My email sent a few weeks ago;
To Pat Crotty and Elaina Fitzgerald Kane, members of the coalition about Taxi shortages.
From Ken Cashman, Cork city night time Taxi driver. Badge number L4447.
What I am proposing and hopefully you might agree and put forward is for all city and large town Bus routes to stay open for an extra 4 hours from 11.30pm to 3.30am on Friday and Saturday nights, to include the Sundays of bank holiday weekends, + 16th/17th March and 26th/31st December as the taxies alone cannot cope with the demand at these times.
Double the bus fare price after midnight and Double the bus driver's salary and possibly put a security guard on every bus after midnight.
If the above was implemented there would be little talk on the radio or press ever again about shortages of taxies.
The simple solution for everyone is just to get more taxies, but the problem is that it is only for the 8 hours per week as mentioned above that there is a shortage of taxies, for the rest of the week Taxi drivers are waiting around for fares.
Best, Ken.