Madam, - We are all encouraged to travel by bus these days for environmental reasons and I am proud to say that I make my contribution four or five times a week.
This morning (Nov 8th) in Chapelizod my loyalty to Dublin Bus was amply rewarded by a succession of buses that were unable to stop as they were full. For a full hour I waited, along with at least 100 other people from the village, in the pouring rain wondering if I would see my 9.00 class at Trinity or not.
In the end I didn't see my class, for by 8.30 it was apparent that I wasn't going to get a bus in time. I rang the local Dublin Bus garage whose representative sympathetically pointed out that if the buses were full I could hardly expect to get on one. Besides, he didn't have a spare bus, so what did I expect! He certainly wasn't going to apologise. Quite right. Who am I to expect the level of service and courtesy one routinely finds in Germany, France, Belgium, Hungary, Sweden, even the United Kingdom, and others among our poorer relations in Europe?
I felt this morning was a wonderful example of just how far Dublin has to travel to become a genuinely service-oriented country worthy of comparison with other European cities. As for the transport system, if the government is serious about its plans for improvement I might even vote for them. If! - Yours, etc,
SIMON TREZISE, St Laurence Road, Dublin. 20