Commuter woes.... 'The daily struggle just to get to work is just a nightmare'

A frustrated Ashbourne commuter has told of how regular bus no shows are leaving her stressed.

Tara Young uses the Bus Éireann 103 service from Monday to Friday but says every day is a battle trying to get a bus to and from work.

Tara who has a serious medical condition is often left in severe pain when forced to stand on packed buses and says the daily commuter hell is impacting her life.

“The daily struggle to get to work is just a nightmare” said Tara.

“You are exhausted before you even get there,” she added.

“The morning buses are not too bad but coming home is a disaster and it's getting worse because they are building hundreds of more homes in Ratoath and Ashbourne and if there are no improvements to the service, the whole system is going to collapse.”

“On any given week I probably end up standing twice coming home.

“One week during the summer, four out of the eight buses I went to get were no shows.

“The ones that do turn up, a lot of them break down.”

Being forced to stand waiting for and on the bus when it arrives has major implications for Tara's health and well being as she explains:

“I have very bad Lymphedema in my legs so I can't stand for that long and by the time I get home I can’t feel the tops of my legs.

“ When am I am standing for too long, my legs start to shake and they go numb and I am afraid that they will just give way on me, it's just awful and causes such stress.

“There is such a huge population in both Ashbourne and Ratoath that they should never have put those two services as one.”

It comes as Cllr Caroline O’Reilly has started conducting a survey of commuters in the Ratoath and Ashbourne areas on their experiences with public transport.

Cllr O’Reilly, who was recently selected to contest the Meath East constituency for Fianna Fáil in the next General Election, said the survey is hugely important as it will provide her with the hard evidence needed to get an overview of commuters’ experiences.

This will allow her to engage with stakeholders such as Bus Éireann and the Department of Transport and strengthen her case for improved public transport locally.

She said: “Ashbourne is one of the fastest growing towns in Meath East, Ratoath is one of the biggest and there are a number of bus routes that residents have contacted me with issues about.

“I have been meeting with residents in both the Ratoath and Ashbourne areas who are frustrated with the existing levels of public transport services and finding themselves stuck in traffic.

“I’m starting this survey in the Ratoath and Ashbourne areas, but I am acutely aware of the transport problems, bottlenecks, delays and issues elsewhere, such as Dunboyne and Dunshaughlin.

“Good public transport is the key to so much on our community. The longer we have at home rather than commuting, the more time we have for family, for exercise, for local shopping and socialising. It is a priority for me as a public representative.”