Sir, - It is good to see that the powers that be are at last making some attempt to revolutionise the bus service by initiating the new southside bus corridor which, although it already has its detractors, should go a long way towards easing the growing traffic gridlock in the city. So perhaps the bus queues will soon lose that patient long-suffering look of people doomed to wait for a long time, while happy motorists vroom past at a rate of knots.
Perhaps, too, Bus Eireann would now think of the comfort of those who wait, by scrapping the narrow, plastic orange seats at bus shelters, so devilishly designed for the discomfort of travellers who are not supposed to sit on but slide off the damn things.
But what of the scandal of Busaras, the central station for buses to the provinces? It is an appalling eyesore, with its outer walls the colour of faeces, and the pavements covered with cigarette butts and miscellaneous litter, even at an early hour of the morning, as I witnessed a fortnight ago. Within, it is little more than a large, ugly, draughty barn - shabby, cheerless, grimy, rubbish-strewn, provincial - an inferior place for an inferior people, it seems. Again, the long queues waiting have that familiar, patient, long-suffering look, that one associates with refugees from some Third World country.
It is simply not good enough for the paying public. It would not be good enough for Bally-go-backward in the heart of the outback, never mind our proud capital. It belongs more to the bad old days of the 1920s when "anro" (hardship/distress) was rampant. Today the politicians have their jets and their Mercs and perks, thanks to this paying public. They do not travel by bus, since buses are for the plebs. When are they and the much vaunted Celtic Tiger economy going to drag Busaras into the 21st century? - Yours, etc.,
Vera Hughes, Cartronkeel House, Moate, Co Westmeath.