Thomas O'Connor

Yeah, unfortunately, it's not the first time that we've had to comment on this.

The upshot of it is the buses that are out there in place of these new electric buses, the AX and EV type buses.

I drove those over two decades ago.

I mean, little did I think that I'd be standing at a bus stop today putting my hand out and getting on those same buses.

For one, it's not good for the environment.

They were taken out of a field up in Ardee, deep cleaned and put back into service.

They're not conducive to good public transport from a driver perspective.

The maintenance regime at Dublin Bus is very good, highest standards.

But even though these buses have probably a million kilometres on the clock,

No matter how well maintained they are, there's going to be metal fatigue, there's going to be rattles.

Even though the seats were replaced, there's a million kilometres on them, there's a lot of miles.

They're not comfortable, they're not the highest spec.

And from a travelling public point of view, they're single-door vehicles.

So we've gotten used to the double doors.

We've gotten used to how quick it is to get on and off the buses.

Single doors restrict that.

And the engines, the EV bus, I think it has a D7C engine.

It's a 7.3 litre diesel engine.

The AX bus has a D9B engine.

It's a 9.3 litre.