Bus service cancellations slammed
BUS services in Clondalkin and Lucan were blasted by representatives after reports of cancellations and no shows.
TD Gino Kenny and his party colleague Cllr Madeleine Johansson (PBP), were referring to recent issues on the 76/76A bus route and the C1/C2/C3/C4 in Lucan and the 40 bus in Clondalkin.
“The main issue is that a large number of buses are not showing up at all, for example on Monday, June 27, three 76/76A buses were cancelled at peak times,” said Deputy Kenny.
“I know several people who rely on the 76 bus. They are getting increasingly frustrated with the large amount of buses simply not showing up.
“The 76 route is operated by Go-Ahead, a private company that is receiving state funds. It is completely unacceptable that this is happening at a time when we want to encourage more people to use public transport.”
A Go-Ahead Ireland spokesperson told The Echo they are aware of recent disruptions to the 76 service, which are as a result of “unforeseen staffing pressures such as illness.”
“In recent months we have undertaken extensive recruitment activities which are ongoing. We have a pipeline of new recruits joining the company, as well as drivers currently completing their training before being deployed on routes across our network,” said Go-Ahead.
“We would like to apologise to customers for any inconvenience that they have experienced. With these actions in place, we anticipate being able to offer the service and reliability that our passengers expect of us.”
Meanwhile, Cllr Johansson said she was contacted by a man who had tickets to a match in Croke Park but couldn’t get there because there was no bus for two hours.
“He was waiting for the C1/2 on Saturday afternoon but they never arrived. I have written to the NTA about this and am waiting for a response,” she said.
“I have also heard of people not being able to get the bus from Lucan village because the buses from Leixlip and Maynooth are already full when they get to Lucan. There are a lot of new housing developments being built in the Adamstown area and we urgently need extra capacity on buses in Lucan to cater for the demand.
Dublin Bus confirmed some C1 and C2 services experienced operational issues on June 18 and 25.
“The Dublin Pride Parade took place on June 25. An Garda Siochana put in place a series of rolling diversions to facilitate the safe organisation of this event. The diversions, combined with increased traffic congestion, severely impacted our services throughout the day. The Dublin Bus App and Real Time Passenger Information (RTPI) units were updated to inform customers of these curtailments.
“Dublin Bus, like a lot of companies, is feeling the impact of a highly competitive labour market. This resulted in some services failing to operate due to driver shortages on June 18 and 25. Dublin Bus held a recruitment day on April 2, which was a very successful event, however, we have an ongoing recruitment campaign to recruit 450 drivers and 50 mechanics and engineering operatives, in what is the organisation’s biggest recruitment drive since 1989, to enable the projected growth and development of the organisation.”
