Booking a Bus on Twitter

BOOKING A BUS got easier with Twitter approaching critical mass in Ireland. An online message sent by Aidan O'Connell seeking two people to share a taxi from Barcelona to Cherbourg ended up with over 50 people sharing a bus on the same route.

The Home News section of the Irish Times explained, "Aidan was among hundreds of Irish people using social media to find alternative routes home as volcanic ash continued to paralyse air transport across Europe."

He sent the above tweet after organising a taxi for his parents to make a 13-hour drive from Spain to France. He told the Irish Times, "I put it on Twitter and within three or four minutes we got results. We changed the cab to a 25-seater minibus and later to a 55-seater minibus" and the cost dropped to €130 each.

If only Twitter was as effective at 2AM when trying to get a cab from centre city Dublin to the outlying areas.

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Genevieve Carberry and Pamela Newenham --"Cab becomes a coach" in the Irish Times, 20 April 2010.

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