The Gravedigger Ghost Tour

Totally with you on that one, Alek. Enforcement has a large part to play. But enforcement in my opinion would come next, after a proper review and allocation of bus stopping space. Those red buses take quite a liberty, but then, they are actively selling themselves on the street, unlike many other private buses that are just looking to load and unload. I'm not saying that's right, just highlighting one cause.

The issue is enormous. Failure number one is years of grossly negligent and frankly pathetic management of the whole city infrastructure for decades, from street layouts, to traffic management, to priority, to pedestrians, to bus stops, to signage, to everything. Dublin Bus have traditionally had 'grandfather' rights over all the bus stops, from the days when somebody simply arrived and plonked a pole down in a kerb. The bus stop locations are generally throwbacks to donkeys' years ago when there were no other buses in Dublin other than CIE, and everybody travelled by bus.

Nowadays, the demographics have changed radically. There is far more traffic, far less buses, far more private buses, far more taxis, and far less kerbspace. The idea that Dublin Bus can continue to command the vast majority of available kerbspace for an outdated and inefficient bus service that only a very small percentage of the city population use, while an ever increasing amount of private buses, handling port traffic, cruise ships, local and international tours, school groups, students, conferences, and a host of other work, much of which is part of the very fabric of the city economy, have to jostle for position, illegally boarding and alighting wherever they can, because there is simply no suitable allocation at all, is simply not feasible.

Those red buses are doing more than simply boarding and alighting. They are actively using the kerbspace to sell their wares, and arguably the tour bus in the OP is doing the same. They are most probably extending themselves well over what is reasonable to allocate them, but they have a place in the city, like everyone else, and the failure of the city authorities to liaise with them, and all the other people who need accommodation, leads to mayhem. How can you enforce anything on bus operators, or anyone else, when you haven't even begun to review what the basic requirements are in the first place?

Dublin City Council are much like Dublin Bus, in that they are trying to use the same approach that worked in the 1950s to accommodate the far different needs of the twenty first century. The whole system is wrong, from the very street layouts, to the passage of general traffic through it, and there is not the slightest sign that anyone in authority has any grasp or awareness of the need for a new approach befitting a new century. As you were, move along now.

In fairness, I wanted to disagree with Hyde Road, but this survey from September '13 seems to indicate that car usage is up and bus usage is down in the GDA(page 14).

AlekSmart wrote: »

I'm in general agreement on this issue also,however in fairness to the "City Authorities",it has to be pointed out that they DID engage with both Red and Green Bus Tours on the issue of Stops on O Connell St.

Well that's fair enough then, regarding the red buses. I'm inclined to feel they provide an important function in the city, as do the equivalent Dublin Bus tour vehicles, and that the requirements of these tours really needs to be nailed down. Then let the enforcement take place, too, and be seen to. It doesn't quite do anything for the whole host of other private buses operating tours, both international and local, who need to pick up and set down at all the busy tourist locations, and the shops, jostling with the regular Dublin Bus services, and tours like the Gravedigger, which need to operate from somewhere. If not College Green, well then somewhere else. But where?

Only this afternoon, I was circling round waiting to collect a large tour group who were shopping (a LOT of shopping) in Henry Street. I vaguely suggested Fleet Street as a collection point, with an option on D'Olier Street. At 5pm, every street in the area is at a standstill, and kerbspace to pick up, let alone wait, is practically non-existent. It took 25 minutes to get from Cook Street to College Green, as College Green is down to single file, and is an unmanaged disaster. No Garda to stop cars from flooding into Westmoreland Street. Buses from Dame Street and Church Lane all jammed into single file, with taxis filling every available inch of roadspace, often right up against a bus driver's rear tailswing, leaving him trapped completely, and cyclists piling through from every angle. What a mess

Then finally I get through the meleé, only to find I can't make the turn into Fleet Street without mounting the kerb, because Fleet Street is full of parked, empty Dublin Bus vehicles. I squeeze through, then circle round into College Street, back to Westmoreland Street, and on to D'Olier Street. No space anywhere. Back into Fleet Street again, and meet one of my tour guides. Wedge myself into the kerb for a moment, watching the RT display at the bus stop (which tells me how many minutes I have before a Dublin Bus comes looking for his stop - a Godsend). Then a 150 arrives behind, so I have to move again. Circle again, and now there is my large group on O'Connell Bridge, but nowhere to collect them. I pull into D'Olier Street a second time. There is the N7 bus parked waiting for his departure time (because he hasn't been given a suitable location either) so I pull ahead of him, and into the Aircoach Cork stop, where the kerb is packed with people with suitcases. I only hope I can get my group loaded before he arrives. No point going to Nassau Street, as that'll be jammed too, as will Parnell Square, as will the quays. There is simply no loading space at all, anywhere for a private coach, and if there was, there would be an empty coach parked in it, as there is simply no adequate off street parking for coaches anywhere in Dublin, except down at the docks, which is too far in standstill traffic for coaches to make reliable collection times.

AlekSmart wrote: »

It is,equally,worth bearing in mind that the Original plan for OC St did NOT have a Taxi Rank,something which was reinstated after strong lobbying by the then Junior Minister For Transport it seems....

And which former Junior Minister might that have been...?