Bus Éireann is letting students down

Getting to school

Sir, – I’d like to bring to your attention to how Bus Éireann lacks accountability in providing appropriate public transport. The service is unpredictable and lacks capacity. For this reason, it is negatively impacting my education.

I live in Maryborough Hill in Cork, and I have a commute that takes me across the city. I depend on the bus system to get me to school, on time, every morning. I depend on the route of the 216 bus from 8am. The lack of predictability compared to the schedule Bus Éireann publishes forces me to regularly be late to school.

For example, the other day the bus was supposed to arrive at 8.12am but when I got there I waited with other commuters for the bus that never showed up (commonly known as a phantom bus). Furthermore, the buses that do arrive do not take any more passengers due to them being at full capacity.

This consistently occurs from Mondays to Thursdays.

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My education is my number one priority, and I heavily rely on the public transport that Bus Éireann provides to get me to school on time.

I’m in fifth year which is considered the most intense of the senior cycle years, and missing classes is detrimental to my further education.

My expectation of Bus Éireann as a fare-paying customer is that it maintains a service with appropriate capacity that maintains consistency with the schedule it posts. I want Bus Éireann to be accountable. – Yours, etc,

RAFAL PAVLAK-CHIARADIA,

Cork.