On Hire To Bus Eireann (Clapped Out Coaches)

foggy_lad

these awful substandard bingo busses are back on the road!

can anyone from bus eireann give the criteria and standards expected from coaches on hire to bus eireann for Expressway routes?

tonight (thursday 25th) the 8pm service from Busars to Waterford was a coach on hire from Comeragh coaches in waterford and i hope it never leaves waterford again or better still gets dumped off the quay into the sea!

1. there was no air conditioning working on the coach except for the driver opening a small window beside him.

2. the seats were so uncomfortable i will possibly need physiotherapy after the journey to Carlow.

3. the driver had the heat on full at the front of the bus and this resulted in everyone being uncomfortably hot.


4. much more seriously the windscreen was almost completly fogged up for most of the journey to Carlow as the driver was unable to clear it properly due to having no working air-conditioning. he was clearing enough to see out of but for 90% of the journey he could not have seen the near side mirrors at all as that side of the windscreen was completly misted up. he had to stop in naas to clean the windscreen but it was back misted up again out past the garda station.

5. a bus eireann inspector got on to check tickets in Castledermot and saw the unsafe condition of the windscreen, it was also brought to his attention that the air-conditioning was not working, he said he would "say it to the driver" but he seemed more interested in revenue protection than passenger safety and comfort as all he discussed with the driver was a girl who had got on in dublin with an old used return ticket.

at the end of the day if that driver had killed or maimed some cyclist or someone walking along the road for not being able to see out it is still a bus eireann bus that he is driving as it has been deemed fit for use by the prize muppets in bus eireann.

the people within CIE/Bus Eireann responsible for allowing this coach and others like it in the same and worse condition should grow a conscience and resign!

Victor

Write to Bus Éireann, the bus owner, the Garda, the HSA and the RSA.

flazio

On a slightly related note, I notice that Callinan Coaches who used to run every second Dublin-Galway-Dublin coach for Bus Eireann now hire themselves out to Citylink, Are they just set up as a Hire provider to the national carriers? They even have location light boards on all their fleet.

trad

The standard of coach might have something to do with the significant reduction in hire costs that Bus Eireann imposed on their contractors recently.

Run_to_da_hills

trad wrote: »

The standard of coach might have something to do with the significant reduction in hire costs that Bus Eireann imposed on their contractors recently.

Bus Eireann will be the losers in the long run as people Will not take the bus if service quality is compromised.

foggy_lad

trad wrote: »

The standard of coach might have something to do with the significant reduction in hire costs that Bus Eireann imposed on their contractors recently.

they obviously have no regard for customer safety or comfort

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Bus Eireann will be the losers in the long run as people Will not take the bus if service quality is compromised.

i will not be travelling on any more of these clapped out coaches(bus eireanns own fleet is very good and usually well maintaineed!) but will go across the river and get a private operator that serves carlow and many other people will be doing the same! i usually get the bus because the train is so unreliable usually late and is useless unless you are going directly into hueston station!

this from the bus eireann website customer service section

Your safety and that of our staff will continue to take precedence over all activities. We aim to ensure that our safety standards are maintained

and this

We will ensure that the heating, ventilation and lighting on board our vehicles are working and set to a comfortable level.

foggy_lad

The 8pm service tonight to waterford is yet another of the nasty bangers being used by bus eireann only from experience of travelling on this particular bus its air conditioning unit is broken up beyond use and several of the outer panes of glass in the windows are missing. after asking if this particular deathtrap would be used for my journey i informed a bus eireann rep that i would seek out alternative transport.

Zoney

I've been on a number of genuine Bus Éireann coaches in the last year where air-con wasn't working. Some particular coach model (possibly more than one recent model) seems to have a situation where the cheap plastic covers on the vents break or go missing so you end up with an unstoppable jet of cold air. I've been on a number of coaches in this condition with no air con on, presumably due to the fact it would place a number of seats in deep freeze. I've also experienced the unnecessary heating problem on BÉ coaches.

