The most recent to join the queue have been the dead, waiting for autopsies to be performed. Our rulers have now resorted to bringing in specialists from the UK to ascertain how people died. Perhaps those pathologists, while they are here, might have a look at the walking dead running Transport For Ireland in Dublin City.
This came home to me yesterday morning as I stood along with a friend wating on a bus at Summerhill. The 73 which seems to be the only bus that services Summerhill right out to Marino is supposed to come every ten to twelve minutes. That what is spoofed on the website. We needed it yesterday to get close to our next stop for the 40D that would take us out to our destination, Cappagh Hospital, for a 1000 appointment. The 40D from Parnell Street can take up to forty minutes to make that journey, so we needed to make its 0900 service, which would get us to Cappagh with twenty minutes to spare. My friend has difficulty walking and is on a stick, so I accompany him on hospital visits. We both have Fee Travel passes so the return journey to Cappagh Hospital, if the bus operator is up to the task, should not cost us a cent.
We arrived at the Summerhill stop close to 0830 which would give us plenty of time to make our connecting bus. An hour later we were still there. Five 73s went past on the outward journey but not a single citybound one.
Not one driver from the outbound 73s stopped to inform us of a problem. I guess it it not their responsibility otherwise they would have to tell everybody along the route. When a citybound one did arrive it was full and drove past us, the driver glancing our way indifferently. He could probably do little else. Taking time to explain the situation to irate would-be-passengers might have made those on his bus, already well behind schedule, just as irate about the inordinate delays. At the very least the service could have sent an inspector around those stops where electronic information boards are absent. But that is the type of thought the brain dead are not inclined to have.
People of different colours and nationalities congregated, frustrated and complaining about the total unreliability of the 73. Yesterday was not just a one off. They needed to get to work, so some started walking into town realising that they would pass plenty of 73s on their way, as the vehicles went in the opposite direction.
Growing anxious we began trying to flag a taxi from about 0900 but had no luck. Eventually I suggested to my friend that he should either ring a cab or the hospital telling it we would need to cancel. He opted for a taxi. It arrived inside two minutes, the private sector succeeding where the public had failed miserably. The last time we headed out to the hospital in terrible weather it cost my friend almost thirty yoyos. This time the journey was much quicker and cost him twenty. A sizeable chunk out of a disability income.
People like my friend wait long enough to be seen by hospital consultants. Their quality of life depends on them making their appointments. Those appointments in turn depend on the public transport system being fit for purpose in deprived areas. I don't imagine there were too many delays yesterday in Dalkey. Many there probably have the financial means to go private in health matters as well, meaning they wait for neither buses nor treatment. All fine for the wealthy and healthy. Ballybough (the poor town), well, it doesn't seem to figure high in the priorities of the people running our public transport service. An impoverished working class community, it can be treated with disdain by officialdom. The wealthy can expect not only a larger slice of the cake but also the cream on top. The most disadvantaged, they get the crusts, and stale ones at that.
This came home to me yesterday morning as I stood along with a friend wating on a bus at Summerhill. The 73 which seems to be the only bus that services Summerhill right out to Marino is supposed to come every ten to twelve minutes. That what is spoofed on the website. We needed it yesterday to get close to our next stop for the 40D that would take us out to our destination, Cappagh Hospital, for a 1000 appointment. The 40D from Parnell Street can take up to forty minutes to make that journey, so we needed to make its 0900 service, which would get us to Cappagh with twenty minutes to spare. My friend has difficulty walking and is on a stick, so I accompany him on hospital visits. We both have Fee Travel passes so the return journey to Cappagh Hospital, if the bus operator is up to the task, should not cost us a cent.
We arrived at the Summerhill stop close to 0830 which would give us plenty of time to make our connecting bus. An hour later we were still there. Five 73s went past on the outward journey but not a single citybound one.
Not one driver from the outbound 73s stopped to inform us of a problem. I guess it it not their responsibility otherwise they would have to tell everybody along the route. When a citybound one did arrive it was full and drove past us, the driver glancing our way indifferently. He could probably do little else. Taking time to explain the situation to irate would-be-passengers might have made those on his bus, already well behind schedule, just as irate about the inordinate delays. At the very least the service could have sent an inspector around those stops where electronic information boards are absent. But that is the type of thought the brain dead are not inclined to have.
People of different colours and nationalities congregated, frustrated and complaining about the total unreliability of the 73. Yesterday was not just a one off. They needed to get to work, so some started walking into town realising that they would pass plenty of 73s on their way, as the vehicles went in the opposite direction.
Growing anxious we began trying to flag a taxi from about 0900 but had no luck. Eventually I suggested to my friend that he should either ring a cab or the hospital telling it we would need to cancel. He opted for a taxi. It arrived inside two minutes, the private sector succeeding where the public had failed miserably. The last time we headed out to the hospital in terrible weather it cost my friend almost thirty yoyos. This time the journey was much quicker and cost him twenty. A sizeable chunk out of a disability income.
People like my friend wait long enough to be seen by hospital consultants. Their quality of life depends on them making their appointments. Those appointments in turn depend on the public transport system being fit for purpose in deprived areas. I don't imagine there were too many delays yesterday in Dalkey. Many there probably have the financial means to go private in health matters as well, meaning they wait for neither buses nor treatment. All fine for the wealthy and healthy. Ballybough (the poor town), well, it doesn't seem to figure high in the priorities of the people running our public transport service. An impoverished working class community, it can be treated with disdain by officialdom. The wealthy can expect not only a larger slice of the cake but also the cream on top. The most disadvantaged, they get the crusts, and stale ones at that.
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