Sir, – On St Patrick’s Day, I had the displeasure of getting the 7.35am bus from Swords to the city centre so that I could reach work by 9am. The bus filled quickly and while it was bad enough to see tourists crammed on the buses that would take over an hour to reach Mountjoy Square, the most disturbing aspect was seeing people being left behind at bus stops because the bus was full. A quick glance at the real-time information display told me that these people would be facing a wait of up to 30 minutes for the next bus to arrive.
After finishing work at 5.30pm, I left to get a train home to Donabate. Imagine my joy to find out that the next train wouldn’t be until almost two hours later.
So, on a day when Dublin city is hosting events that were expected to attract up to 500,000 people and thousands of people still had to work, our bus and rail companies decide that a Sunday service would be sufficient to meet demand. As someone who has seen increases in the cost of my annual ticket over the past few years that were multiples of inflation, I think I am entitled to the view that the service provided was an embarrassment. – Yours, etc,
ENDA FLAHERTY,
Donabate, Co Dublin.