Suggested Solutions to Limerick's Bus Problems

Limerick Post

In my opinion the Limerick City Bus Service has problems.  In the following

 paragraphs I will outline what I believe some of these problems are, and I will give

 my suggestions on how to overcome them and improve the service.  I see no reason

 (apart from the obvious one, lack of funds) why Limerick can't improve it's bus

 service to the extent that it is a model of good public transport for other towns and

 cities in this country to copy.

From my experience the only people that take the bus in Limerick are those that have

 to, i.e. the elderly, students, people that can't drive and people that can't afford cars.

 Given the choice between taking the bus and driving, most people in this city opt for

 the former it seems. If taking the bus means half-hour waits only for a dangerously

 overcrowded bus to pull up and reasonably refuse to take on any more passengers,

 coupled with really long walks from the bus stop to wherever it is you wanted to go

 (There is some statistic that everywhere in Paris is within 500m of a metro station. 

I doubt the same could be said for Limerick regarding bus stops - if people

have really long walks after their bus journey, often in the wind, the wet, the rain, they

 will be discouraged from using the bus)....Bus Eireann have to get their act together

 so that people will choose the bus rather than the car. If they can convince more

 people that they are offering a good service, they will increase their revenue and then

 be able to invest in improving their service even further. I've a couple of suggestions

 of how they could improve their service:

1. Schedule the busses for every 10 minutes on the busiest routes, every 20 minutes

 on all other routes. People willl only choose the bus over the car if they know their

 bus will be at their stop when they want it, or at least if they know they won't have to

 wait all that long. This would involve buying more buses and hiring more drivers –

 good for employment then.

2. Establish a night service. Sure the taxi-drivers will be up in arms, but isn't

 competition good for the consumer? This could be run to some of the areas most in

 demand at night time but maybe only every 40 minutes.

3. If they feel that double-decker buses are too awkward what with bridges and that,

 why not invest in those single-storey buses twice as long as normal buses with the

 accordion type thing in the middle?

4. Give the public more incentives to use the bus. For example, in the town in France I

 lived in for a while, Besançon, nearly everyone that used the buses had weekly,

 monthly or yearly bus passes. This was made by making the bus passes much cheaper

 than buying single tickets - for instance my student monthly bus pass there was €21

 whereas if I bought single tickets (each one costing a euro) I would have spent well

 over €50 on the bus per month. The bus passes were available in every newsagent,

 and also in the universities and schools. The bus company also had a shop in the

 centre of town to buy

them. Encouraging the majority of people to have travelpasses is also good because it

 speeds up the time it takes to get onto the bus - there is no waiting for change, all you

 have to do is flash your ID.

5. The town also had a great idea to show car-users what life on public transport is

 like. If you brought your car into a mechanic in Besançon, the bus company allows

 you to travel for free on the bus for the duration of your car being out of action.

6. Perhaps put park and ride facilities on the outskirts of the city, i.e. at Coonagh,

 Patrickswell, Annacotty etc. Make the use of these facilities much cheaper than city

 centre parking. Hopefully this would free up traffic so buses would run on time and

 make restore the public's faith that the bus would be on schedule.

7. The design of the current buses needs to be changed. There's too much seating on

 them for a start - it's fine when there are hardly any passengers on them but positively

 dangerous at 5 o'clock in the evening when passengers are squashed up against the

 front windshield. Remove some of the seating and replace it with areas to lean, bars

 to hold onto, and fold up seats.

8. Put 2 doors in the buses - one for going in at the front, one for going out towards

 the back/middle. Much time is wasted when everyone that wants to get off the bus

 has to be let off the door before the people waiting can get on.

9. At every bus stop put maps of Limerick showing all the routes highlighted in

 different colours. Don't have every route necessarily going through town - have more

 routes using orbital roads along the lines of the UL-Raheen via Childers Road route.

10. Widen the Childers Road.

11. Publicity campaigns informing the people of great changes made and the ease of

 taking the bus.

12. More bus shelters.

13. Get property developers of ever expanding suburbs in places like

Annacotty and Raheen contribute towards the extension of bus routes into their

 estates. We can't have everyone relying on the car, the roads just can't accommodate

 them all for a start.

14. Many of the less-used bus routes stop at 6 o'clock. I believe they should stop at 7

 or 8 at the earliest, as this will give people who work until then to catch a bus home.

 Perhaps one of the reasons why some bus routes are so underused is because they are

 so infrequent.

15. It would be good if city buses left from outside the bus and train station too.
Perhaps they could leave from where the taxi rank is, and the existing taxi rank could

 be moved to within the train station car park. At the moment there aren't even signs

 in the train station directing visitors about where the city bus stops are located.

16. Run loads of extra buses on big match days in Thomond Park and the Gaelic

 Grounds, especially from park and ride facilities. Perhaps include free use of public

 transport for the day of the match in the price of the match ticket.

To conclude, I believe that the solution of Limerick's bus problems (and, indeed,

 traffic problems) is to convince people that have the choice about whether to drive or

 not that the bus is a better option. I believe this could be achieved through

 implementing the measures I have outlined above.

