PASSENGERS travelling from Dublin Airport to Fermanagh, including international tourists, were left stranded recently after the Bus Éireann service was cancelled at the last minute.
On July 7th passengers on the 8am Expressway X30 service from Dublin to Donegal – which stops in Enniskillen – were informed shortly before 4am the service had been pulled. Bus Éireann said it “regrets” the cancellation of bus, which it said was “due to short notice driver non availability.”
“Pre-booked customers were notified of this cancellation via email at 3.51am that morning and offered a full refund,” a spokesman told the Herald.
“Bus Éireann understands how frustrating cancelled services can be for customers and apologises for any inconvenience caused.”
Bundoran Cllr Michael McMahon, who is originally from Belleek, said tourists had been among those stranded, and what had happened was “unacceptable in this day and age,” particularly when great effort was being put in to promoting local tourism.
“There were people standing who arrived into Dublin Airport from Germany, from Brisbane, from North America, 15 passengers or more, and they got their emails to say the 8.20 was cancelled,” he said, speaking on Ocean FM.
“There people were travelling all night and they were getting their luggage sorted, and they find out there’s no bus service.”
Cllr McMahon added, “There were people there who were coming to Donegal and coming to Fermanagh. The ‘céad míle failté’ at the airport was very, very negative because of the fact they didn’t get on the 8.20.
“The problem that arises then is, on the 9.50 that arrives there’s a double load of people going on, and it causes a major problem for the bus driver.”
Stating Bus Éireann had time to make alternative arrangements, he said the problem didn’t lie with the local area manager or the drivers, but with management in Dublin.
He added it needed to be sorted, “Those people will be going back to their different countries and they will be saying about the service at Dublin Airport.”
While this is the first report of such of a cancellation of the number 30 service this summer, last year there had been a number of cancellations on the same route, which had also been down to driver unavailability.
In it’s statement to the Herald, Bus Éireann said 95 per cent of the Route 30/X30 had departed Dublin on time in 2023.
“We have worked to increase resilience in the service, as evidenced in having operated 99 percent of scheduled services on this route year to date, including using contractors where required and feasible,” said the spokesman.
“Unfortunately very short notice absences can arise from time to time, every effort is made to operate the service in such an event.”
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