Sir, – Dublin Bus and Go-Ahead Ireland both suffer from the same problems – driver recruitment difficulties, cancelled buses, a real-time app that delivers non-existent buses and lots of unhappy customers. As a result, both operators have also been fined by the transport regulator (News, October 31st).
Can somebody please explain why we have two companies delivering a substandard service?
Surely the most efficient and cost-effective way forward is to have one inefficient company in charge of all public buses in Dublin?
The theory that competition leads to a better service is in this case obviously false. Time for a rethink? – Yours, etc,
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SEAN KEAVNEY,
Castleknock,
Dublin 15.
Sir, – The frustrations of bus passengers when buses disappear from the display at a bus stop are all too obvious, judging from the tone of the letters on the subject of phantom or ghost buses.
By its own admission, Dublin Bus includes both schedule information and location data when compiling what it calls “real-time” bus information.
This is a fundamental flaw of the system.
If intending passengers want information on the timetable for a particular route, this is available separately from Dublin Bus.
The only source of data for a real-time bus information system should be the physical location of each relevant bus, and from this the expected time of arrival at each bus stop can be calculated and displayed.
This is the nature of the equivalent systems in many European cities. It should not be beyond Dublin Bus to replicate such a system here.
Persisting with the current approach, which includes the display of information on buses which are not operating due to staff shortages, is not, as Dublin Bus claims, due to technical issues. It is a poorly designed system and only serves to undermine the public’s faith in the reliability of the service as a whole, when Dublin Bus should be doing everything it can to encourage more commuters to travel by bus. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN KELLEHER,
Ballinteer,
Dublin 16.
A chara, – I have been following the saga of the disappearing buses on this page with a mixture of mirth and surprise. Mirth, since the story is worthy of the pen of the great Myles na gCopaleen himself, and surprise, since nobody seems to be taking the Dublin bus companies to task for what is an obvious case of shenanigans.
More seriously, I am willing to bet that the “ghost” buses which regularly appear on the display panels only to disappear thereafter into thin air will be counted as real buses in any customer satisfaction or service surveys in the future. – Is mise,
TERRY WALSH,
Murcia,
Spain.
Sir, – As an aviation enthusiast, I am a daily visitor to a well-known flight tracking app which can tell me (in real time), the route, speed, altitude and remaining flight time of literally thousands of aircraft currently in the skies around the world. It astonishes me that this free app can offer such insights on the global movement of millions of people, while a multimillion euro live-tracking system rolled out by Dublin Bus seemingly cannot inform the travelling public with any great accuracy when or indeed if a humble Dublin bus will appear at a designated stop on a planned route in our small city. – Yours, etc,
GERARD REYNOLDS,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.