Regular users of the 236 Bus Éireann service linking Cork city and Castletownbere have been left shocked and dismayed by a change to the timetable which they say was not publicly advertised.
The direct service from Cork city to Castletownbere departs each morning at 8.30am, however an additional service running on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 2.30pm is now terminating in Bantry – 51km away and an hour’s journey by road.
Garvan McCann, who travels regularly on the route, said he was caught unawares by the timetable change and but for the kindness of a friend who gave him a lift he could have been left stranded.
He told how on July 7th he had travelled to the city with his wife and they had planned to catch the 2.30pm service back to Castletownbere, only to discover it was now terminating in Bantry.
‘The 236 is a service we have been using for years,’ he explained. ‘The notice on the screen at the Parnell Place bus station showed the 236 to Castletownbere was departing at 2.30pm, just as usual.
‘A lady who had just come off a flight from the Philippines was also there to take the bus, with two large suitcases. She was enquiring as to whether the bus was going to Castletownbere. I assured her it was, she said she was concerned as some official had told her it was not going there.’
Garvan said at this point the information was still on the screen, but when he boarded the bus and checked with the driver he was told the bus was now terminating in Bantry. He continued: ‘The driver said the bus timetable had changed two weeks previously and that there was no longer a 2.30pm service to Castletownbere. He informed us that another bus would now take people from Bantry to Glengarriff, but had no information on how we could get from there to Castletownbere.’
Garvan managed to secure a lift from a friend who happened to be passing through Bantry, however, he said other passengers were forced to disembark and wait for onward connections, including the lady from the Philippines who ‘trundled off with her luggage for the bus to Glengarrif’.
Garvan explained that the onward connections from Bantry to Castletownbere necessitate a wait between services. ‘Previously it took three hours to travel from Cork to Castletownbere, it now takes four hours and ten minutes using three buses.’
A statement from Bus Éireann acknowledged the ‘permanent’ change to the route. The company said: ‘As of the end of June, there is no longer a connecting service from Glengarriff to Castletownbere on the 2.30pm departure from Cork Parnell Place.
‘Onward travel to Castletownbere remains available via Local Link Route 232.’
Independent Councillor Finbarr Harrington raised the issue at last week’s meeting of the Western Division. ‘Who in the name of God came up with this timetable?,’ he asked. ‘It’s now leaving people off at Glengarriff at 5.15pm but the bus from Glengariff to Castletownbere leaves at 4.55pm.
‘This is absolutely ridiculous and leaving a number of people stranded, and they have to wait for an hour for the Kilcrohane to Allihies bus to get home.’
