The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
BUS services in Shannon are currently very unreliable, and make things very difficult for local people using public transport, according to a local councillor.
“There are people being left on the side of the road. We were told they were going to bring in a double decker bus to alleviate this, but it hasn’t happened yet,” Councillor Donna McGettigan complained.
She cited an example of a bus running 35 minutes late, with people being left at the side of the road again and pointed out also there are no bus stops by the Radisson.
The Sinn Féin representative said that she tries to use public transport, but that the state of it locally makes it very hard to encourage anyone else to do so.
“It’s crazy, and it’s a time when there is a move to try and encourage people to use public transport. I love public transport, I try to use it as much as possible and you can see more of places as you pass through them.
“I would encourage people to use public transport, but not at the minute, because I am getting complaints about it all the time.”
The lack of reliability has implications for people going to work or college.
“People miss the time they’re supposed to start or they have to go in far too early. Some places don’t open early either, so they’re left standing around waiting for their place of work to open. They’ve no choice, they know the state the bus service is in so they have to go in earlier.”
Services between Limerick and Ennis, which also serve Shannon, Sixmilebridge and Newmarket, have long been unreliable, and she says the current problems are not due to extra demand following the arrival of refugees from Ukraine.
“The 343 bus, if you go back over the years, people have been complaining about that service. Sometimes it just wouldn’t turn up for college students in the mornings and parents would have to leave work, pick up their child and bring them in.
“It’s not just because of Ukrainians coming into Ireland, it has been an ongoing issue for years.”
Communication with customers is also very poor, she feels.
“You could be left in the rain just standing there, and there’s nothing to inform you. If you speak to anyone working in the airport, they’ll tell you that if you look up sometimes the 4.30pm bus will be cancelled with no explanation given.
“Staff up in the airport are left trying to get lifts or they have to wait another hour. When you’re finished work you just want to go home, you don’t want to sit around for another hour waiting.”
It is time to go back to the drawing board, and come up with a better service, she feels.
“It’s just a very bad service that needs a complete overhaul. Like one person said to me this morning, it goes around a certain way in Shannon that leaves half of the new estates out, they have to walk a considerable distance to get a bus.
“The whole lot needs to be overhauled. If you want to encourage more people to use the buses you need to have it more accessible for a start.”
Owen Ryan
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.
