Cllr Caroline O’Reilly, Fianna Fáil candidate for the General Election for Meath East, has spoken following her survey of Ratoath and Ashbourne residents on local Bus Éireann services. The survey, open to residents of Ashbourne and Ratoath was conducted online in recent weeks and asked residents of their opinion on their local bus. The results were a resounding thumbs down to the service, with 95% either “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with the bus services on offer.
Cllr O’Reilly stated “the key issue is that Ratoath and Ashbourne share a bus route to Dublin at peak travel times. I’m seeking to represent both towns in Dail Eireann and know them both well. They’re growing commuter towns – among the largest and fastest growing in Meath. Locals can’t rely on public transport so have to rely on their own cars. Individual houses can have up to four cars per house and this adds to congestion because people simply can’t use a bus to get to work or college on time. This in turn leaves people waiting in traffic every day as opposed to relaxing, shopping and socialising in their home town. It’s not sustainable”
Cllr O’Reilly’s survey found that the main bus route affected is the 103, with 40.25% of respondents saying this is the service impacting them negatively. Among others negatively affected were the 105 with 8.81% people affected, the 103X with 7.55% respondents affected and 2.52% affected by the 105X service.
The 103 and 105 services are shared by Ashbourne and Ratoath, with the 109 to DCU also an in demand service for 3rd level students. Cllr O’Reilly added “not only is the service unreliable and oversubscribed, the buses themselves are old and too small with constituents repeatedly reporting breakdowns to me.”
She went on: “the prolonged roadworks in Ashbourne, on top of impacting local business, can leave you over 30 minutes trying to get through the town. This is bad enough for Ashbourne residents, but it carries Ratoath residents too who shouldn’t need to travel through on their way to work and college.”
Caroline was particularly struck with one local’s story. Tara Young uses the 103 Monday to Friday for work. She has a serious medical condition and is often left in severe pain when forced to stand for a prolonged period of time. “The daily struggle to get to work is just a nightmare” said Tara. “The morning buses are not too bad but coming home is a disaster and it’s getting worse because they are building hundreds of more homes in Ratoath and Ashbourne and if there are no improvements to the service, the whole system is going to collapse. One week during the summer, four out of the eight buses I went to get were no shows. The ones that do turn up, a lot of them break down.”
Being forced to stand waiting for and on the bus when it arrives has major implications for Tara’s health and well being as she explained:
“I have very bad Lymphedema in my legs so I can’t stand for that long and by the time I get home I can’t feel the tops of my legs. When am I am standing for too long, my legs start to shake and they go numb and I am afraid that they will just give way on me, it’s just awful and causes such stress. There is such a huge population in both Ashbourne and Ratoath that they should never have put those two services as one.”
Highlighting Tara’s case, Cllr O’Reilly said “what Tara has to go through simply to get to work is not on, not in this day and age. I have passed the results of this survey to my colleague Minister James Lawless at the Department of Transport. Minister Lawless has made direct Ministerial representations on behalf of my constituents in light of the data provided through the detailed survey results
“The qualitative data/ personal stories attached to the survey was enormous and in some cases harrowing. People have been reprimanded at work for being late. One person said they lost their job due to punctuality issues. Pregnant women, people with disabilities, people with mental health, medical professionals who cannot get the bus on time for work at the Mater hospital in particular.
“Honestly in this day and age with the speed of population growth and housing demand infrastructure must come first. Tahe fact that medical professionals are struggling to get to work, people’s jobs are at risk… this should be a simple fix, it’s not rocket science. I don’t know why this needs to be so complicated and poorly managed. It’s absolutely ridiculous”
