Tom commended on retirement from 245 bus route
Passengers on the 245 route through Fermoy said farewell recently to muchloved bus driver, Tom O’Dwyer who has been operating busses on the route since it first began.
Tom, a Kilkenny native, who has been with Bus Éireann for around 32 years, began his career as a school bus driver in the early 1990s before moving to the Waterford Bus Éireann depot and then onto Kilkenny, where he operated busses on the 007 route from Kilkenny to Cork.
In 2015, the 245 service began operating from Clonmel to Cork and back and Tom has been running the route ever since, making some firm friends while on the road.
Community activist, Joe Tobin, commended Mr O’Dwyer on his service over the years and wished him well in his retirement.
“From my personal experience with Tommy, he was a pure gentleman and loved by all his passengers between Cork, Fermoy, Mitchelstown, Clogheen, Ardfinnan to Clonmel. He was known on the road. He was driving the route five or six days a week and many of the weekends he was on late.
“As a community activist, I’d like to wish Tom and his family a happy retirement and thank him for his time and service,” Mr Tobin said.
NEW COACHES
Operating the 7.15am bus on a regular basis, Mr O’Dwyer could be seen pulling into Fermoy at 8.30am in the mornings and sometimes at 15.30 depending on his schedule.
“He would have been known by a lot of people and a lot of kids would have travelled with him over that time. His last service was Wednesday two weeks ago, out of Cork at 10.30, back to Clonmel,” Mr Tobin said.
Recently, two new state-of-the-art coaches were introduced on the 245 route, one of which was driven by Mr O’Dwyer in the weeks approaching his retirement.
“It’s great that Bus Éireann has put so many of these new coaches on the route through Fermoy to Cork. There are two brand new coaches, one in Kilkenny and one in Clonmel to operate the 245,” Mr Tobin concluded.