Bus Eireann leaves Donegal teens stranded on streets of Dublin at night

A group of young Donegal teenagers attending a concert were left stranded on the streets of Dublin when Bus Eireann cancelled the 12.35 am bus.

The seven teenagers from south Donegal had booked their return tickets. They only found out that the bus was not running when they came out of the concert.

Cllr Niamh Kennedy (Ind) who raised the issue at Tuesday’s meeting of the Municipal District of Donegal said: “One of them had an email on his phone to say the bus was cancelled. They were heading towards Busáras after the concert. 

“Seven young teenagers left in Dublin; their parents paid €600 for them to get a room in a hotel. 

“There is all this talk about being green and not driving and taking public transport, and people are being let down like that, young people left on the side of the road.”

Cllr Kennedy acknowledged that the matter of cancelled buses had previously been raised by Cllr Noel Jordan (SF), and at Oireachtas level by Deputy Pearse Doherty (SF). 

Cllr Jordan told the meeting that he and Deputy Doherty had attended a meeting with two members of Bus Eireann management. 

“They assured us at that stage that they had heard all the stories and would look at the issues. That was back in February.

“We had these seven teenagers who were not streetwise, just to be left in Dublin like that. It is not good enough.”

The councillor gave another example of a woman who had booked flights to Portugal. She and her daughter waited at the Abbey Hotel for the 8am airport bus which never arrived.

“The woman went over to the depot in Donegal Town,” said Cllr Jordan. 

“There was a man washing a bus. She asked him, ‘Where is the bus that was supposed to be going to Dublin at 8 o’clock?’

“He told her, ‘That’s it sitting over there. We have no driver.’”

Cllr Jordan said he had been told that someone from Bus Eireann’s management planned to visit every depot in Donegal. 

“We have to get a meeting with him,” said the councillor.

“He says they have provided new buses and that there are teething problems with them.

“We need to meet him and thrash this out once and for all."