So since I have been back in Ireland, my car has been living at my Mother-In-Law's house a couple hours up the road in Waterford. I have been dragging my feet a bit in retrieving it as my daily walk to the bus station and subsequent bus ride to work has been kind of cathartic. Specifically I think I like it because it is so opposite to the American experience where, well lets face it everything is driven by driving.
This is essentially the same commute my wife has made daily for the last couple of years. A twenty minute walk across the city to the bus station to take a fifteen minute bus ride. All in all it is quite pleasant if the weather is not nasty, and for the most part since I have been home it has been cooperating.
The two of us (my wife and I) mostly work different shifts by at least an hour or two, so while I would normally drive to work, she takes the bus. She never once has really complained about this added time to her commute, and as an American I have always been mystified by this. The WALK to get the ride is actually longer than the ride itself. The one and only level of complexity she has ever come close to complaining about is something I always dismissed as her own little brand of paranoia.
She tends to not want to stand out or cause any fuss, so is always prepared by having either exact change, or a close approximation to the actual fare. This included going out late the night before working an early shift, to get change if there were none on hand.
So the other morning, on my walk to the bus I had to stop for cash having none on me, and got out the lowest denomination it would dispense €20. This minimum is pretty much the same for 95% of the ATM's in Ireland. I briefly considered making a small purchase as my wife's obsession with exact change passed through my head, but since the fare is €6.90 (a rip off worthy of it's own rant post), I thought there is no way that the 11:00 a.m. bus would not have at least collected enough change to accommodate a twenty.
As you may have already guessed... I was wrong.
After about a ten minute wait for the bus to arrive, I joined the queue somewhere in the middle and proceeded to get on the bus. This is normally a pretty quick process since the vast majority of riders are commuters and have a pass which they just wave at the driver.
When it is my turn, I extended the twenty euro note expecting to receive a ticket in return for my
"Staff Return" request, and instead received what I can only describe as a truly incredulous look from the bus driver. This surprised me, if for no other reason the following indisputable facts:
- There are no signs anywhere on the bus or in the bus station which indicate that a there is highest or lowest denomination which is accepted.
- The change required would have been €13, which even without the presence of a €10 note would have been a maximum of six €2 coins. (a more than ample supply was visible in the coin dispenser directly between us.)
- The lowest denomination which any ATM within a mile of the bus station will dispense is a €20 note.
- The person two spots ahead of me in the queue had purchased a ticket using a €10 note.
The incredulous look after about five seconds of silence shifted over to one of condescension as he stated
"You need to go inside for change." A bit flustered by the directness of this statement I am pretty sure I failed to point out the person just ahead who had paid with the tenner, or the large quantity of coins between us and just asked rhetorically,
"You cant break a twenty?"
At this point in time the bus driver went from annoying to being a full blown ***hole when he asked the following:
"How long did you wait at the stop when you could have been getting change?"
This said in a tone of voice which one usually reserves for scolding a four year old when they have clearly not thought through the consequences of their actions. It is at this point I remember my jaw starting to drop as I prepared for a spirited debate over the above four facts, when I suddenly realized that if I had any hope of actually getting on this bus and making it to work on time, I was better off cutting my losses and looking for change.
I scurried off the bus and into the station, fully expecting to find a queue which would surely cost me my spot on the waiting bus. To my surprise, the only person at the window was just finishing up, and I was able to walk right up to the ticket lady. After sliding the €20 note under the glass and asking for change, I remember her asking mildly perplexed
"What kind of change do you need?", where I then responded.
"Anything that will get me onto the Airport Bus."
Hearing this she seemed to understand and quickly hand me two fives and a ten. I hurried back to the bus, fully expecting to see empty pavement but to my surprise the bus was still there, and the last person in the queue was just past the driver. A bit out of breath, I silently handed him the two fivers, from which he made change from his ample supply, and printed out the ticket.
Somewhat sulkily I trudged off to find a seat where my annoyance proceeded to shift from the bus driver to my own silence. Well at least I was going to get to work on time.
There are two kinds of bus riders, those that thank the driver when they get off the bus, and those that don't. I have always been firmly in the camp of the former, but not this time. Out of habit as I was exiting the bus, I found myself about to say
'Thank You' but caught myself just in time. For the first time that day I was happy to remain silent.
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A couple of notes for those of you who are not from or have not been to Ireland, or just don't ride the Airport Bus.
- Bus Eireann is the national bus company which has all but a monopoly on bus travel in this country, there are other carriers but their routes are very specific so generally not very useful for commuting.
- You can only get the staff discount for the trip to the Airport/Airport Business Park on the bus, otherwise I would more than likely have gone to the kiosk, or used a ticket machine.
- Bus Eireann has perhaps the worst website of any mass transit site in history, finding your way from any point to any other point without already knowing the numbers of the buses is almost impossible. On top of that there does not seem to be a map of bus routes in existence for any route in Ireland. Which I believe is to keep hidden my next bullet point.
- The Staff rate for the Airport bus is € .90 down from the normal €8.50, seemingly either 'because they can' or because the Airport is a couple hundred meters outside of the city limits. You can hop on quite a few 'city' routes which are longer rides that only cost about €1.40 each way.
- This particular bus often runs before and after the hours that the ticket desk is open and available to dispense change.
