Sir, - Last week I travelled on a 46A bus from the city centre to Dun Laoghaire. The interior was new or recently refurbished. The coachwork was spotless; the seats were finished in a tasteful soft fabric. A joy to behold and a credit to Dublin Bus.
Alas, I know that in five or six weeks' time one seat in four will be disfigured by a disgusting, dirty chewing-gum splat.
Since there seems to be no way of removing chewing-gum from furnishing fabric (or if there is Dublin Bus doesn't know about it), is it not time that we admitted defeat at the hands of the gum-spreaders and adopted countermeasures? Dublin Bus would do well to abandon the soft fabric and finish the seats in a tough plastic material or install hard plastic bucket seats like those in many Continental city buses.
They would not be as comfortable as the present seats, but that would not be a major factor on the relatively short distances in or around the city. The great advantage would be that they could be easily cleaned and we would no longer find ourselves sitting on someone's else's spit. - Yours, etc.,
York Road, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.