At a rural crossroads, a single-decker bus slows to a stop. Quietly. An older man stands up from his seat and approaches the doors. “Are you gonna open the door for me, hay?” he bellows at the driver.
With a warm jacket and knee-high wellies, he steps off near a place called the Stone Trough and strolls up a country lane, waving merrily on his way off. He is one of a growing number of people using the TFI Local Link bus 171 between Dundalk and Shercock, in Co Cavan. Since the electric bus route replaced Bus Éireann route 166 in July, it has serviced 12,000 passenger journeys and connected the small village of Shercock, Co Cavan.
Sixty two new and enhanced bus services were introduced this year.
The switch to electric is part of the State’s effort to decarbonise the transport sector in line with its legally-binding target of a 51 per cent reduction by 2030. An Environmental Protection Agency report last April said transport emissions were projected to reduce by just 35 per cent over the next nine years. If the 171′s success is anything to go by, Ireland needs more of them – and fast.
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It serves people from all walks of life: A Ukrainian father, Maksim, and his two children head to the cinema in Dundalk. He doesn’t know what they’ll see, but they’re happy to go and figure things out later. Two young girls also make their way to Dundalk for a day out socialising. Another young man with dreadlocks makes quick work of a chicken fillet roll on his way to Carrickmacross, and more teenagers gossip away in the corner.
Teresa Duffy is on her way to work in Carrickmacross. “Before [this route] it felt like there were really zilch buses going,” she says. “It was very bad.” Now she gets the new bus to work every day, she says.
“It’s the best thing for the town,” says Noreen Coughlan excitedly. She is on her way to Dundalk to do some messages. “It’s been transformational. Especially for people like me – senior citizens.” Coughlan doesn’t drive, and before this she relied on her daughter to take her shopping, or otherwise just stayed at home. “And I look forward to getting the bus to see my grandchildren. There was nowhere to go before. There was no transport out of town – you couldn’t even get a taxi.”
Between Coughlan’s home in Shercock and Dundalk, two electric buses now serve Carrickmacross, Inniskeen and a range of smaller settlements along the way. As one makes five round trips in the morning, another bus charges up at a depot before swapping in the evening. It’s part of a Government investment of €1.9bn this year in greener travel options to support a shift away from car use where possible. 62 new and enhanced bus services were introduced this year alone.
One regular of the service – armed with a bag of assorted items for donation to a charity shop – is impressed with the service. “I think it’s great,” she says, and adds she is on her way to get her hair done and do some Christmas shopping in Carrickmacross. “I’d go on a Thursday to go to the stalls in a wee market; on a Saturday to get my hair done; and [on] a Sunday just to get out of the house.”
Bus driver Frank McGovern has been driving for a living for a long time. The Cavan native, now living across the Border in Co Armagh, says, “oh a long, long time,” about his career on the road. “I’ve always been driving buses – most of my life.” He likes driving the new electric bus, and says it isn’t much different. On the inside, however, it is kitted out with all the latest gizmos: USB charging ports at every seat, an accessible doorway, heated windows at the driver’s blind spots and enough CCTV cameras to make Big Brother jealous.
“People are delighted with this new route,” he says. “Especially people who don’t drive. And students use it as well, for school or college in Dundalk. I think there’s a lot of people though that don’t realise this bus is running on this route, because there’s a few places where we never pick anybody up.” He suggests it’s a matter of getting the word out to people. But the previous week he had to leave people behind in Carrickmacross, such was the demand.
“I like meeting people and having the craic. There’s different people every day. You always get somebody: you find out where they’re from, they find out where you’re from – it shortens the journey.”
He goes slow enough on the route, with a time on a screen beside him indicating when he should arrive at the next stop. There’s no need to race there and then wait at the stop, he says. On his way towards a church, though, a hearse pulls out in front of the bus with a crowd of mourners slowly following. Be it by car, wagon or bus, you’re always going to hit some traffic from time to time – even out in the sticks.
McGovern sees passengers at their highs and lows. One woman towards the back can be heard quietly sobbing on the phone after apparently hearing the news of a friend’s death. Later, she perks up and starts to sing The Killers into her phone for all to hear. In connecting communities, there’s a brief intimacy found with those around you on a bus, which is very much alive on the 171.
For Shercock local Coughlan, this route has given her “real independence”. “It took a wee while to get off in the first couple of weeks, but it’s picked up. And as they used to say, ‘It’s the best thing since sliced pan,” she says with a smile.
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