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I read with a bit of shock the other day in the Sunday Independent an article about J.J Kavanagh coaches. For those of you that don’t know them, Kavanaghs are the largest private bus company in the state and run buses from
The need for a licence would be to make sure that an operator can meet certain safety standards etc. Now considering that Kavanaghs operates a good few route and anyone who has taken them know are no cowboys. They run a good service that would suggest that they should not have much trouble meeting safety standards indeed considering they operate a few routes already they are deemed suitable for providing the service. So why the difficulty getting licences.
There was an issue a couple of years ago with Kavanaghs taking on Bus Eireann on certain routes (I can’t remember if it was with or without a licence). There were arguments about Kavanaghs buses timing their pickups for 5 minutes before Bus Eireann and using the Bus Eireann stop. Then the Bus Eireann bus would arrive and basically block in the Kavanaghs bus while the driver “went to the toilet”. There was also an issue in some towns when the bus stops were moved from the main streets to another pickup point in order to “help parking and traffic flow” (Nenagh for example). Kavanaghs just came along and stuck up their own bus stop sign at the old spot and boxed in any cars using the parking spaces. I know a guy who while boxed in phoned the number on the side of the bus to complain and was told on the phone to complain to his local council who were limiting competition by moving the bus stop. All very Michael O’Learyesque.
This current issue is a continuation of that bitter rivalry as Kavanaghs try to force competition into the Irish market and the vested interests do their best to hold them out. I’d expect a response in the media from a Bus Eireann insider complaining about Kavanaghs cherry picking routes or something similar. Theses two sides won’t be sharing a table at the Bus Drivers christmas night out anytime soon.
We want more public transport and we put these impediments in place. Crazy
Umm, Kavanagh’s is actually _private_ transport, you know.
EWI public transport is anything a member of the public can buy a ticket for. Taxi for instance are public transport