'The service is in chaos, people are at their wits' end

Commuters in Ashbourne, Ratoath and Dunshaughlin cite late buses, schedule cancellations, overcrowded and dirty vehicles amongst issues with Bus Éireann services

Almost 1,000 commuters in Ashbourne, Ratoath and Dunshaughlin responded with complaints about Bus Éireann services in an online survey in just one week.

Buses that were late or had not turned up at all, real-time indicators not working, total schedules being cancelled at the last minute, overcrowded buses and dirty vehicles were among the issues raised.

Cllr Joe Bonner posted the survey online on 15th October and within one week had 960 people had responded and complaints are still coming in.

"The service is in chaos, people are at their wits’ end. People are in danger of losing jobs and some have told me that they are going to have to move into Dublin because they see no end to this," said Cllr Bonner.

"On top of this, the N2 is like a car park in the mornings and there is no resolve to that situation. Everyday we are being encouraged to leave the car at home and use public transport but it’s not there and what the people are saying to me they are not being listened to."

The majority of the complaints related to the 103 route, with 613 people people registering complaints about that service

There were 70 complaints about the 103x and 63 about the 109a.

There were 579 complainsts about buses from Ashbourne, 210 about Ratoath services and 99 about Dunshaughlin buses.

The survey showed that 496 or the respondents were travelling to work, 258 to college, 20 were going shopping, 75 were attending appointments and seven travelling to the airport.

Some 208 of the complaints related to buses being late; 310 were about buses that didn’t arrive and 129 related to buses that were already full when they arrived at the stop.

Cllr Bonner explained that he had received an excessive number of complaints about the service, so he set up an online survey to accurately record the issues.

"I set up this survey on Sunday 15th October and I received 935 individual submissions in the space of a week, which is certainly concerning. The 935 submissions do not include the number of phone calls, texts, emails, and multimedia contacts I have received complaining about the service.

"This situation is causing so much anxiety and inconvenience to all these people. People are in danger of losing their jobs due to being repeatedly late, missing school, college, appointments, and according to the detailed comments posted in the survey, some people are having to take life changing decisions because they cannot rely on the Bus Éireann service.

"I have forwarded the information to Bus Éireann saying that we require immediate changes and upgrade of a now shambolic service.

"This is a very serious situation and requires urgent attention.

“Among the respondents was a woman whos said "standing in Beresford Place for anything up to 90 minutes in the most awful weather is horrendous."

Another who was traveling on the 103 from Dublin saw a gentleman in wheelchair has being left at stop at Charlestown as the bus could not facilitate a wheelchair.

Cllr Bonner was also told about two young Ratoath teenagers left stranded after dark, when their bus failed to turn up.

Meanwhile the issue was raised in the Dail last Thursday, when Deputy Darren O'Rourke called on Transport Minister, Eamon Ryan to instruct the National Transport Authority and Bus Éireann to prepare an emergency contingency plan to address the bus service crisis in Meath.

He also called on Bus Éireann to meet with the public and local public representatives in Meath to explain themselves.

Speaking afterwards, Deputy O'Rourke said; "Bus services in Meath are in absolute chaos. Every day we have multiple cancellations on multiple routes and at short notice. Literally thousands of commuters are being let down.

"On the busy 103 route servicing Ashbourne and Ratoath, for example, 20 per cent of services were cancelled on Monday, 10per cent on Tuesday and 15 per cent on Wednesday of last week. It's a similar picture on the busy NX route from Navan. It is an absolute disgrace."

"To add insult to injury, Bus Éireann have provided absolutely no contingency and their communications are pathetic.

"This is absolutely scandalous, and at a time when we are trying to encourage people to use public transport.

"Bus Éireann and the National Transport Authority (NTA), the commissioning body, must be held to account. At my request, they were invited to attend before an upcoming meeting of the Oireachtas Transport Committee to explain themselves."

"This issue cannot wait until then, though, to be addressed. Today in the Dáil I called on the Minister for Transport to intervene to instruct the NTA and Bus Éireann to introduce an emergency contingency plan to address this crisis."

A spokesperson for Bus Eireann said the company "acknowledges and regrets that we are experiencing some service challenges in the Eastern Region in recent weeks and apologises for any inconvenience caused to our customers.

"From January 2023 to August 2023, 97.5 per cent of route 103 services operated fully.

"However, over the past few weeks we have experienced an increase in cancellations, primarily caused by the non-availability of our fleet and traffic congestion.

Our fleet is primarily maintained by our maintenance departments and supplemented with support from external contractors where required. However, due to recruitment challenges for mechanics across the industry, there have been some temporary shortfalls of fleet availability.

"We are confident that a number of steps that we have taken will improve the situation, however recruitment of mechanics remains an industry wide challenge and our extensive mechanic recruitment campaigns remain ongoing. Our Eastern Region service delivery team are reviewing and implementing a number of initiatives that should see improvements in service performance," the statement concluded.

Minister Thomas Byrne conformed he had held a meeting with senior officials of the National Transport Authority on 31st October about local transport issues where issues about staff shortages, bus fleets and the lack of consistency of the service were addressed.

"What is going on in our buses to and from Ashbourne and Ratoath is totally unacceptable and I’m fully committed to changing this."