Dublin’s ghost buses are  “back with a vengeance” now the new school term has begun, a Glasnevin resident has complained. 

The daughter of Barry Ward, who is not the Fine Gael TD, uses both the Dublin Bus app and real time information on bus stops to plan her journey to school. 

However, she finds it incredibly unreliable. 

“It's meant to be real time passenger information system, but I think clearly it isn't,” Mr Ward explained on The Claire Byrne Show.  

“I think the real time claim is just fiction - it's the usual issues; the bus appears due within a minute or two and then it simply vanishes.”

Mr Ward acknowledged that that bus frequency in the morning is “pretty good”, but the overall service has proved problematic for his daughter, who has been the victim of ghost buses several times in the last week. 

“She could just go for an earlier bus, but she swims three mornings a week,” he added. 

“So, we're back home, change breakfast, back out the door, time is tight.

“We're relying on hitting the kind of usual bus and I tried to send an email to TFI actually yesterday, but there is no email address. 

“So, when I completed the online form, it said something went wrong, so it couldn't even upload that.”

A Dublin Bus in the city centre. Picture by: Alamy.com. 

While Mr Ward often takes her to school himself if the bus fails to arrive on time, he would much rather an improved service that his daughter could rely on. 

“Sometimes I have to go out, jump in the car and go around and pick her up and drive her to school instead,” he said. 

“I suppose the issue is the system has been around for a long time; you cover this regularly, Dublin Bus will come on and they'll say, ‘staff shortages’, ‘sick leave’ and various issues around why the bus is actually cancelled in the first place. 

“But it's the real time tracking just isn't fit for purpose.”

The NTA has been contacted for comment.

Main image: An electronic sign with bus information. Picture by: Alamy.com.