Also problems with smelly coaches (and I don't mean just sweat in terms of human odours) and seats that the cleanliness of is very dubious. It's all the more annoying now given that they seem to get quite decent new coaches regularly enough but they quickly go downhill. Of course partly BÉ shouldn't actually have as much work to do - i.e. it's ridiculous how some passengers trash the coaches.

Whatever about some hire coaches being a bit old (haven't had a bad experience like the OP) some of them are at least cleaner than many Bus Éireann coaches.

crushproof

While I do enjoy the lax Irish attidude and being able to bring your roll and other food and drink onto public transport it clearly is responsble for some of those awful smells and dirt you get on Bus Éireann. You don't get this in most other countries due to their strict no food or drink policies

Zoney

crushproof wrote: »

While I do enjoy the lax Irish attidude and being able to bring your roll and other food and drink onto public transport it clearly is responsble for some of those awful smells and dirt you get on Bus Éireann. You don't get this in most other countries due to their strict no food or drink policies

How should I put this... I'm referring to smells associated with a toilet, not a poorly cleaned eatery.

foggy_lad

my main issues with the old clapped out coaches on hire to bus eireann are regarding safety not pasenger comfort the way the windscreen mists up due to not having air-con which would help with demisting and also on the bus last night many of the windows were "broken" in that the outer panes of the double glazed windows were missing.

and this bus also has some suspension or steering issue which causes it to rock from side to side while moving at speed, not like an ordinary bus which will gently roll slightly, this bus clunks from one side to the other as if the suspension bushes are very worn, imo very dangerous for a bus travelling at speed!

the comfort issue relates to the seat cushions which feel like they have been replaced from the original hard foam that usually gives proper support to passengers backsides and spines to cheap domestic foam that offers no support and leaves passengers in an awkward seated position where they are sitting too low down due to sinking down on the cheap foam seats!

and also lack of air-conditioning which leaves passengers more tired annoyed and irritable after even the shortest of expressway journeys,

CIE/Bus Eireann claim to have a set of standards that govern the hiring of coaches but i doubt they actually do and it is more likely that the cheapest wins regardless of passenger safety or comfort!

Dord

Contact bus eireann and also the carriage office. The latter should be very interested.

sparkydee

Yeah I got on a bus from waterford to clonmel and there was actually water in between the double glazing window on the right hand side of the bus. The water was a quarter of the way up. And like previous posters the heat was on full belt. Luckily it was a short journey. It was an on hire bus as well.

foggy_lad

sparkydee wrote: »

Yeah I got on a bus from waterford to clonmel and there was actually water in between the double glazing window on the right hand side of the bus. The water was a quarter of the way up. And like previous posters the heat was on full belt. Luckily it was a short journey. It was an on hire bus as well.

that particular bus sounds like the one used last night, was the air-conditioning unit damaged beyond use?

do you think it might have been the one described in this post?

actually i think i was on your bus some time ago when it was used by irish rail to bring passengers from Waterford to kilkenny when they had some signalling issues, in this instance it was also "on hire" to bus eireann! the water was sploshing around inside some of the windows and other windows only had the inner pane of glass and it was also rocking from side to side on the road! and the bus while technically clean was "rotton"

sparkydee

foggy_lad wrote: »

that particular bus sounds like the one used last night, was the air-conditioning unit damaged beyond use?

do you think it might have been the one described in this post?

actually i think i was on your bus some time ago when it was used by irish rail to bring passengers from Waterford to kilkenny when they had some signalling issues, in this instance it was also "on hire" to bus eireann! the water was sploshing around inside some of the windows and other windows only had the inner pane of glass and it was also rocking from side to side on the road! and the bus while technically clean was "rotton"

It doesn't sound like the one in your other post but it does sound like you did get my one in this one. Unless there is more than one bus going around with water in the windows. It was a horrible bus and the smell of dampness was awful. It's shocking what they put on the road.

GTE

Has this service been running for a long time? As in, have they been leasing the job out for long?

I think a BE coach was set on fire quite recently. It was an Expressway SP. Up side is, if the fleet gets any kind of reshuffle soon with the latest cutbacks then you should get a BE coach back.

