Coaches grounded while staff trained to empty loos
The roll-out of Bus Éireann’s new fleet of luxury coaches to Galway was delayed by at least a month because of issues with staff over emptying the toilets.
The national bus service earlier this year unveiled its upmarket new fleet but the three based in Galway were delayed coming into service until staff received training in how to empty the loos onboard.
The three luxury coaches in Galway each cost €460,000 and form part of a €9.2 million investment in buses by the State-subsidised company nationwide.
The Galway buses were to be used on the Dublin and Cork routes.
Bus Éireann west regional manager, Brian Connolly has confirmed that the buses are now “fully operational” in Galway, and are being enjoyed by passengers.
He confirmed they were not fully brought on stream and parked at the city depot for “the guts of a month” while staff were trained in emptying the coaches’ toilets.
Mr Connolly denied there was any dispute with trade unions representing bus drivers or ground staff in the garage. There were “discussions” with representatives over the issue, he said.
“Under no circumstances was there any dispute with unions on this. There were discussions. It was just a question of getting the vehicles in place, and agreeing the training and procedures so that everything was done in a proper manner. They are in operation now,” said Mr Connolly.
He said that he didn’t want to get into the details of how the toilets are emptied and cleaned but there was “all kinds of levers that had to be pulled and buttons that had to be pressed.”
It was not a simple matter and staff training was required.
“Extra training was needed . . . from a health and safety perspective the procedures had to be followed and mechanisms put in place. The discussions were about getting the procedures in place and getting people trained up on it. A certain amount of training had to take place . . . it takes time . . . from a health and safety perspective and that is what we did.”
It is understood some staff had issues over who had responsibility it was to empty the contents of the toilets.
The new coaches were used on a few occasions for private hire during the course of the weeks that the discussions with unions was taking place and training was ongoing but the toilets were not in use.