DAVID JENKINS is back on Bus Éireann for this second account of his travels on the state-owned company’s extensive Expressway network across Ireland*. He does reach Tipperary but is back in Dublin first and returns to the capital on a final leg from Clonmel.
On the coach roads of Ireland
* Part One in Buses last month
My coach – the first 51 of the day from Galway – is due in at 09.20, but it is nearer 09.30 when it does arrive in Limerick bus station. There are perhaps a dozen passengers alighting, and when the last gets off, so does the driver who disappears into the station.
He returns a few minutes later and enters via the offside emergency door, then settles down to board the waiting passengers. Some have pre-paid via mobile, internet or vending machine, others pay cash. A senior uses his free pass. At least one has used the break to jump off and buy some refreshments.
I am on board another Irizar PB-bodied Scania, SP113 from the same batch as I travelled from Dublin to Galway yesterday. Only this one shows signs of wear, with the magazine nets all missing – apart from a few remaining strands that mark their former presence – but there is a screen as well as a curtain behind the driver. The clock, …
