Ghost buses, rain and pricey taxis: Your stories of getting home from suburban summer gigs

WITH CONCERT SEASON in full swing across Dublin, we noticed a lot of online chatter about people having difficulty getting home from some of the gigs that have already taken place across May and June.

Fine Gael TD Grace Boland highlighted this week that many fans were left soaked and stranded after the David Byrne concert in St Anne’s Park earlier this month due to a shortage of taxis and because of buses that didn’t show up. 

So we wanted to hear from you, our readers, on your own experience of getting to and from the summer gigs in Dublin. 

With thanks to everyone who wrote to us, here’s what you had to say…

First up, one taxi driver got in touch to tell us there is, in fact, not a shortage of taxi drivers in Dublin for these events, taxi drivers just don’t want to stop.

“You mention the concert in St Anne’s Park where the people were coming out soaked. No taxi driver in his right mind is going to go anywhere near a gig like that, getting his car interior covered in muck for a Mickey Mouse 20 euro fare back into town,” he told us.

“I was in the area that night and I turned off the roof sign and drove by hundreds of people.

“As for Marlay Park, forget about it. I used to go up there for fares, and it was so badly organised that I stopped going up.”

Others, who were at the David Byrne concert, told us about their experience from a different perspective. 

Michael Riley emailed to say he was one of the people “soaked wet” at the gig who “marched through monsoon conditions” to and from the nearest Dart station, 25 minutes away.

“I would have to question the promoter’s logic in staging events in travel black spots with little or no accommodation near the venue,” he wrote.

“I would finish with one question about these burb [suburb] gigs: why do promoters get away with providing so little for their customers at these gigs, such as shuttle buses and shelter zones? 

“In any case, I will not attend a suburb show ever again unless I befriend someone with a spare couch that lives very nearby!”

Not everyone at the David Byrne gig felt they had a bad transport experience though.

Aoife Whelan wrote to tell us she attended both CMAT and David Byrne in St Anne’s Park this summer and was pleasantly surprised with how straightforward her trips on the Dart were.

“In both cases, I was surprised at how well things were run, especially on the CMAT day given that the trains were only running from Connolly.

“I was able to get a train there and back on both occasions with very little waiting and even got a seat. After the concerts, the crowds were controlled by staff in the station so there was a bit of a queue but I easily got on the second train that arrived.”

A lot of others who got in touch with us had very different experiences, particularly for the CMAT gig.

Dunboyne dilemmas 

Susan Tierney wrote to tell us that while she had no problem getting to the gig from CMAT’s native town of Dunboyne in Co Meath, getting home was a “nightmare”.

“My sister had prior knowledge of getting home from St Anne’s Park so she knew to run to the Raheny Dart station before queues formed. This is what we did.

“Basically ran the whole way there and got a Dart quite easily, however, such was the length of time in getting from the concert to the Dart station, we missed the connecting train to Dunboyne.

“Given a huge number of Dunboyne and Meath people were at that gig, would it not have made sense to have extra trains on that night?

“Instead we had to get off the train at Connolly and wait for an hour for an available taxi in the pouring rain. It then cost us €60 for a taxi home as no buses were available either at that time. 

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She added: “If we want to have these venues used it must be backed up with public transport. People are paying a lot of money for tickets and I feel this should be part of that ticket price.”

Marti Wynne, who travelled up from Wicklow town for the CMAT gig, was impacted by the Bank holiday Dart closure (which meant there were no Darts running on the southside) and instead had to get a series of “absolutely packed” buses.

Another reader, Edel O’Connor, told us that she and her girlfriend travelled up from Clane, Kildare on the 120 bus before getting a H2 Dublin Bus to Raheny.

It was on the way back that things took a turn.

“When the concert finished at around 10.30pm we walked to try to get a Dublin bus back to the city centre, thousands of others had the same idea.”

They quickly realised after seeing the queues for Dublin buses that they weren’t going to get on so instead tried to get a taxi.

“After ordering and being refunded taxi fares of over €100 3–4 times, we started to walk towards the city centre,” O’Connor wrote.

Half an hour into the walk they managed to get on a bus into town where they then walked to O’Connell Street and were eventually able to get a taxi from there.

“It was a nervous walk through Dublin City centre, dark, late at night, especially given we were two women and my girlfriend is black, given the violence based on race that is happening in our country.

“We eventually got a taxi that cost almost €120 to travel the approx 35km. We arrived home at 1.40am, over 3 hours after the concert finished,” O’Connor said.

Good Samaritan

Taylor Williams (30) in Dublin’s East Wall wrote to say while she and her husband enjoyed the CMAT concert in St Anne’s Park, getting to and from it was “atrocious”.

By the time the concert ended, there were only 2 buses scheduled to run from the park to the city centre before they stopped running for the night.

“Everyone was stranded as there were no other options to get back into town. There were no taxis available and no public bikes available.

“We eventually had to give up and walk into town hoping that we could hail a cab or catch a bus along the way. As we walked we passed dozens of people walking or stopped along the same route also failing to get cabs. No buses were ever spotted.

“Halfway through our 5km walk it started pouring rain and we were forced to take shelter at a covered bus stop across from the Dublin Bus depot on Clontarf Road. 

“By stroke of good luck, a Dublin Bus driver who I presume took mercy on all the stranded patrons, drove along the Clontarf Road, stopping to collect passengers who were waiting in the rain to carry us into the city centre. She was not driving a designated route, just collecting us out of the kindness of her heart.

“My husband and I managed to make it back to East Wall nearly 3 hours after the concert ended.”

The Journal put some of these issues to Irish Rail, Dublin Bus and the National Transport Authority to get their responses. 

In response to questions specifically about the CMAT gig at St Anne’s, a spokesperson for Irish Rail said extra Darts, Maynooth and Drogheda services were operating that night.

Asked about fans based in Dunboyne and surrounding areas who travelled to the concert, the transport provider said it “did not operate extra Clonsilla to M3 Parkway trains as the relatively moderate numbers would see that train set better utilised on a busier service.

“We will of course, keep our operations under review for future events, but for a far larger event such as a Croke Park concert, and which is directly on the Maynooth line, we do operate connecting services to Dunboyne/M3 Parkway.”

The spokesperson noted that for this weekend, as an example, 74 extra trains are scheduled countrywide. US rockers Metallica are playing two major outdoor shows at the Aviva Stadium this weekend; the first concert was Friday night, with the second to follow on Sunday.

Ahead of the concerts and events on in Dublin this weekend, a spokesperson for the NTA told us all public transport operators are putting on additional services.

“All operators have additional staff working at key transport hubs to assist concert-goers who do not know where stadiums are when they travel from other regions. We also have additional security staff in place across the network.”

The Journal received dozens of additional responses on this issue after our callout earlier this week. We are still following up on specific questions raised by some of the submissions. We’ll be working on further articles on this subject throughout the summer. 

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