Sinn Fein’s Pat McGinn: “Translink airport bus service anything but Goldline”

Newry and Mourne Sinn Fein Councillor Pat McGinn has expressed his deep concern and anger at what he described as the failure by Translink to cater for commuters who had experienced serious difficulties trying to use the Goldline Express 200 Service, which operates between Belfast and Dublin Airport.

Speaking to Newry Times, Councillor McGinn said, “I have been contacted by people both travelling from Dublin Airport and from Newry to Dublin Airport who experienced serious difficulties getting a place on the bus. There seemed to be very little thought given to the fact that it was a holiday period and the demand for the service. The promise of ‘A fast and frequent service’ has been anything but that. Translink have shown scant regard for those availing of the service by failing to plan for that increased demand.”

He continued, “There seems to have been little thought put into a proper back up at this busy time of year for people travelling home and then back again. Translink have stated that ultimately it all boiled down to the ‘amount of demand’ and the availability of Goldline Buses. That wasn’t much good to people expecting to catch a bus which would leave them at the airport with a proper amount of time to catch their flight.”

The Councillor concluded by stating that the management has a responsibility to plan for such occasions and to ensure that proper service was provided. “Dublin airport had a 10 percent increase on passengers who travelled through it over the Christmas period, a figure of more than 620,000 passengers was quoted. Seemingly everyone was aware of the expected increase in airport passengers but Translink management. They have let people down badly and spoiled many peoples memories of their Christmas breaks at home.”

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Posted by Declan McAteer on Dec 30 2011. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry