Bus Éireann has apologised after a number of its services were cancelled on Sunday, saying challenges in driver recruitment and difficulty in hiring contractors were among the factors leading to the disruption.
A Bus Éireann spokeswoman told The Irish Times that 98.6 per cent of trips were still operating as scheduled on Sunday and that in most cases, an alternative service was available to passengers “within two hours of the impacted departure”.
Passengers on routes across the northwest, in counties Sligo and Mayo, were primarily affected by the disruption, while those travelling on some other routes in the southeast across Cork, Waterford and Wexford were also impacted. Some routes to Dublin Airport were also cancelled.
Sunday’s cancellations were caused by a number of factors including “challenges in driver recruitment, driver unavailability often at short notice and more recently difficulty in hiring contractors to support services,” she said. The problems around hiring contractors has more impact at comparatively smaller depots, she added.
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The spokeswoman said most customers had received advance notice of cancellations the day before and that any person who pre-booked Expressway tickets had been notified by direct email “typically well in advance of travel, allowance them to make alternative arrangements and transferring to other services”.
While no services between Galway and Dublin or Kerry and Dublin were impacted by the cancellations, its understood some GAA All-Ireland final supporters who were travelling to Croke Park from other parts of the country were affected by the cancellations.
Affected routes include the 5.50pm Cavan to Dublin; the 8.15pm Dublin to Cavan; the 4pm Waterford to Cork; the 5.45pm Dublin to Kells; the 7.40pm from Cork to Waterford and the 9pm Dublin to Ballina.
Customers have been advised check the company’s buseireann.ie website and @buseireann Twitter account for updates, said the spokeswoman. They can also contact Bus Éireann customer care agents between 8am-6pm on 0818 836 611.
The spokeswoman noted that Bus Éireann is currently “actively recruiting for drivers throughout the country” and had already started to train new drivers in Cork and Limerick with Category B driving licences to gain their Category D driving licence.
“Where it is unfortunately necessary to cancel a service, we manage this to minimise the impact on customers, for example temporarily reducing frequency on higher frequency routes and making every effort to ensure the last service of the day operates,” she said.
