Cork's satellite towns like Carriagline from Parnell Place bus station and having no indication of which bus went where - they didn't have the correct rollers with Cork destinations (possibly still old Dublin Bus rollers) or they didn't bother using them. I didn't even realise that there was a bus number for any of those routes.

It was like something you'd expect to see in pre-EU Eastern Europe.

The state of some of the trains before the last major fleet upgrade was also very patchy. There were modern 1980s intericites, but you could equally pay for a normal ticket and end up on some 1960s/70s bone shaker or even a commuter DMU on Cork-Dublin if you were unlucky. At least nowadays you can be sure of a modern intercity train with fairly reasonable facilities.

I remember when I was maybe 12/13 going on late night trains from Dublin to Cork that were some kind of old BR intercity design and it often had no heat on a winter's night. You'd be sitting there in a coat with steam coming off your breath, desperately trying warm yourself on a cup of tea!

There was no golden age of CIE or Irish public transport. It was always bad. Or, at the very least it was always very patchy and unpredictable. You could get modernity on one bus / train and then something out of a scrap yard on the next one.

Prominent_Dawg

Wanderer78 wrote: »

It's well known that funding and support for public services has been in decline for decades now, in favour of privatisation, a large proportion of the population would even prefer privatisation of public services

There’s only so much funding and support can do when it comes to a company this bad

john boye

EdgeCase wrote: »

I don't see much evidence of the quality getting worse. I remember the state of the bus service in Cork in the 1990s and it was absolutely awful. The city / outer suburban busses used to be cast offs from Dublin Bus, often with all of the green branding inside and a Bus Eireann paint job. A lot of them could barely make it up hills, puffed smoke and were in very poor condition generally.

I think you're thinking of Cork vehicles themselves when they were painted from green into BE livery. The Bombardiers and GACs down there wore green just like the Dublin ones until BE was formed. Very few DB/DCS vehicles moved to Cork. I do remember though a lot of ex-Cork buses coming to Dublin live out the rest of their days and they were absolutely clapped out.

Prominent_Dawg

Savage_Henry wrote: »

How about a situation, where their main bus broke down?
"We can use the old bus just to get people home"
"No! People will complain. Let them sit and wait till the main bus is fixed"

Or in be case let them sit and wait.. then sent a piece of ****

EdgeCase

john boye wrote: »

I think you're thinking of Cork vehicles themselves when they were painted from green into BE livery. The Bombardiers and GACs down there wore green just like the Dublin ones until BE was formed. Very few DB/DCS vehicles moved to Cork. I do remember though a lot of ex-Cork buses coming to Dublin live out the rest of their days and they were absolutely clapped out.

Nope, they were fully branded as Dublin Bus inside, complete with logos in various parts of the interior. They were absolutely definitely ex-Dublin bus.

john boye

EdgeCase wrote: »

Nope, they were fully branded as Dublin Bus inside, complete with logos in various parts of the interior. They were absolutely definitely ex-Dublin bus.

Actually I was thinking more in the past but just remembered that the VAs went to Cork in the mid 2000s. They most certainly weren't in green though.