Cork councillors 'getting it in the ear' over unreliable Carrigaline bus service

Early morning bus services to and from Carrigaline have been described as “inconsistent and unreliable”, as local councillors were denied a meeting with the National Transport Authority to discuss the persistent problems.

One woman contacted The Echo saying that, on two days in a row, the 220x Crosshaven to Cork MTU service at 7.11am did not run, with no prior notice.

The buses “are completely inconsistent and unreliable”, she said. “The [TFI Live] app does not provide reliable information, and has not done so since its inception, leaving customers standing for hours at bus stops in the hope something will come.”

Fianna Fáil councillor Audrey Buckley told The Echo the issue “has been going on for years”.

“There’s also the bus not showing up in the morning — now she carpools with others in the local area because the bus is so unreliable, the bus isn’t even mentioned in my house as a form of transport,” Ms Buckley said.

“It’s just not good enough.”

These issues are the topic of frequent complaints councillors receive from their constituents, she said.

Fine Gael councillor Úna McCarthy added: “The unreliability of the service disrupts daily routines; school, college, appointments. Buses frequently disappear from the app, late-night services from the city fail to arrive, leaving passengers stranded with no way to go home late at night. That leads to a great sense of insecurity, it prevents people from going out.

“As a group of councillors, we requested a meeting with the NTA and they declined the request, citing a high volume of similar requests from other local authorities; that’s only adding to the frustration.”

An NTA spokesperson told they were “aware of ongoing reliability issues impacting Routes 220 and 220X”, saying: “It is acknowledged that a higher number of trips on these routes have been cancelled or curtailed than is considered acceptable. Bus Éireann have advised that resource constraints, in particular that of driver availability, continues to pose a significant challenge.”

They said that to help mitigate these problems, a revised timetable for Route 220X has been developed and is scheduled for implementation in Q4 of this year, subject to driver availability. They added that they “receive many requests from local authorities for NTA attendance at meetings” and could not attend “due to the volume”, but said they offered to provide a comprehensive written response.

Bus Éireann was also contacted for comment.