Though, it may have been leased out the whole time and Im totally off

foggy_lad

bbk wrote: »

Has this service been running for a long time? As in, have they been leasing the job out for long?

I think a BE coach was set on fire quite recently. It was an Expressway SP. Up side is, if the fleet gets any kind of reshuffle soon with the latest cutbacks then you should get a BE coach back.

Though, it may have been leased out the whole time and Im totally off

the service is usually covered by bus eireann but for some journeys especially the last of the day at 8pm from dublin they use an on hire bus from Comeragh Coaches operated by Oliver Power in waterford, the last bus i had an issue with was at least ten years old and many of the windows had the outer pane of glass missing and the seats felt like they were from a different bus. this company has also provided other excellent coaches to bus eireann but must on these occasions have needed their good busses for tour work and decided to give bus eireann sub standard unsafe clapped out busses.

this has little to do with bus eireann coaches going on fire and bus eireann have been allowing use of these awful busses as on hire busses for at least a year despite many complaints including being covered on the liveline program on rte radio

antoinolachtnai

It is one thing to say the coach is in poor condition and another to say it was actually unsafe. (I am not saying it was not unsafe, just that it could be old and rickety, but still be perfectly safe. The sorts of things that have made coaches unsafe in the past are practices like disconnecting the brake warning lights, an action which has nothing to do with the apparent condition of the vehicle.)

it's not a business I'm involved in, but word is that Bus Eireann has been cutting its hire rates. If they are doing that they are inevitably going to end up with older vehicles of lower quality.

The core of this is the failure of Bus Eireann to drive ridership. There has been a major investment in the fleet over the last seven years, but there has been practically no increase in ridership. Expressway services are supposed to operate at a profit, but it is hard to see how they could be doing so, with fairly keen competition from private operators.

Now, things have to be cut and the easiest thing to cut is the expenditure on hire.

GTE

foggy_lad wrote: »

this has little to do with bus eireann coaches going on fire and bus eireann have been allowing use of these awful busses as on hire busses for at least a year despite many complaints including being covered on the liveline program on rte radio

So an external company has been running the 8pm service for the last year? Im just curious if the latest bus that was set on fire knocked out the bus that used to operate the 8pm and thus getting ****e spare stock from the local company.

Anyway, it seems that these buses are rivalling the 1990's era of school buses that are currently being phased out. Im a firm believer that even the 1989 TE class could still be used on commuter service if they were kept well. Poor maintenance is inexcusable. Even the current SP's are beginning to show signs of neglect.

Transportuser09

There was talk a while back about Bus Éireann having to reduce the amount of hire ins it used. On the other hand I know of some operators who have invested in high spec coaches and hire them to BÉ.

foggy_lad

bbk wrote: »

So an external company has been running the 8pm service for the last year?

no! some of the later services are being covered on some dates by hired busses, this is presumably so that drivers from dublin cork or donegal etc do not have to travel to the furthest points from where thay live on the last journey of the day but will be more likely to be sent on a local route and park the bus at home for the nighht while other routes are covered by hired vehicles from those areas like comeragh coaches from waterford serving waterford and McGinleys doing derry donegal etc etc

foggy_lad

these dingey old bangers are being used for the new ross route now god help the people of wexford!

foggy_lad

more on this,

yesterday evening after the hottest day of the year so far the half past 6 service to waterford/dungarvan was split into three,

a bus to waterford (LC12?) described as non-stop!?

a lovely comfortable cool clean hired bus (Gene Walsh) to dungarvan

and then a blast from the past we were being herded onto an old school bus (vc91) for the trip to kilcullen/carlow. This auld bus has seen better days and is currently used as a school bus if the paintwork is to be beleived, i dont care what the outside looks like as long as safety and comfort are catered for but this crock failed on both!

