Letters

Where do the phantom buses go?

On my first encounter with disappearing bus schedules, I doubted my eyesight

Fri Oct 27 2023 - 00:30

Sir, – Reading Brianna Parkins’s experience with buses in Dublin (Magazine, October 21st), I have to add my two cents worth.

When the electronic noticeboards, telling the arrival times of the various buses, were installed at various bus stops, I was ecstatic; well I was happy. While waiting for a bus, I now knew when the next bus was scheduled to arrive at the stop.

On my first encounter with disappearing bus schedules, I doubted my eyesight.

Perhaps I had read the board incorrectly as my bus scheduled to arrive in 10 minutes had not appeared. The reference to it had also disappeared from the noticeboard.

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The next bus of the number I wanted was now at the bottom of the list and would take another 15 minutes. This became a common feature.

Now and then, the information was correct and the bus arrived but more times than not, the information on some of the various buses continued to just disappear.

I wondered what was the story of these phantom buses? The driver didn’t turn up, the driver was taken ill, the bus had broken down? What is the point in these noticeboards if the information is not accurate.

I am not dependent on buses to get to work so can be indulgent with this laissez-faire attitude of the bus information providers. How daily commuters remain sane coping with such service is a credit to them. – Yours, etc,

BRENDA CARDEN,

Dartry,

Dublin 6.