The accommodation crisis in Galway means that more students have no other option but to rent rooms further and further from the campus grounds.
Many students have had to take up residence in places outside the city, such as Bearna, Spiddal and even Carraroe, a whopping one hour and twenty-minutes away from the city centre.
Bearna and Furbo, the two towns on the route closest to the city are impacted the most, as the bus is often full by the time it reaches them.
Numerous complaints about the service have been made, leading to the topic being discussed in a Dáil Éireann debate on the 26th of November.
During this debate, TD for Galway West Mairéad Farrell asked for an increased capacity and an extra Bearna exclusive route to reduce delays and make sure residents in the area are not left behind.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s response was that while funding was available for improvement of public transport, Bus Éireann and the NTA would be better suited to make the changes necessary.
Last year, my boyfriend was one of the students living along the 424 bus line, which gave me the opportunity to experience the bus ride myself.
Seeing people line up thirty minutes before the arrival of the bus shows exactly how desperate people are not to be left behind as the bus only runs every hour or so.
Speaking from personal experience, the 424 would often be severely delayed or even fail to show up causing my boyfriend and countless other students to be late to lectures and labs on a daily basis.
This is a huge disadvantage to students, especially if attendance is part of their grade as the bus arrival time and capacity is out of their control.
This issue also speaks to a wider problem with Bus Éireann, as bus lines outside of the city are neglected.
The 424 does not have a set bus that always runs the line. While usually the bus is a single decker long distance bus, in cases where there’s none available a double decker city bus is used, despite their unsuitability for the rural roads
While this wouldn’t help solve the delays, it would mean everyone would be able to get on the bus and make it to their destination.
Inga Roman is the Head of Photography at SIN. Inga is a first year Marine Sciences student. She is from Gdańsk, Poland.