Dublin Bus and the National Transport Authority plan to ramp up a campaign encouraging passengers to use headphones in the coming months, reports RTE.
The move aligns with a similar effort by Transport for London (TfL), which is addressing “disruptive behaviour” from passengers playing music or making phone calls using their phone speakers.
TfL reported that the majority of London Underground and bus users view this behaviour as “a nuisance”, with some finding the additional noise particularly stressful, reports RTE.
Speaking on RTÉ’s *Drivetime*, Dublin Bus spokesperson Blake Boland said: “I feel the frustration.
“Many times I have been there, people are catching up on social media or calling friends on FaceTime out loud on speakerphone.
“People deserve a more comfortable bus journey … that 30-minute window on the bus on the way home is a little bit of me time,” reports RTE.
Mr Boland explained that an “education campaign” encouraging passengers to wear headphones or hold off on making phone calls will be expanded in the near future.
“There is the ability there to interrupt, so a driver can be notified of this and might request that a passenger wears earphones or turns off their music, whatever the case may be,” he said, reports RTE.
But added: “You don’t want to get to that stage,” reports RTE.
He noted that there is a desire “to trust in common courtesy and common decency”, and said the campaign’s goal is to “educate people and turn down the volume”.
Mr Boland also called the growth in bus usage and associated investment “phenomenal”, and stressed that ultimately, people want to have a pleasant experience on board.
On the possibility of drivers asking passengers to reduce volume, Mr Boland said Dublin Bus’s top priority is to “do all of this in safety”, reports RTE.
“A bus driver may have 80 passengers on board in a 10-metre-long vehicle, they have a job to do there, they need to concentrate,” he said, adding “that is why we ask people not to distract them”, reports RTE.
He said buses are equipped with loudspeakers, so drivers can make announcements asking individuals to lower their volume, adding “if it has to be escalated, then so be it”.
Mr Boland called the idea of silent carriages an “interesting prospect” but said that unlike trains, buses consist of a single cabin split between upstairs and downstairs.
He said the concept wouldn’t be practical, reports RTE.
“Having that chat with somebody on the bus you have met for the first time and even to connect with people, that can be a lot of value and you don’t want to stop that either,” Mr Boland said.
“You want people to be able to have that conversation with their friends,” he added, reports RTE.
When it comes to passengers addressing loud behaviour themselves, Mr Boland said it remains a “personal choice for people to make”.
“It is not our business to tell people what to do in that situation,” he said, reports RTE.
“We will try to keep up our policies as much as possible, we will keep up these campaigns and we will work that angle,” Mr Boland added, reports RTE.
However, he acknowledged that more effort is required to “completely stamp it out”.
“Not everybody is going to listen to this,” he said, reports RTE.
“This is not particularly common either. It is very frustrating, it is very distracting and quite memorable when it does happen as well,” he added, reports RTE.
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