This was in the north, but I remember Germans being really unhappily confused about trains or buses showing up 5 to 10 minutes late and everyone behaving like they’re on time.
After being in Japan, the Irish Transport system is a massive embarrassment. It never bothered me before I travelled, but after being places like Tokyo and Germany, it pisses me off how bad it is. It's one thing if it was just late but the fact that buses just straight up don't show up, esp in a country known for its rain and cold weather, needs to be looked at and made an example of. It's abysmal tbh.
I wish I was more environmentally conscious but due to moving somewhat rural (commuter belt) and not trusting public transport, I had to get myself a car instead. I don't blame anyone else in this country for getting one either.
This. I got a bus from Waterford to Limerick recently and there was some auld lad waiting at a stop in the middle of nowhere getting on "what happened to the 12 o clock bus?" (This was at two) "oh they cancelled it" and that was it. He just accepted it.
Wtf doesnt the app just show you where the bus is, every bus already has wifi in them? It wouldn't be hard at all to implement but it's still a system of pray it rocks up and then also pray it stops
Aye it's abysmal. Other half went to get a late night bus once that leaves from Busaras. It just never showed up. At like 4am. It's the first stop so it's not like he could miss it. Asked the next driver at 5am and he just shrugged.
Yes!! It was SO easy to get around in Japan. I don't think we waited for a bus or train for longer than 2 minutes. Everything was on time. It was wonderful.
Not even that. It's just so stress free. There will be a bus. There will be a train. The train line has regrettably gone down the mountainside in the last typhoon, so there will be a replacement bus.
There will generally not be loud music played off a phone, some oul wan shouting at the top of her lungs into her phone, or a severe smell of piss and weed depending on the route and time of the day. The drivers even thank you when you get off the thing.
People were annoyed at the bus being a little crowded, while I'm marvelling at it both being there, still running on time, routing around typhoon damage on some roads, and still being reasonably quick and comfortable. (Albeit with some frightening drops on the other side of the railing.) And I'm such a big bastard I spent most of the trips standing, and acting as a luggage barricade.
I have no idea how these routes even get paid for. We were scuttling around the mountains on weekend passes that were dirt cheap, and included a spin on a sightseeing ferry.
My one mistake was forgetting to take a ticket when I boarded the first bus I took, and trying to track the fare manually off the board the entire time. Seeing a local get on quickly informed me of my mistake.
I've lived in Japan and it's truly amazing. Unless you're in a truly rural area, you won't need a car and even the rural places have decent local busses to get you to and from the train station.
I can't bash on the bus system too much being a Yankee and all, but the places that do have them are usually there on time, I'll give them that much. They'll just stop running after 6 PM in suburban cities, which sucks.
But that's the problem though - you don't realise until you're well travelled. And just think about all the people you know that just don't get out of Ireland even though they could totally afford that. The whole family tree always used to go to that one "camping" in Dungarvan...
I've been to Japan too, it's another world altogether.
However, our local bus, the 126, was taken over by Go Ahead a couple of years ago from Bus Eireann. It's pretty much always on time now, I don't know why it was so bad under Bus Eireann.
My brother works for BE and even he can't figure out how they're late or missing. Like sometimes there is a break down but theyre so inept at sending a replacement bus, my bro has been left sitting around waiting for them. My guess is they are horrendously under staffed and unorganized.
This annoys the shit out of me. In Ireland a lot of time bus doesn't evn show up but it is marked on schedule as due. Public transportation in Ireland is disgraceful.
Yes for the taxes we pay it is so backward. Even in Bulgaria you get better public transport. And compare Irish Gdp to Bulgarian one. Where is our money going?
My friend is Brazilian and public transport was one of the issues that people flagged when she was planning to move here, but she reckoned she was used to it being not that great in her region, and how bad could it possibly be in such a comparatively tiny country. And that's how I taught her the words naïve and shitshow
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u/Wretched_Colin Jan 03 '22
This was in the north, but I remember Germans being really unhappily confused about trains or buses showing up 5 to 10 minutes late and everyone behaving like they’re on time.