'I was afraid, walking 25 minutes alone': Dubliners say shortage of taxis posing safety risks

THE SHORTAGE OF taxis in Dublin’s city centre at peak times on weekends has left revellers waiting sometimes hours for transport while others were forced to walk long distances to get home at the end of a night out.

According to the National Transport Authority, currently there 25,336 taxi driver licences, 18,849 of which are active. 

An NTA survey this year found that 93% of licensed taxi drivers are now working, but only 29% work Friday and Saturday nights. 

The Journal asked readers to share their experiences and received a high volume of responses, particularly from women – and their partners – who found themselves feeling unsafe at the end of a night with few options for getting home. 

One woman, Holly, said she will no longer go out unless she’s driving – and not drinking – or she has a lift arranged, after a bad experience two months ago.

Friends of hers were visiting and they were at a bar in the city centre until 2am.

“I would say around 50 people were on the street in the freezing cold trying to flag down taxis or book via an app,” she said.

“After a number of failed attempts, we started to walk home. I flagged a passing taxi. My friends were quite drunk and I put them in a taxi and asked him to bring them to my address.

There wasn’t enough space for me so I had to walk home alone – my friends unfortunately didn’t understand I was left alone, but it was all a rush to get them home and get them out of the cold. I was very concerned about getting them home, I said I was fine to work away. I was cold and afraid and walked 25 minutes alone.

“Since then I have not gone out without knowing how I was getting home. My boyfriend, who goes home to Clare on weekends, will now stay up in Dublin if I have something planned. Alternatively I will not drink and will drive home – anything to avoid that situation again.”

Another woman said she had to get a lift home from the manager of a hotel that hosted her birthday party after the taxi she booked through an app was cancelled. 

Her friends, who all live close to one another, had already left in another taxi and she was by herself. Hotel staff tried to arrange another taxi for her, she said, but they had no success.

“It resulted in the hotel manager having to give me a lift home, which I was very iffy about doing because he was a stranger,” she said.

“I was going to buy a room in the hotel that night but it was sold out, so I literally had no other option.”

One reader, Keith, said his girlfriend spent three hours recently trying to get a taxi.

“She walked from Fade Street, up O’Connell street to The Rotunda [hospital],” he said.

“Even then she had to ring her brother to collect her. I was at a wedding, terrified for her safety after the attacks on women from men in our country. The situation is a joke.”

Late night bus services

There are a small number of 24-hour bus routes in Dublin city, as well as 13 Nitelink services running every hour from midnight until 4am.

However readers who spoke to The Journal said buses are also busy late at night and are sometimes too full to take them. They also said the late-night routes do not cover some areas of the city and they can still face a long walk or a search for a taxi when they get off.

One woman, Rose, tried to get a 24-hour bus home with her boyfriend after a recent night out, but just missed one when they arrived at the stop. The next one, 30 minutes later, was full when it arrived so “just zoomed past us”, she said. 

“We said we weren’t going to wait another 30 minutes for the same thing to happen, at this stage the crowd at the bus stop was looking like we’d almost fill a bus ourselves by the time one showed up,” she said. “I’m disabled but I don’t look it, so there was no chance of a guaranteed seat which I would need if we got onto the bus.”

Rose has myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), a chronic illness that is worsened by physical exertion. She said she has to budget her energy to allow for evenings out with friends and had done so in this case, but she could not have managed a walk home. 

They had started off at Ormond Quay, walked to College Green and eventually when they reached Parnell Square they managed to flag a taxi, an hour and a half after they started looking for one. 

“I hadn’t accounted for not being able to get home and I’m still exhausted two days later,” she said.

Dublin Bus told The Journal it has experienced an increased demand for late night services on its 24-hour  routes in recent weeks. It said it has been providing additional services where possible.

The NTA has committed to providing additional bus services that operate on a 24/7 basis – the Route N4 from Blanchardstown to The Point commenced on 29 May and two further routes will follow this year.

Rejection based on destination

Some readers who got in touch said they did manage to hail down taxis, but when they stopped their refused to accept the fare, either because of the destination, or because they wanted to pay by card, rather than cash.

