Sir, - It's about time that Dublin Bus was taken to task about its bleating as to how good a service it provides through its Nitelink operations. This is not a night service: it is no more than a lift home for partygoers and night clubbers and as such could at best be described as barely adequate. For the general public and especially for those people who work at nights it is of little use.
First there is the cost: season or period tickets are not acceptable and the cost varies from £3 to £4 for a single journey. For a person working nights this is a bill for public transport in addition to the cost of getting to work of minimum £15 to £24 per week making an average monthly transport cost of approximately £110.
There is then the routing. If one is travelling to the suburbs from the city centre then it is possible to get a bus (except of course on a Sunday). If one is working in one suburb or maybe one/two miles from the city centre there is no pick-up on the return of these buses from their suburban destinations to get a connection from the Westmoreland Street/College Green area. No doubt Dublin Bus will have an answer for this no matter how unacceptable it might be. In the past it was always possible to get a bus (even before this Nitelink) when buses were returning to their respective garages after the last outbound service up to 12.15 a.m. and even later. Why is it no longer possible for buses to pick up on the inward run?
If one compares night public transport in Dublin with any city of comparable size (we are told that now the population of the Greater Dublin area is 1.3 million people) the service can only be described as woeful.
The Nitelink is just the embryo of a proper night service. Why not let the baby grow and develop if necessary with the help of the private sector? - Yours etc.,
Ernest F. Crossen, Knockmaroon Hill, Chapelizod, Dublin 20.