Photo: Wendy

Law Soc sends delegation to Brussels. Well to Louvain-la-Neuve, actually.

An Focal

On Sunday 14th of March two members of the Debating Union, James

Gaffney and Judith Lynch arrived in the purpose-built, windswept and 

fairly deserted university town of Louvain-la-Neuve to participate in 

that college’s European Society’s inaugural European Week.  

Thankfully the town was only empty because it was a Sunday, and it 

seems that all Belgian students go home for the weekend – it had 

livened up by Monday.  However, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed we 

weren’t, having attended the UL Debating Intervarsity party until 

some ungodly hour the night before.

The town itself is a surreal place – some people commented that it 

looked like something straight out of Star Wars.  It’s only twenty 

years old, full of modern architecture and built entirely over a 

three-story car park.  The entire town centre is pedestrianised and 

is full of narrow streets, little squares and staircases.  Its 

website states that no one remains indifferent to the new town, and I 

would have to agree with them.

About 90 participants took part in the week’s activities, with people 

coming from as far as Turkey, Mexico, Burundi and Dublin to take 

part.  Romania, Poland and Ireland (There were 8 others from TCD) 

were the best-represented nationalities there.  It seemed as if most 

of those that partook in the week were either from the accession 

states or from the periphery of the EU, like ourselves.

First thing on Monday morning we went on a trip to the European 

Parliament in Brussels, a chance in a lifetime to come face-to-face 

with those faceless Eurocrats we had heard so much about.  We 

listened to a talk on the workings of the Parliament from a Belgian 

MEP, we were also addressed by a lobbyist about the work they do, and 

the final talk was by a 24-year-old Polish elected representative, 

who aired the Polish fears that when they join and restrictions on 

freedom of movement are lifted, the country will experience an exodus 

of its bright young educated workers.  I thought it was interesting 

to hear about enlargement from the other side of the fence – it made 

a refreshing contrast with the Sun’s scare mongering about the flood 

of benefit tourists only too ready to bleed our welfare system dry.

On Monday afternoon we went on a guided tour of Brussels.  I must 

admit that it was more or less how I expected it to look – full of 

grey office blocks and important looking suited people walking around 

with important looking documents and wearing important looking 

expressions.  That evening on returning to Louvain we attended a 

debate in a pub about The Bologna Process.  As exhilarating as that 

sounds, the disco afterwards was probably better – accompanied as it 

was with plentiful quantities of what our hosts referred to as “good, 

very good, Berrshian beer.”  They kind of roll their ‘l’s like that 

you see.

On Tuesday morning some of the delegation dragged themselves out of 

be for a European Table Quiz.  The prize was more good Belgian beer 

and good Belgian chocolate.  That afternoon it was down to the 

serious business of taking part in the model European Parliament.

On Monday night everyone had to choose which political group to be a 

part of and also which committee meeting they would attend.  I 

attended the foreign policy and defence committee, where we had to 

debate a motion that the EU would condemn Israel for building the 

defence wall.  To say it was a fiery affair would be a bit of an 

understatement.  The committee had to decide what amendments it would 

make and then vote on them one by one – simple in theory I suppose.  

It was a really good insight into why everything in the political 

process takes so long to get done.  On Wednesday morning we reported 

back to our political group the results reached in our committees the 

previous day and we decided what stance the party would take when the 

matter was discussed at the Plenary Session of the Louvain-la-Neuve 

European Parliament that afternoon.  Again, this was a great 

experience in terms of experiencing the workings of a parliament from 

the inside.  Without further ado, we retired to a public house for a 

bit of craic agus ceoil to celebrate Paddy’s Day, and explain to 

confused Eastern Europeans the link between a Welshman that rid 

Ireland of snakes forever and our fondness for celebrating this very 

fact every year since.

On Thursday we went to Brussels again, this time for a talk on the 

historical development of the EU, given in the Commission.  We had 

the whole afternoon free to buy chocolates and European Merchandise, 

because that’s what tourists buy in Brussels apparently.  Some people 

would have preferred, nay needed desperately, to have been in bed, 

but then we can’t have it all our way now can we?  That evening the 

organisers arranged an International Buffet.  Everybody had to cook a 

dish from their own country and bring it to the hall were they could 

then go and sample all sorts of exotic culinary delights, ranging 

from Turkish Delight to Polish potatoes cooked in a slightly 

different way to Irish potatoes to Romanian 40% proof moonshine that 

came in a bottle with no label but was apparently 14 years old.  Our 

Irish Coffees went down a treat.

I would definitely recommend participation in this week next year to 

anyone with an interest in the future of Europe, and if you would 

like to meet people from loads of different cultures.  It is open to 

all students across Europe and beyond, and participation is free.

Anyone interested in participating in AEUL’s European Week next year 

can from the Université of Louvain-la-Neuve’s European Society’s 

website, or you can email the organisers at auel_ucl@yahoo.com.


Photos: Cyril Plapied, Serge Bibauw, Acutius, Trent Strohm