Bus drivers

Tyrrial · 03-06-2003 2:02pm

Originally posted by Pigman II
I think bus-drivers get a bad rap. I mean not only do they put up with every kind of arsehole in the city (and then some) but then have to spend their day driving round-and-round-and-round in circles til they complete their shift. I know that it'd drive me mad so how the vast majority of them keep on good form at all deserves respect.

i totaly agree, i would hate to have to do there job, sopme of them even do it and keep a happy face on... when i see a pissed off bus driver i simply know how he feels... and simpathise

Saruman · 03-06-2003 2:13pm

This is another one of those stupid threads based on generalisation... oh there was this horrible bus driver on the #47, all bus drivers are bastards... complete muppetry!! You have no idea what its like to be a bus driver so unless you do shut the fúck up about it. Im not a bus driver so i dont pretend to know or justify any of their actions. My dad however is. He has to put up with scum. He was even assaulted once.. he was very smart about it though... It was late, the bus was at terminal and not due to leave yet.. some little scumba comes up and starts banging on the door.. he lets him know the bus is not due to leave.. scumbag tries to open door with emergency button and my dad tries closing it.. eventually he has to let it open and try reason... it goes out the window when the guy hits him and staggers off. My dad did not do anything but radio the station... this was outside the Irish Times building.. the CCTV got the whole thing on tape and the people in the building watched it on the monitors and allerted the police... He is a very polite driver though if someone smokes etc he will call for inspector and have him thrown off the bus.

There are ignorant drivers sure... probably the ones who were born into it and will never leave and are so secure in their jobs and doing it so long they just no longer can be the friendly sort they once were.

As to the mother and baby.. how the hell would the driver know the baby is still upstairs??? did the mother say it to him? If she did this could have been avoided.. i blame the mother, NOT the driver.

MDR · 03-06-2003 2:31pm

Saruman,

I don't think anyone would (or indeed) has argued that the all Dublin Bus drivers have a bad attitude, but i do feel and perhaps my feelings are shared ?, that among the older generations of drivers, unionisation of Dublin Bus, has bred complancy about job security. This complancy has inturn bred a flagerent disregard for the customer in general. I have had some very bad expierences of Dublin Bus drivers, which I don't care to re-count as none have happened in recent years.

Similarily this can be found in similar organisations such as the Garda, the Civil service etc, I think out of the whole lot i found the Civil Service the worst. Now my Da was a Garda for years, and would be first to admit that there are alot of Garda who have rotten attitudes to civilans for similar reasons.

Dublin Bus drivers don't have a particullary bad jobs, certainily no worse than say casulty nurse, so their job doesn't excuse the bad attitude, nothing really can.

The only thing that will sort this out will be sort out the unions in Dublin Bus. I do feel that unions are important, and I amn't arguing that Dublin Bus have perfect pay/working conditions, but I do feel that the unions at Dublin Bus are having a largily negative impact on the service and on the city.

I would rather sort out the unions, than go down the road of privitising Dublin Bus altogether as I believe that would result in more pronounced problems.

Saruman · 03-06-2003 5:17pm

Yup MDR i would agree with that.. some of the eh older generation might feel like that.

Tyrrial · 05-06-2003 3:44pm

i have only good merories of bus drivers and i've been going to school via dublin bus since i a wee little fella in 4th class. and it wasn't just five min's on the thing, i got the 39 from hartstown and then the 10 to baggot street, for me at that age..... it was a bloody long trip twice a day, and as i said, the drivers were never in any way horrible to me. they really should have been i was a little brat back then.:D

Victor · 05-06-2003 6:28pm

Originally posted by Tyrrial
i got the 39 from hartstown and then the 10 to baggot street, ..... they really should have been i was a little brat back then.:D

So it was you I had to put up with everyday

jumpingjack · 05-06-2003 9:10pm

i have found some drivers to be pricks and others to be sound.i understand that they deal with some bad people but that is no excuse.

i wont brush all bus drivers with the same brush

Tyrrial · 13-06-2003 12:21pm

Originally posted by Victor
So it was you I had to put up with everyday

yup, i'm sure you were one of many that would have liked to see me under a bus rather on one

wombat · 13-06-2003 12:35pm

Originally posted by JohnK
I haven't used a bus much in the last 3 years however for the 5 years before that I used the bus daily and found that if I treated the driver with respect s/he treated me with the same. In fact I have found that it is pretty much the same everywhere. Be polite to the bus driver and you will get a lot further with him/her.

That is of course, assuming they bother to stop at all.
I was waiting to catch my first bus in two months yesterday (been getting taxied around the place by work lately) and a number 10 came along, I stuck out my arm, he slowed down, then decided not to bother stopping at all, he even waved his arms at me to make sure I knew he saw me.

sligoliner · 13-06-2003 1:16pm

I take the 122 most days. There is a young woman driver (I am not knocking women here) who regulalry opens the rear door by mistake and when the bus is full people they get hit by the door opening. She then blames the people for geting hit with the door that she opened by mistake. She also constantly passes people standing at stops waiting for buses even when her bus is almost empty. Last week, a young girl rang the bell at Camden Street and stood by the door to get off. This bus goes past the stop. At the next lights the little girl says she rang to bell to get off the bus at the last stop. The wagon behind the wheel comes out with "I though yer were only messin when ya rang the bell!

