A life in buses

The comedy actor, Reg Varney, died last year aged 92. Varney starred in a 1970's comedy series called On the buses which ran for 60 TV episodes. It was a huge success and depicted bus drivers and the inspectors in a humorous light.The programme was fictional and, for the 1970's, was amusing enough.

That is where the fun ends. It's a cold and sleet filled morn and I'm waiting for a bus into town and the wait is the cause of stress. I am cursing Dublin Bus under my breath. I've been waiting for the last 20 years for buses and you never get used to it. CIE (DB's parent company) are axing hundreds of jobs and the fleet of buses, according to media reports, is to be reduced by 10 per cent - 120 buses.

So there is going to be less buses to use for the average public transport commuter. But the really annoying fact is that my five-day bus ticket has jumped from E18.50 up to E20. How's that for an insult? The service is getting worse yet DB are asking us, the passengers, to reward this bad service by increasing the costs to us. Think about it. It's like Aer Lingus telling holidaymakers to pay more on an air fare because there has been a delay. Ridiculous. Only in Ireland.

Last year it emerged that a private bus operator had been forced to close because of Dublin Bus flooding the routes that the private company ran buses on. This is typical of the anti-competitive slant we get in this country. The government would be doing us all a favour if the 120 buses mentioned above were tendered out to a private company.

On the television, last night, it was stated that one of the reasons the recession is affecting jobs was the over-reliance on foreign multi-nationals as well as the fact that unskilled workers were losing out. This must stop and a spirit of enterprise must start to take root and the people who pull the strings at DB must begin to realise that the most important people are the passengers.

My bank balance is E20 lighter each week and I would be happy to pay a private company to deliver me to my destinations - maybe they would treat their passengers/customers a little better. Competition is a good idea, not a threat as some state agencies seem to think. In the words of Jack Charlton: "Go and compete!"