Cork bus services

Dear editor,

I would like to respond by agreeing with Rory who wrote in about the bus service in Cork last week. I am originally from Cork and think the bus drivers do have a very difficult job. It could be made easier in a few ways.

Where I live now, I am lucky to have a number of different types of transports; all covered under one monthly card that you can buy for the equivalent of €45 and use buses, trams and boats.

I have been in the same situation as Rory where I have been late for interviews and for work while living in Cork.

Where I live now, the bus shows up on time or a little early and leaves on time. If anyone is running late for the bus they are not going to stop for that person as they are on a tight schedule.

People complain over here if the bus is more than one or two minutes late and there is an screen that gives updates on how many minutes to the next bus and if there are any problems causing delays at nearly every bus stop.

If there are a few minutes to spare, before the bus leaves a terminal the bus is left open so that passengers can get on and wait until the bus driver returns. This brings me to another point, people are responsible for their own tickets and the bus driver is left out of it altogether so you have a few options you can get a prepaid monthly card from a newsagents and swipe it on the way into the bus, or top up the same card with credit and pay as you go by swiping it on the same machine, or you can purchase a ticket using credit card or cash in a special machine onboard, or lastly, you can purchase a ticket using SMS.

Children under six go free and next to all transport is buggy and wheelchair accessible even the coaches. This all saves time for the driver and their responsibility is getting you from A to B safely and on time. Also if you can prove that you were delayed by more than 20 minutes and were required to get a taxi instead, the transport company has a policy where by they reimburse you for the taxi so this gives them more incentive to run on time.

When I go home I know what I am going to be facing with the bus transport, it's frustrating but I just get on with it because I probably have lower expectations than people visiting Cork for the first time.

We have a lot of bus lanes over here and this really helps so they should try focusing on this. Most people I know use public transport on a regular basis over here because its more convenient than looking for parking.

They have a lot more inspectors going around in groups of around six over here which is more efficient as the check can be done really fast without interruption of the bus or tram timetable. The cost of taking the bus in Ireland is absolutely ridiculous also, which does not encourage people to use the service and also now at a time when people are having to cut a lot of costs in their lives it seems that Bus Éireann should be lowering prices to encourage people to use the service more.

Therese.