The heating was stuck on full and yet this banger was deemed fit to transport people for at least 90minutes! The clown that allowed this crock leave the garage should be sacked! The bus itself was not in bad condition and apart from uncomfortable seats which would have been fine on a school trip or local runs the seat belts did not work properly as they kept sticking when trying to pull out the belt. Obviously the catches are too sensitive. But apart from those points and the malfunctioning heating the bus would be ok for runs to naas maybe but not as far as carlow! After several complaints by most people on board we were moved onto the dungarvan bus and had a lovely cool journey to carlow no thanks to bus eireann!

GM071class

flazio wrote: »

On a slightly related note, I notice that Callinan Coaches who used to run every second Dublin-Galway-Dublin coach for Bus Eireann now hire themselves out to Citylink, Are they just set up as a Hire provider to the national carriers? They even have location light boards on all their fleet.

Callinan Coaches do appear to be geared up for either private Hire, or to main service providers.
That said I'd much rather one of their Coaches any day.
They seem to almost exclusively use the Volvo 9700's. These buses are the most comfy coach I've ever been on.

Anyway, they also operate many of the Eurolines duties, once again on behalf of BÉ.

foggy_lad

foggy_lad wrote: »

more on this,

yesterday evening after the hottest day of the year so far the half past 6 service to waterford/dungarvan was split into three,

a bus to waterford (LC12?) described as non-stop!?

a lovely comfortable cool clean hired bus (Gene Walsh) to dungarvan

and then a blast from the past we were being herded onto an old school bus (vc91) for the trip to kilcullen/carlow. This auld bus has seen better days and is currently used as a school bus if the paintwork is to be beleived, i dont care what the outside looks like as long as safety and comfort are catered for but this crock failed on both!

The heating was stuck on full and yet this banger was deemed fit to transport people for at least 90minutes! The clown that allowed this crock leave the garage should be sacked! The bus itself was not in bad condition and apart from uncomfortable seats which would have been fine on a school trip or local runs the seat belts did not work properly as they kept sticking when trying to pull out the belt. Obviously the catches are too sensitive. But apart from those points and the malfunctioning heating the bus would be ok for runs to naas maybe but not as far as carlow! After several complaints by most people on board we were moved onto the dungarvan bus and had a lovely cool journey to carlow no thanks to bus eireann!

Well the story is still the same! This old banger vc93 is still being sent out by staff at Waterford depot even though the heating is still stuck on full and there is no cool air of any kind apart from the driver opening his window.

I made an official complaint about this crappy bus early last year but obviously it was ignored or no busses can be fixed in Waterford or they would have fixed this one? It was being used for a service to Carlow tonight at 6.30 but after being told by tje driver that the same faults were there I refused to board the bus on safety grounds(i would have been sick before getting to carlow.)

Are there any efficient people in bus Eireann who actually take heed of complaints and do something about them? Should I write to the department of transport? I am only assuming that the seat belt fault I highlighted before has also been ignored potentially passengers may be dissuaded from wearing their safety belts because they don't work properly.

But the attitude seems to be "ah twill be good enough for the students"!

Privatisation can't come quickly enough for this company.

DWCommuter

foggy_lad wrote: »

Privatisation can't come quickly enough for this company.

Not privatisation Foggy.....annihilation! It's rotten and the sooner Irish people see it, accept it and react to it, the sooner it will change. It seems CIE has better protection than a vacuum packed ham.

AlekSmart

foggy_lad wrote: »

Well the story is still the same! This old banger vc93 is still being sent out by staff at Waterford depot even though the heating is still stuck on full and there is no cool air of any kind apart from the driver opening his window.

I made an official complaint about this crappy bus early last year but obviously it was ignored or no busses can be fixed in Waterford or they would have fixed this one? It was being used for a service to Carlow tonight at 6.30 but after being told by tje driver that the same faults were there I refused to board the bus on safety grounds(i would have been sick before getting to carlow.)

Are there any efficient people in bus Eireann who actually take heed of complaints and do something about them? Should I write to the department of transport? I am only assuming that the seat belt fault I highlighted before has also been ignored potentially passengers may be dissuaded from wearing their safety belts because they don't work properly.

But the attitude seems to be "ah twill be good enough for the students"!

