A long-serving Dublin Bus inspector reveals how the service has changed over his 35 years.
When Tony Duncan first walked through the gates of Donnybrook Bus Garage, he never realised he'd spend nearly four decades in the job.
"I looked in through the gates of the Donnybrook Bus Garage and says, 'I'm never going to stick this'," he said.
"And look at this, 39 years later, I'm still walking through that same gate."
Dublin Bus was founded in 1987 when Coras Ipompair Eireann was split into three subsidiaries - Dublin Bus, Bus Eireann, and Irish Rail.
And things were very different back in 1983, when Tony started working at the company as a conductor.
He said: "When I started here, you'd walk into the traffic office, and it was like walking into the pub at 8 o'clock at night.
"There'd be about 200 staff members - conductors, drivers, waiting to get their duty boards, their bus numbers so they could go out and start their day's work. And the buzz in the place was unbelievable."
Tony rose through the ranks with hard work and dedication as he went from being a conductor to a driver to an inspector.
In a video shared by Dublin Bus on Twitter, he said: "They give you every opportunity - if you work hard enough and keep a clean slate. I mean, I went from conductor, to driver, to inspector and my advice is if anyone is thinking of it, this is the place to come."
One of the best improvements the transport system saw was the introduction of the Quality Bus Corridor.
Tony added: "Our first one here in South Dublin Donnybrook was the one from Foxrock Church into Leeson Street, which speeded things up immensely.
"It meant travel time from Foxrock into town was now 30 minutes instead of maybe an hour and 15 minutes."
But that wasn't all, satellite navigation, real-time information, a new control room that shows the location of every bus at any given time, and Leap cards have contributed to improving bus services over the years.
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