Late buses and rude drivers among 1,400 complaints from passengers

PASSENGERS made almost 1,400 official complaints about buses and trains last year, with hundreds of gripes about late-running services, rude drivers and the cost of fares.

Of all public transport firms, Bus Éireann attracted the highest number of complaints to the National Transport Authority (NTA) with 484 reports logged.

A large number of these were unhappy that drivers failed to stop for them while some other customers looked for compensation for late buses.

A total of 81 complaints about Irish Rail services were logged by the NTA. There were more than a dozen complaints about carriages being too full, with people saying they had to stand throughout long journeys or sit on the floor.

On a Cork-Dublin service, one customer complained that his daughter’s “service dog” was refused access to the train.

There were also repeated complaints about pre-booked tickets and seats being filled by someone else. While on a train to Longford, a passenger complained about being “harassed”.

Another passenger said “foul language” had been used when they complained about a service leaving before its scheduled departure time.

The NTA logged a total of 455 complaints about Dublin Bus services. A common complaint was about details of buses disappearing from the realtime information provided electronically at stops.

In another case, a passenger complained a driver had taken a picture of them in “violation of privacy”. Dozens of complaints focused on buses not stopping, with one passenger saying “the bus didn’t stop for him, but stopped 30 metres up for two other passengers”.

The Bus Éireann service attracted most complaints labelled simply “unhappy with bus service”. Eight different issues were bundled up in one complaint including that the service was unreliable, the bus had no heating, the bus leaving early, while another time it left late even though it was just sitting in the terminus. Another complained of a €10 charge for bringing a bicycle on board and said this was not made clear to customers. Several commuters were