I have written previously about the lottery it is, trying  to get to work in the wastelands every day.

How since November last year the 40D bus route is on schedule (when it actually appears that is) about 25% of the time. How arriving for an earlier bus during rush hour is actually pointless as there is no consistency as to when a bus will be cancelled (Dublin Bus with their insane logic pretend that buses are not cancelled, as they seem unable to grasp the idea that if a bus service like the 40D is meant to appear every 15 minutes, yet passengers are standing in the freezing cold for forty minutes for some surly driver to arrive, then the bus is not late, it has been cancelled. I guess it might damage their fake reliability statistics if they class these as cancelled buses. )

About how complaining to Dublin Bus is a pointless exercise, as they send out a standard form response ‘apologising for any inconvenience caused’ by the failed 40D bus route, but fail to address any of the reasons for the failure of the route. Additional buses; or an amended timetable of the removal of certain stops so the buses can be diverted away from the problem areas are not considered. The fact that the failure of this busy commuter route is endangering people’s livelihoods, as employers won’t tolerate persistent lateness; doesn’t seem to bother Dublin Bus.

Essentially the 40D bus is one hot mess of a route. Which to all its passengers is a serious problem. Luckily Dublin Bus itself doesn’t have to worry – it’s not their jobs on the line.

Well imagine my surprise this morning at 8.30, when the bus actually appeared on schedule. Granted this may actually have been the 7.30 service arriving an hour late. I don’t think so however, as there was no crowd of disgruntled, cold passengers threatening mutiny on the footpath. We boarded and stared at each other in stunned silence. How was this possible. The 40D route had actually appeared, and even more bizarrely was on time. Praise Dolly, I thought to myself.

The early stages of the journey was quite nerve-wracking. It is so uncharacteristic of this bus to be on time that we suspected sinister forces were at play.

However all seemed to be going OK. Slowly I relaxed. Perhaps this was the start of a brave new world of regular arrival time at work.

I closed my eyes for a snooze, with an ear kept open for the announced stops. I always start preparing for disembarkation two stops before my own.

I knew that we were in the vicinity of work. However there hadn’t been an announcement for a while. I opened one eye. My eyes shot open. What were those buildings? When one travels the same route to the wastelands day after day, you learn the route.

These were unrecognised buildings however. Had the route changed, and I’d missed it? I glanced at my fellow passengers who displayed a similar look of alarm on their faces.

After about fifteen minutes of wandering about, without stopping the driver announced that he was lost. How could this be? The clownish incompetence of Dublin Bus, and its abject failure to run a bus service for a capital city is known to all. But at least its drivers generally tend to know where they are going. Not today. Eventually after about thirty minutes driving through the highways and byways of the industrial wastelands of north county Dublin, we arrived back on route. One of the passengers asked the driver in a concerned manner if he knew where he was now.

What I have learned this morning is how unimaginably vast the wastelands are. Stretching for grey mile after grey mile. A sign proclaiming ‘The death of hope’ should be erected at the entrance.

What I have also learned is that what providence has provided – an on-time bus; Dublin Bus will take away – a driver who gets lost.

I arrived at my desk at 9.45. A mere hour and three quarters after I had left home.