Privatisation can't come quickly enough for this company.

My own suggestion would be for Foggy_Lad to form a relationship with : The National Transport Authority,Dún Scéine,Harcourt Lane,Dublin 2 . Phone 01 8798300

info@nationaltransport.ie

Mind you,if you navigate to the NTA`s Contact Us webpage you`ll be greeted by a nice big Photo across the top of the page which more than adequately illustrates the need for more regulation rather than less,as one sees the double parked Taxi directly opposite the madcap location for the Red Bus City Tour stop on Grafton Street.....

As for the privatization bit,could well be a great idea alright...subject to some caution ......

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23913717-bus-safety-inspections-branded-a-disaster-by-director-of-metroline.do

http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2009/coilon1812.htm

But,sure I`m sure it`s heaven out there in Private Bus Land

foggy_lad

I just cant help thinking about what i was told by an inspector this evening in Busáras, He said the bus had been sent up from Waterford.(culchies revenge maybe?) When i asked could it not be sent back to Waterford or taken out of service because it is not fit or safe for service i was told that could not be done that it could only be taken out of service from Waterford!

So if the bus is totally unsuitable for expressway use it is still going to be used by the clowns in Dublin because they dont have the bottle to upset some clowns in waterford who think a clapped out old school bus with faulty over-heating and no air conditioning is suitable for use on expressway routes!



Also this crock of bolts went non stop to Carlow while the regular bus eireann coach went through Naas and Kilcullen and Castledermot almost empty and then went on to Carlow and all stops to Waterford! there wa probably enough room on the normal coach as well as the non-stop to Waterford which could have also served Carlow and this bucket of faulty bolts was not even needed!

CIE

DWCommuter wrote: »

Not privatisation Foggy.....annihilation! It's rotten and the sooner Irish people see it, accept it and react to it, the sooner it will change. It seems CIE has better protection than a vacuum packed ham.

A state transport operator is only as good as the state that owns/operates it.

I have to say, however, that it might be nice to speculate as to whether or not the DUTC would have been better off not being merged into CIE, or perhaps the 1944 Transport Act not passed at all. (Quite ironic that the Transport Act appeared just as the DUTC finished converting to buses; if they had kept operating trams, then "tram-train" operations would have been more feasible to consider in the modern age since their rail gauge was the same as the general railway network, too.)

Vic_08

foggy_lad wrote: »

more on this,

yesterday evening after the hottest day of the year so far the half past 6 service to waterford/dungarvan was split into three,

a bus to waterford (LC12?) described as non-stop!?

a lovely comfortable cool clean hired bus (Gene Walsh) to dungarvan

and then a blast from the past we were being herded onto an old school bus (vc91) ...

foggy_lad wrote: »

Well the story is still the same! This old banger vc93 is still being sent out by staff at Waterford depot even though the heating is still stuck on full and there is no cool air of any kind apart from the driver opening his window.

I made an official complaint about this crappy bus early last year ...

Hmm.

Losty Dublin

CIE wrote: »

A state transport operator is only as good as the state that owns/operates it.

I have to say, however, that it might be nice to speculate as to whether or not the DUTC would have been better off not being merged into CIE, or perhaps the 1944 Transport Act not passed at all. (Quite ironic that the Transport Act appeared just as the DUTC finished converting to buses; if they had kept operating trams, then "tram-train" operations would have been more feasible to consider in the modern age since their rail gauge was the same as the general railway network, too.)

Street trams were not the same gauge as railway (They were marginally narrower) so that wouldn't have come into it. The trams were meant to have been retired by about 1941 but WW 2 and oil shortages saw to it that new buses couldn't arrive in from England nor was there reasonable diesel fuel for them. In the long run, their days were numbered as the growth of the city meant more tram track needed to be laid and more trams needed to be order so buses proved to be more practical, cheaper overall and more flexible.

Incidentally, both the GSR and DUTC were private operations prior to being merged into CIE which was a private company for it's formative years. One made good profits while the other was a liability and a loss maker in the main; guess which one was which