Frustration over bus delays

THE National Transport Authority has been asked to liaise with bus operator Go-Ahead Ireland to address problems experienced on the 17A bus route last week.

Go-Ahead took over operation of four former Dublin Bus routes on December 2 but it wasn’t long before passengers were complaining.

Twitter user Eric Gallagher reported that he was on a 17A and that the driver had taken the wrong route through Connelly Hospital and was asking passengers for help.

Other passengers took to social media to complain about delays, buses not showing up and several buses arriving at once.

Go-Ahead confirmed it was experiencing delays of up to 25 minutes on some of its services, posting on Twitter that its controllers team was working hard to get them back on schedule.

Later, in response to Cllr Noeleen Reilly IND) Go-Ahead admitted it was aware of problems with the 17A and was “working hard” to prevent issues in the future.

Fianna Fáil councillor, Paul McAuliffe, is now calling on the National Transport Authority (NTA) to liaise with Go-Ahead to address issues with the 17A service.

“The 17A, which primarily serves villages across the north side of the city, is used by people to commute to work, to access Connolly and Beaumont Hospitals and to also attend school and college,” he said.

“I have been contacted by a number of constituents who are frustrated with problems on the route since this takeover and they informed me that they’ve logged their complaints with the NTA.

“One such complaint has been that despite this route supposed to be operating every 20 minutes, the real time app is advertising buses that are not arriving for close to an hour and are then overcrowded.

“As a consequence passengers are ending up late for their appointments, arriving late to work or missing class.

“The NTA and Go-Ahead had months to prepare for this handover and on routes like the 17A, which serves two hospitals and several local colleges and schools, is too important to the people who rely on it for this to become normal.”

Meanwhile, passengers can expect more disruption on the 17A route over the next two weeks due to emergency road repairs that are outside of Go-Ahead Ireland’s control.

There are service disruptions being caused by the closure of Mill Road at the north end of Connolly Hospital meaning that the 17A skips five stops between Waterville Terrace and Navan Road.