Now remember, if Brennan brings private companies to our Buses, it'll mean the end of the world class serivce the SIPTU members currently provide and we'll be reduced to the horrible sitution in the UK where even the smallest country vilage has a regular bus service and drivers will be sacked if they are no good. Des Gerritrety (who thinks he is the re-incarnation of Jim Larkin) and Neil Tobin will do everything to protect the fantastic intergrated transport system that CIE *all bow* are currently offering...

Minister Brennan being in the private firms ASAP.

MDR · 13-06-2003 1:33pm

we'll be reduced to the horrible sitution in the UK where even the smallest country vilage has a regular bus service and drivers will be sacked if they are no good.

or where my pensioner uncle lives in Luton (large housing estate), there is no bus service on sundays ..... privatisation onily serves to close unprofitable lines, which is not in the broader public interest.

sligoliner · 13-06-2003 2:45pm

Of course that what they do - work to make a profit. The unprofitable lines for both rail and bus are run by the state as social service. This is how it works in Denmark and Norway and would work here as well. If provate firms take over 25% of the city's buses that mean Dublin Bus have a surplus of 25% in buses and drivers that can be reallocated to routes that need them. It quite simple really. Full privatisation is not even remotly on the cards and it's just hysteria and nothing else. The SIPTU rail and workers are acting like the Taxi Federation and it will backfire. If they had any sense they would see that this suplementary provatisation will give them greater career prospects. In the UK a train driver was a crap low-paying job. Now train drivers in the UK are paid salries of £70,000 average and they are often head-hunted by various train companies. Bring in more private companies and the public gets more choice and the drivers are not 100 dependent on CIE. What's wrong this? Answer NOTHING.

Anyway, we already have Mortons, Saint Kevins and Lough Swilly bus companies. Only a eejit would be against the idea of expanded public transport in this coutry.

MDR · 13-06-2003 2:57pm

What's wrong this? Answer NOTHING.

do you always answer your own questions ?

The unprofitable lines for both rail and bus are run by the state as social service. This is how it works in Denmark and Norway and would work here as well.

Now you where holding up the UK as the model the Irish should follow, all I was doing was pointing out the UK model isn't all that good.

I duly acknowledge that Denmark and Norway have decent models which we can follow indeed. We can't let things continue as they are, but we have to very cautious about how we proceed ...

sligoliner · 13-06-2003 3:20pm

>do you always answer your own questions ?

You are not being clever or funny at all. The only person laughing at this quip is yourself so get over it and stick with the subject like a good little boy. Thanks.

>Now you where holding up the UK as the model the Irish should >follow, all I was doing was pointing out the UK model isn't all >that good.

I was in the English West Country on holiday last week. Amazing bus and rail services. All private. It works there - much better than here. It's better than here so much so it's almost unbeliveable. Country villages have regular buses that run every half hour until 12:30. You leave the pub after a good night you get home on the bus... They intergrate perfectly with the trains amd they are operated by different companies. Irish Rail claim that the Sligo train is integrated with the CIE Boyle bus at Ballymote station. The "service" is a bus ONCE A WEEK. The UK has a world class public transport system compred to Ireland dispite the faults.

>I duly acknowledge that Denmark and Norway have decent >models which we can follow indeed. We can't let things continue >as they are, but we have to very cautious about how we >proceed ...

I was in India last year the rail service there is better that Irish Rail. The buses were scary though. I agree we need to be cautious. But the SIPTU unions are being deceptive and hysterical. We won't get the Danish and Norway models unless Tobin and his cult learn to comprise and understand they are a public service.

Victor · 15-06-2003 9:20pm

Originally posted by sligoliner
Bring in more private companies and the public gets more choice and the drivers are not 100 dependent on CIE. What's wrong this? Answer NOTHING.

It's removes the unions monopoly! (the NBRU only accepts CIE group workers as members). :rolleyes:

I haven't decided whether part / privatisation is good or bad, but I'm not indifferent to the matter. I attended the Defend Public Transport meeting organised by the unions, to be honest it was embarrassing ... people were calling for The Revolution :rolleyes:

sligoliner · 15-06-2003 10:42pm

>I haven't decided whether part / privatisation is good or bad, >.but I'm not indifferent to the matter.

Neither am I - I am just pointing out that right now we have a very poor and completly unintegrated transport network operated by CIE and they are convinced that we will lose something precious and perfect it CIE is broken up.

>I attended the Defend Public Transport meeting organised by >the unions, to be honest it was embarrassing

In what way? The title of the demonstration alone is hysterical and delusional.

Victor · 16-06-2003 2:36pm

Originally posted by sligoliner
In what way? The title of the demonstration alone is hysterical and delusional.

It was basicly a pro-left, pro-union, anti-business, anti-politician (their words not mine) rant that offerred nothing constructive. It was about 60% trade union transport workers (fair enough) and 35% random militant trade union / militant socialist and about 10% common sense.

They ranted against UK bus companies operating less than safe busses (the reasoning being they are private), when the NBRU itself has had to do safety checks on busses before they leave the garage and you still get a quantity of dodgy busses out there.

The final insult was the guy from the Danish Communist Party demanding free public transport for all (nice way to overcrowd & bankrupt the system) and then tries to sell his literature to me on my way out. :rolleyes:

dmeehan · 16-06-2003 3:16pm

can anybody explain to me why the unions are so against privatisation or the breakup of CIE?

if there were more transport companies in operation wouldnt it offer MORE employment oppurtunities to their members?

MDR · 16-06-2003 3:18pm

can anybody explain to me why the unions are so against privatisation or the breakup of CIE?

For some reason it much harder to sack someone who works for the government, as opposed to someone who works in the private sector ....

Bus drivers

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