“I’ve had experiences on two consecutive weekends when taxi drivers stopped to ask where we were going – the answer was Rathgar both times – and they just drove off without accepting the fare,” Steven Dunne told The Journal.

“At least the first guy had the decency to say no. The second guy just sped off. Over the same timeframe I’ve had numerous taxis just pass me by with their lights on. For me it’s not so much the lack of taxis, just their unwillingness to stop or take mid-range fares.”

Another reader, Daniel, said after a recent night out three taxis with their plates lit stopped for him, asked where he was going and drove off when he told them his destination.

“I’m pretty much done with going into town for nights out until it’s clear getting transport home is better,” he said.

One man said his wife had a similar experience – when she told the driver she was going to Knocklyon he rolled up the window and “drove off without saying a word”, he said.

She waited almost an hour for a taxi home. 

“Luckily she had a friend who waited with her or I would have had to take our baby out of her cot to collect her,” he said.

‘This can’t be a shock’

David McGuinness, chairperson of the taxi driver representative organisation Tiomanai Tacsai Na HEireann (TTnH), told The Journal that the industry lost many drivers during the pandemic as demonstrated by the 6,487 inactive drivers recorded by the NTA. 

“Representative groups throughout the pandemic pointed out at every meeting that we’d need to have an industry when the pandemic finished, so this can’t be a shock for the government,” he said.

“It’s extremely busy at peak hours, I think off-peak we haven’t got back to pre-pandemic levels yet. I think people are still reluctant to use buses, it’s really busy on Friday and Saturday from 5pm to 9pm when people are starting to go out, I think people feel safer in their own company in a taxi.”

He said it is clear that drivers are less likely to use taxi apps during busy periods because of the 15% fee they have to pay through an app. 

“When it’s 1am or 2am and it’s busy like that you’re just more likely to pick up from the street, if the apps reduced their fees during those hours it might make a difference,” he said.

McGuinness said there are a number of measures the government should look at including an expansion of late night public transport options, later opening times for nightclubs and a premium rate for taxi drivers during those peak times to encourage those who normally stay home on Friday and Saturday nights to work.

This kind of incentive could encourage drivers who have left the industry to return, he said. 

He also said the government could consider restricting the service during those hours to ranks so there are centralised spots for people to get taxis. Taxis would not be allowed to pick up customers in the city centre other than at these ranks. McGuinness said this rule had worked well in other countries. 

When asked about examples of drivers turning down fares due to their destination, McGuinness said it was “a disgrace” and encouraged customers to report this activity to the NTA.

“This shouldn’t be happening and drivers who do that should face penalties,” he said. “It should be flagged because it’s not the way the majority of drivers operate.”

Review of maximum fares

In response to a number of queries from The Journal, the Department of Transport said the NTA is engaging in a consultation process with the industry as part of its review of the current Maximum Fares Order.

“The review process involves a detailed examination of all of the costs involved in providing these services, including fuel and vehicle costs, and all SPSV [taxi] operators were encouraged to take part in the consultation process which closed on 27 May 2022,” it said. 

The draft Maximum Fares Order 2022 proposed average increases in taxi fares of 12.5%. The department said this would provide for a premium time fare for certain hours and shorter journeys. 

“It should be noted that 57% of the hours in the week occur at Premium Time (20.00 to 08.00, Sundays and Bank Holidays),” it said. 

“This is the period, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights, when there are the most complaints about the unavailability of taxis.”

Supports introduced during the pandemic included an increase in the maximum vehicle age and a measure to allow licence holders to be inactive for 24 months so they could remain attached to the industry with no associated costs. The department said it is hoped that a significant proportion of these licences will return now that demand is increasing.

The NTA is also providing grants, it said, for the provision and conversion of vehicles to ensure they are wheelchair accessible, which is a requirement for new entrants into the industry. Grants are also provided to convert the fleet to lower emission and zero emission vehicles. 

The department said the Advisory Committee on Small Public Service Vehicles continues to meet on a monthly basis and that the NTA, which is the independent regulator of the sector, “has been in constant contact with operators, drivers and representatives throughout the pandemic via email, text messages and phone calls”.

“Given the independence of the NTA, it would be not be appropriate to engage with the Minister for Transport on these issues,” the department said.