Limerick Bus Drivers are a Disgrace

Poxyshamrock

hightower1 wrote: »

Same again tis morning, hung around out of curiosity and it arrrived @ ten to when Its meant to be leaving @quarter to. I dunno TBH, you have two main responsabilities as a bus driver ... be on time and dont crash... yet some drivers can only manage 50% of that.

It is 'rush hour' at that time so it's not that big a deal that a bus is five minutes late in their eyes. There's probably nothing they can do about traffic, etc.

Maybe just Get the 8.15 bus or the 8.30 303.

Kess73

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

It is 'rush hour' at that time so it's not that big a deal that a bus is five minutes late in their eyes. There's probably nothing they can do about traffic, etc.

Maybe just Get the 8.15 bus or the 8.30 303.

It puts the people waiting at the stop in a bit of a bind though as they then don't know if the bus is late or if it came early and left early.

Have never gotten an inner city bus in Ireland in my life, but have a lot of experience of getting inner city buses in Germany and I have to say that the bus services over there are a pleasure.

Lovely digital bus signs that let you know the exact arrival and departure times of the bus you are waiting for and also how long before that bus reaches it's stop. Plus buses there get to their stops on time even during rush hour despite the route I used over there not having bus lanes.


Are inner city bus services are poor as people in this thread are saying, or are they good in Ireland?

I am getting the impression of a somewhat functional service that just about does it's role.

I'm almost tempted to get on a bus or two to see what they are like but am worried that some grouchy bus driver won't give me change.

BTW how much is it to travel in the city by bus?

Flincher

€1.70

I'm not on the bus too often any more thankfully, but its a fairly frustrating experience, mainly because they've apparently no intention of fixing fairly obvious problems.

Take for example, the 302. That is due every 20 mins. Now a bus has its work cut out getting from town to the stop near Ivans in 20 mins at 5 in the evening. LIT is finishing up at that time, Shelbourne Road is mad, etc, so the bus is often late getting to Ivans, which means the 5:20 into town in running late. Again, that bus is hardly going to make it into town in 20mins, given the traffic on the road up to LIT from Ivans, and obviously the traffic in Thomondgate at the quays. This means the 5:40 from town is going to be late.

But I can't remember them adjusting the timetable to deal with this in years.

Then in the evening, if the bus is leaving town at 8, its hardly going to take 20 mins to make it out, so it is sitting near Ivans at 8:15. However, half the drivers dont wait until 8:20, they just leave straight away, meaning people miss the 8:20 back into town. This gets even worse at, say, 10:20 in the evening, where the driver isn't arsed waiting 10 mins, but just heads straight back into town.

With the Coonagh, the 6:30 is the last service that evening, and I presume the driver's last route of the day, so fairly often, they just leave at 6:25. Again, it has been going on for years and hasn't been sorted out.

And yes, I have made complaints.

Poxyshamrock

Kess73 wrote: »

Lovely digital bus signs that let you know the exact arrival and departure times of the bus you are waiting for and also how long before that bus reaches it's stop. Plus buses there get to their stops on time even during rush hour despite the route I used over there not having bus lanes.

Due during the Summer in Limerick afaik.


I use the bus regularly but have to admit I live in a handy area. The bus passes my house on the way to its destination so that I can always wait in my house til its passes and then head to the local bus stop to meet it on the way back. Saves the uncertainty of waiting at a bus stop.

source

Yeah €1.70 one way, The missus and I decided to get the bus into town one day about a year ago it was €1.60 then, We got on, paid our €3.20 to get into town and about 2 hours later paid another €3.20 to get back out.

It cost us €6.40 to get into and out of town on the bus, fine, but what annoys me about it is, we could have drove in, parked in the most expensive car park in town which at the time was €1.80 an hour, it would have cost us €3.60 in total, given the distance involved (punches cross area to town) the petrol cost to us would have been negligible.

So that's the biggest issue I see with city bus services in Limerick......It's too bloody expensive.

I've never really had an issue with the drivers, I always greet them with a smile and thank them when getting off, the worst I've ever had back was a neutral blank look. Not exactly pleasant but not worth getting annoyed over.

Flincher

source wrote: »

Yeah €1.70 one way, The missus and I decided to get the bus into town one day about a year ago it was €1.60 then, We got on, paid our €3.20 to get into town and about 2 hours later paid another €3.20 to get back out.

It cost us €6.40 to get into and out of town on the bus, fine, but what annoys me about it is, we could have drove in, parked in the most expensive car park in town which at the time was €1.80 an hour, it would have cost us €3.60 in total, given the distance involved (punches cross area to town) the petrol cost to us would have been negligible.

So that's the biggest issue I see with city bus services in Limerick......It's too bloody expensive.

Punches into town? Ye should be walking. Its all feckin downhill

It is a bit pricey alright. Its a pain in the arse that you have to go up to the bus station to get some monthly pass. Weekly passes for people going in and out to work, day return, should all be available.

source

Flincher wrote: »

Punches into town? Ye should be walking. Its all feckin downhill

It is a bit pricey alright. Its a pain in the arse that you have to go up to the bus station to get some monthly pass. Weekly passes for people going in and out to work, day return, should all be available.

