Some commuters in Dublin were left with hours of “disappearing buses” this week. Bus operator Go-Ahead Ireland has said its routes are affected by a general shortage of mechanics to service buses, which is “further aggravated by seasonal illnesses.”
Councillors across different parts of the city have said residents have complained to them about Go-Ahead routes. The service disruption has been described as not the normal disappearing buses issues, which are “irritating and a big inconvenience”, but rather hours of the same, with some routes having no buses running for hours.
Glencullen-Sandyford Cllr Oisín O’Connor (Green Party) is calling for service improvements and, where issues cannot be avoided, that there be clear advance communication of cancellations.
He said: “What I wanted to see was clear communication of which routes will and won’t be running. For example, if the 7.40am 114 bus won’t run all next week, just announce that now so at least everyone knows and can plan around that.”
On its own website, Go-Ahead Ireland said “primarily due to vehicle servicing requirements” that it “can confirm that it is currently experiencing service disruption across some of its Greater Dublin Area routes,” and it urges passengers to “Please check the TFI Live App prior to commencing your journey for the latest service information.”
Cllr O’Connor said he has received “many complaints from bus users in Kilternan, Sandyford, and Ballinteer,” but the issues are affecting bus users across different parts of the city.
A statement from Go-Ahead was published on the NTA’s Transport for Ireland website with the title “Customer Notice: Bus Route N6, 114, S8, S6 and L26 frequency issues”, but a similar statement was issued to the Irish Independent for an article published yesterday covering just the S4 route.
As reported by the Independent, the issues with the S4 have been so acute that two councillors, Cllr Fiona Connelly (Labour) and Cllr Pat Dunne (Independents4Change), both raised the as council motions. Cllr Connelly also raised the issue of buses getting caught in traffic.
Cllr O’Connor said: “I have been hearing even more from bus commuters over the past week that bus services such as the 114, S8, S6 are just not showing up at all. What makes it even worse is that some of the new buses launched this week, such as the L26 from Kilternan are having the exact same issue.”
“I’m not talking about one bus not showing up or being a few minutes late — that’d be irritating and a big inconvenience for people, making them maybe half an hour late for work, school or hospital appointments. What’s happening this week is much worse than that.”
On Wednesday, he said: “For example, the 114 bus from Sandyford didn’t run for 3 hours yesterday morning, with the 7.05, 7.40 and 8.30 buses just not turning up, leaving people stranded and completely disillusioned with our public transport system. It’s simply not good enough for whoever is making these cancellation decisions to leave people stranded between the 6.40am service and the 9.40am service.”.
A spokesperson for the National Transport Authority (NTA) said: “The operational issues are for the operators to resolve, and they are keeping NTA informed on their progress in that regard. We absolutely understand that customers are very frustrated by the cancellations.”
In their statement published yesterday, Go-Ahead said: “Go-Ahead Ireland can confirm that a number of bus services including the N6, 114, S8, S6 and L26 have recently experienced service frequency issues which have impacted passengers.”
In its statement, Go-Ahead said: “These service issues are due to a combination of factors. At a sectoral level, there is currently a shortage of mechanics impacting transport operators nationally. This has meant that buses are taking longer to service, thus reducing the number of active vehicles on the road at certain times. This issue has been further aggravated by seasonal illnesses which has further reduced the current number of active mechanics able to service their fleet at a given time.”
“Cognisant of their responsibilities to passengers and those communities that they serve, Go-Ahead Ireland have been running a dedicated mechanics recruitment campaign offering a comprehensive and competitive package for candidates,” it said.
The company said that since the New Year, it has experienced an increase in applications for HGV Mechanics, “which will address the current issues and enhance engineering capacity overall.”#
Go-Ahead added that it “Apologies to passengers impacted by the recent service issues. Passenger commitment is fundamental to Go-ahead Ireland, as they strive to offer the best possible service to those communities they serve.”
Cllr O’Connor added: “I understand that all bus companies are struggling to hire staff at the moment, but the only buses I’m hearing complaints about this week are the ones run by Go-Ahead. Look, I’d prefer not to be calling out one individual company, but I can’t change the fact that they’re the ones operating all the routes that people are reporting as having the issues the week.”
As well as clearer communication, he said questions about pay and conditions needs to be asked when Go-Ahead is having more issues than Dublin Bus; he said reliability stats should be split by bus route to more clearly show problem areas, and fines should be increased for bus operators when they do not run services.
Asked about issues relating to the new E-Spine launched this week and operated by Dublin Bus, a spokesperson for the NTA said: “In relation to the E-spine operated by Dublin Bus, we are aware of capacity issues reported at certain points, but we’re confident that these will ease as the new services bed in.”
N6 was a big step up from the 17a. Some teething issues but seemed to have been more reliable for a good while. Got to Ballymun yesterday to find a 50 minute wait (should be every 12 minutes). Gave up and walked to Santry to hop on the 27B. Probably for the best, sounds like the 50 minutes later bus might not have turned up either! Got it morning without issue (albeit with some delays)
A spokesman for the NTA said it was nothing to do with them,blame the bus operators.
What do the NTA mean by this ? “we are aware of capacity issues reported at certain points, but we’re confident that these will ease as the new services bed in.”
Please cancel TFI’s contract and hire a real bus company. We deserve a decent bus service.
What does the NTA mean by this “we are aware of capacity issues reported at certain points, but we’re confident that these will ease as the new services bed in.”
When we had the 46a at the morning peak they used to insert spare buses at Foxrock Church having parked them 200m away, ready to go. With the E2 passing stops full, they appear to have disappeared. Why?
We waited for the S6 on Friday for 1 hour it says at the bus stop they come every 10 to minutes. Why can’t they let customers know they won’t be coming. We were late meeting people because of the bus not turning up for one hour. It’s just not right that this company can run a service like that and should now be stopped running buses for the public
This has been an issue for over a year and nothings been done, go ahead Ireland 16 bus in particular, lately s8 the excuse I got was tfi control the times not us or we haven’t enough drivers. If thats the case don’t display a bus time only to cancel it 5mins before, three s8 didnt show last wed all early from 7am No one wants to take responsibility it seems.