No demand for a sub-standard bus service

IT’S difficult to see where the Bus Éireann saga will end. In a country where almost every small town and village has an extreme dearth of any public transport it is simply not feasible to scrap the national bus service.

If estimates are to be believed, Bus Éireann could be insolvent within two years and unless further cutbacks are made, we could be looking at being wound up completely.

The powers that be say there simply isn’t the demand to run an inter-city service and that if some routes are not scrapped or reduced, then the future of the entire service is in jeopardy.

However, I don’t think that demand should necessarily come into it. As a country we have to have a decent public transport system and if one was in place it would be used by many more customers.

It is because it is such an unrealistic option for people that more of us aren’t regular passengers.

Unless you live in Dublin then forget about it.

You need a car to get around because there is no service that will guarantee that you can go everywhere you need to in life without one.

Rural dwellers who commute from smaller towns to Dublin need to have their own car on the road simply to drive to the bus stop.

They are at the mercy of a scant timetable to say the least and as a result opt for private service providers where possible.

I think that services like the public bus service are a those that the State needs to take on the chin and continue to provide whether they are in huge demand or not.

The people who need them will change daily and even if you only need to use the bus once a month, it should be there at your disposal.

The National Transport Authority has been at pains to assure us that ‘rural communities will not be left behind’ when it comes to any changes planned to assist with the company’s financial predicament.

The fact it, they already are. Nobody living in the country, and not even in small villages or towns, can depend on public transport alone and that is because the service is not good enough.

Once further cuts are made it will be even worse, forcing people to get back into their cars, and then in turn Bus Éireann will say there is no demand for route X,Y and Z.

In a country where almost every small town and village has an extreme dearth of any public transport it is simply not feasible to scrap the national bus service.