We normally would but it was raining, honest!!!!

bullets

source wrote: »

Yeah €1.70 one way,

I dont drive so my only transport is my bicycle so I rely on
Public transport a bit.

I find 1.70 for a fair price for going into town,
compared to the amount of times people will hop into a taxi
and get charged anything from 7-10 Euros for a similar length journey.

Then there is the day saver ticket, I'm not sure how much it costs
its 3 something. but you could get every bus in the city as many times as you wanted all day and all evening for the same price, cant really fault that.
As a non car owner If I had to use the alternative public transport such as a cab that would be fair pricey.

A few times I've had to go from Raheen to UL and back which ment
Bus from Raheen into town, Bus from Town to UL, Bus from UL to town, Bus
from Town to Raheen. so 4 bus journeys for under 4 Euros seems an OK price to pay to me.

What we really lack in Limerick is a Night Link service. When I used
to visit Dublin to go clubbing years ago I always found it fantastic I could
get a bus at 1 or 2 in the morning out to where I was staying which was
always outside the city, and again it was less that 2 Euros to get there late at night/early morning.

Here were stuck with either walking home or getting screwed with high cab/taxi fairs.

~B

Poxyshamrock

bullets wrote: »

I dont drive so my only transport is my bicycle so I rely on
Public transport a bit.

I find 1.70 for a fair price for going into town,
compared to the amount of times people will hop into a taxi
and get charged anything from 7-10 Euros for a similar length journey.

Then there is the day saver ticket, I'm not sure how much it costs
its 3 something. but you could get every bus in the city as many times as you wanted all day and all evening for the same price, cant really fault that.
As a non car owner If I had to use the alternative public transport such as a cab that would be fair pricey.

A few times I've had to go from Raheen to UL and back which ment
Bus from Raheen into town, Bus from Town to UL, Bus from UL to town, Bus
from Town to Raheen. so 4 bus journeys for under 4 Euros seems an OK price to pay to me.

What we really lack in Limerick is a Night Link service. When I used
to visit Dublin to go clubbing years ago I always found it fantastic I could
get a bus at 1 or 2 in the morning out to where I was staying which was
always outside the city, and again it was less that 2 Euros to get there late at night/early morning.

Here were stuck with either walking home or getting screwed with high cab/taxi fairs.

~B

Would love to see a direct bus from Raheen to Castletroy via the Childers Road. Even an hourly service would be fantastic. They are two massive suburbs.
They have similar routes in Galway and Cork operating as orbital routes where they don't go near the city centre and they seem to work.
I hear there is a review of the Limerick bus network in a couple of months similar to Galway's in January so here's hoping!

As for the night-bus, there was talks of them in 2007 but I remember the risk factor was a big off-put. They were worried that a lot of people might be put off about having to walk from a bus stop to their door as opposed to the security of a taxi which brings you from town right to your garden gate.

Comhrá

I use the 302 from Caherdavin into town fairly regularly and to be honest I think the drivers do a fine job. OK, they're not always beaming from ear to ear but I don't expect anything more than courtesy and civility and I've always found them fine in that respect. They do a fairly boring and demanding job so I'm happy to cut them some slack.

They can't really be blamed if buses aren't on time, or doesn't turn up at all.....mostly due to circumstances outside their control.

Give 'em a break, I say -

seachto7

I sued to be able to get a direct bus from Raheen to UL, at certain times. Is this still going?

Poxyshamrock

seachto7 wrote: »

I sued to be able to get a direct bus from Raheen to UL, at certain times. Is this still going?

There's a Raheen to UL bus around 7/8am
And two UL to Raheen buses in the evening around 4/5pm.
Under utilised because of a lack of information and their punctuality.

Got on the evening bus to Raheen one evening in 2009 and of the 6 passengers, 4 had wanted to go the city centre! :rolleyes:

hightower1

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

It is 'rush hour' at that time so it's not that big a deal that a bus is five minutes late in their eyes. There's probably nothing they can do about traffic, etc.

Maybe just Get the 8.15 bus or the 8.30 303.

Common sense would say they should adjust the timetable acordingly based on the known "rush hour" times then or at very least NOT make themselves late by having a nice 'oul chat with one of the passengers while holding the whole bus up and end up leaving 5 mins late again because of this..... yup, this happeed this morning. Im fully convinced the drivers just dont give a flying one about actually being on time.

highlydebased

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

There's a Raheen to UL bus around 7/8am
And two UL to Raheen buses in the evening around 4/5pm.
Under utilised because of a lack of information and their punctuality.

Got on the evening bus to Raheen one evening in 2009 and of the 6 passengers, 4 had wanted to go the city centre! :rolleyes:

I witness that alot. Nothing but general ignorance really when the front of the bus says Raheen!

I think the fare is alright. Comparative journies in the UK are much more expensive! I've taken city buses in many UK cities and a similar journey as Limk-Raheen or UL was around £3 single!