Dublin Bus: They Come in Nines

 

When going to work, my bus stop lies across a dual carriageway. Beating the traffic lights is something of an adventure sport. This morning I got to the centre aisle as the red light went green. I was joined there by a squat, little man in his sixties, cursing and puffing as three buses pulled up across from us (granted one was a 76A and not going to town. The traffic still formed an impassable barrier, so he got louder as another two buses appeared on the horizon. Then another two. Each either stopped or went on, but passed us, all except for the last. While it stopped a gap in the traffic formed and we both ran. And made it. A few girls went ahead, then the elderly man, but I dawdled on the step. A woman was running for the bus and was just there. Suddenly the doors closed on either side of me. I could push on or get squashed, so on I went. I said to the driver,'There's a woman just there!' He knew, but 'there's another behind'. I looked behind and there wer another two buses coming. All in the space of two or three minutes.

Now Dublin Bus may celebrate and boast of how many vehicles they have on the road, but personally I wonder about all those passengers who couldn't make that two minute window. Wouldn't it be preferable to have a consistent service, with buses arriving when the timetable advertises, instead of a glut followed by a famine. Many of those buses shared the same number. Shouldn't they be leaving at different times. For the record, the bus I got was fairly empty.