Children among those left freezing at airport as late night bus doesn’t come

The Bus Eireann 30/X30 route from Dublin to Donegal has been notorious for no-shows over the last year. 

But leaving passengers stranded at the airport at 11pm on such a cold night with no explanation at the time  has led to much outrage among those affected. Bus Eireann has since said there were mechanical issues with the bus.

Evelyn McGlynn and her business partner Meg O’Gara were among those left out in the cold on Sunday evening. They took to Twitter through the Donegal Mammy account in an effort to find out what was happening and to express their frustration.

“It wasn’t ourselves we were worried about,” Evelyn told Donegal Live.

“There were families there who didn’t speak English and had no idea what was going on. We couldn’t help them as we didn’t know either.

“There was one child in particular who was around six years old and was absolutely freezing and crying.

“We all waited outside  because everyone was afraid that if they went inside, the bus would come along and they would miss it.

“After about an hour we had to go inside because we were all so cold.”

The Letterkenny bus had arrived a few minutes before the Donegal Town bus was due, and the driver told passengers that the other bus was on the way.

“I live in Ballybofey so it wouldn’t have made much difference to me to get the Letterkenny bus,” said Evelyn.

“But the driver told us it was coming along behind him, so we thought it was only minutes away.”

Bus Eireann told Donegal Live that the bus had experienced mechanical difficulties shortly before scheduled departure and could not operate.

“Our team in the Dublin area made every effort to get a replacement vehicle allocated to operate this service but unfortunately this was not possible at such short notice,” said the spokesperson.

“Bus Éireann would like to apologise to our customers affected by this cancellation. Seven people had pre-booked seats on the X30 (Dublin-Donegal) service, and they were notified by email about the cancellation. There was a small delay in the email notification being sent to our customers who had pre-booked seats and we are investigating this matter. 

“Passengers waiting in Busáras were also notified of the cancellation by our supervisors in Busáras.”

Evelyn accepts that such things happen. But she firmly believes that as the main airport into the country, the national bus service should have staff on the ground at Dublin Airport.

“It is the fact there is no Bus Eireann hub at the airport where you can go and find out what is happening that is the problem,” she said. 

“There is a digital board there with bus times but it was not updated and did not show that the bus was cancelled, nor did it say that there was a later bus at 12.50am. We found out by looking on the website and we tried our best to communicate that to the non-English speaking passengers but it wasn’t easy.

“We all know that things can go wrong. The people waiting in Busáras were told, the people at the airport were left standing out on a freezing cold night with no information.”

Bus Eireann has acknowledged that there were problems with cancellations earlier in the year, but insists that Sunday night’s incident was exceptional.

“Mechanical issues are very rare and we pride ourselves on delivering 99% of service on this route in recent months,” said the spokesperson.

“While we fully appreciate the impact on individuals in the event of a cancellation, as we operate 182 services a week, we estimate that fewer than 0.1% have not operated over the last four months. 

“Following a more challenging period during the early summer we have acted to improve reliability and resilience on the Expressway Route 30/X30.”

That is little consolation to the passengers who finally arrived in Donegal Town at around 4.30am.

“We had arranged a lift to Ballybofey but the roads were so bad, we said we would stay in the Abbey Hotel,” said Evelyn.

“This isn’t about us having a rant or having a go at Bus Eireann. We were able to look after ourselves. It was those families, those poor wee children who had no idea what was going on that I felt really sorry for. It comes down to communication.

“Donegal County Council are doing everything they can to promote Donegal to visitors and as a place to live and do business, and this is what people are greeted with before they even get away from the airport. 

The Bus Eireann spokesperson went on to say: “Expressway is as you know a commercial service, which does not receive any State subvention. 

“The online booking system is an important tool in enabling us to allocate Expressway resources to best match demand. As we are coming into the busy Christmas season we strongly advise all passengers, including those with Free Travel Passes, to book online so that they can be guaranteed a seat.

“Our local Service Delivery Teams in Dublin and the North-West areas are continuing to actively monitor and improve service performance along the Dublin to Donegal corridor.”