Sir, – I have lost track of the number of times I have stood at a Dublin bus stop, waiting patiently for a scheduled bus to arrive. And as I monitor the progress of the selected bus on the electronic signboard beside the stop, or track it on the Transport for Ireland App (or both), I do the countdown: bus due in 10 minutes, three minutes, due! And then mysteriously the bus disappears into the ether-space, some kind of bus Bermuda Triangle. This has happened a lot to me and, judging by the reaction of others waiting at stops, to them also. We have all lost all confidence in this shambolic system. Why deploy this significant signage infrastructure and IT information system if it does not work?
If Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan is serious about persuading motorists to switch to public transport, he has to ensure he can provide a system that gives passengers the most important information they need: when is my bus, tram or train going to arrive? It’s not the timetable that matters; it’s the real-time information. Without that predictability, public transport is not attractive.
If you are waiting for a bus showing on the system as due at 10.45pm and it disappears at the last moment, the next bus (if there is one) might be much later, perhaps by up to 50 minutes. So you are now waiting a very long time at a bus stop late at night for a bus that hopefully will not disappear like the previous one.
Regarding buses, it seems to me that the basic framework of a good system is there but the Minister needs someone to make it work. Surely in Ireland, this self-proclaimed world centre of information technology, it is possible to find someone to fix this problem.
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Bus passengers are really the ones bearing the brunt of this fickle bus service and unreliable notification system. I hope the Minister can demand and obtain some real improvement. – Yours, etc,
DERMOT IGOE,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – I agree wholeheartedly with Will Breen (Letters, October 19th) regarding the State’s failure to invest in the rail network. The network has seen little increase in its capacity outside the capital and less in terms of increased reach.
Indeed it is hard to fathom how today the cities of Dublin and Galway are still connected for most of that route by a single track. Double-tracking this line would cut close to 30 minutes off the average journey.
Speaking of Galway and its unparalleled gridlock, getting the line reopened south from Sligo/Mayo through Tuam and into Galway city centre needs to be done urgently. This would give commuters a viable option to joining the daily tailbacks from Lough George, which is 14km from Eyre Square.
According to the OECD, Ireland’s per capita spend on rail is just 20 per cent of countries such as Austria, Switzerland, France and the UK.
Our population from the early 1970s will soon have doubled, as will the national workforce. It is time that the investment in the rail network reflected this. – Yours, etc,
ULTAN KEADY,
Caherlistrane,
Co Galway.