What new bus services will Blanchardstown get?

murphaph · 21-08-2005 9:02am #1

According to Fingal Co Co, bus routes will be introduced and augmented to take advantage of the new Ongar Distributor Road, together with the upgrading of Blanchardstown Road North & South, and Snugborough Road North & South to include continuous bus lanes and bus priority measures at the junctions. FCC have the right idea here; Greater Blanchardstown is severed by the N3 Dual Carriageway, most industry is north of this divide whilst most homes are south of it. FCC wants people to be able to live & work in the area without resorting to the car. I wonder, could anyone hazard a guess as to what sort of routes we could expect or what routes people would like to see.

The plans are impressive, there couls easily be a bus from Ongar Village to Ballycoolin that would beat the car hands down.

dbnavan · 22-08-2005 10:46am

the college badly needs to be served better.

Victor · 22-08-2005 6:49pm

Councils don't do bus services (generally).

murphaph · 22-08-2005 7:34pm

True, but Dublin Bus etc. don't do bus lanes either so it takes partnership for a quality service that people find attractive. FCC have been in consultation with BAC according to their transport chief (incidentally the 103 staff strong transport department of FCC moved to Blanchardstown from O'Connell Street a week or two ago, which can only be a good thing for the area I hope) and they reckon they've been assured that existing routes will be augmented and new ones added where necessarry to take advantage of the new bus lanes coming on stream.

From Community Voice

One such plan is the new Ongar Road which is currently under construction and indeed is now ahead of its original schedule and expected to open later this year. “This road will provide a vital link in the Dublin 15 road network as well as providing new public transport corridors for the area,” says Peter. “We have been in detailed discussions with Dublin Bus about the opening of the Ongar Road and they will be providing additional buses and new routes for Dublin 15 which will be routed along the new road.”

Here's hoping anyway! I dare say the residents of Ongar will be pleased with any improvement to the crappy 39.

Nevyn · 22-08-2005 7:57pm

I dare say the residents of Ongar will be pleased with any improvement to the crappy 39

At least they have a chance of getting on the damn thing an getting a seat
unlike the rest of us on the route due to the buses starting up in ongar and
being filled well before the shopping centre.

murphaph · 22-08-2005 8:32pm

Thaed wrote:

At least they have a chance of getting on the damn thing an getting a seat
unlike the rest of us on the route due to the buses starting up in ongar and
being filled well before the shopping centre.

I think perhaps the 39 should run from Ongar straight down the new road to the centre (serving south Hartstown and Mountviewin the process) and maybe a different bus could start at Clonsilla station, running as the current 39 does to the centre and directly into Blanchardstown and on to the city. Another route should serve the Clonsilla road, it's just too much of a diversion.

Metrobest · 22-08-2005 9:18pm

I think there should be a bus from Blanchardstown Hospital to the city centre, via Blanchardstown village, Castleknock train station, Castleknock village, Phoenix Park (Chesterfield Avenue- Parkgate Street), Heuston Station, North Quays and Dame Street. Every five minutes during the peak, every ten in the off peak. Make it fast (via the Park) and frequent (every 5 mins) and it will attract a lot of business. And give the route to a private operator, not Dublin Bus!

Dub13 · 22-08-2005 9:25pm

Metrobest wrote:

Make it fast (via the Park) !

Dublin Bus are not allowed use the park.

murphaph · 23-08-2005 12:42pm

Metrobest wrote:

I think there should be a bus from Blanchardstown Hospital to the city centre, via Blanchardstown village, Castleknock train station, Castleknock village, Phoenix Park (Chesterfield Avenue- Parkgate Street), Heuston Station, North Quays and Dame Street. Every five minutes during the peak, every ten in the off peak. Make it fast (via the Park) and frequent (every 5 mins) and it will attract a lot of business. And give the route to a private operator, not Dublin Bus!

Starting it at the Hospital would be a bad idea, given that FCC are currently widenning Snugborough Road North from Ballycoolin Ind Est (big employment centre) ad adding bus lanes all the way to the N3, Be a better idea to start in Ballycoolin and take in the NAC and the other employers along that road. I'm trying to figue out how Blanchardston can better be served, not really how buses run to town, but how transport works in D15 internally.

Porterstown (between Clonsilla & Coolmine stations) features heavily in FCC's plans for an interchange station with buses to run from north of the N3 via the town centre to Porterstown along a widenned Blanchardstown Road South to the railway. I suggested this ages ago (I know-a cursory look at a map and it makes sense so I'm not claiming I'm some sort of transport genius!).

I've added a map of D15 with the roads being built/upgraded to include high quality bus lanes. Given this context, Porterstown makes a lot of sense (and the station itself is to be built at no cost to the taxpayer as Castlethorn have to build it as part of a plannin approval for Woodbrrok apartments). You can see the upgraded roads converge on Porterstown at the railway and a site has been maintained under the new bridge over the canal & railway. The roads in red are either under construction right now, or are existing but need widenning on one side. They are all new roads (ie, built in the last 20 years, straight and level with no issues in widenning them in the main-not twisty old boreens needing major work). The progress on the Ongar Road is quite astounding really, they are flying along. Hopefully the same progress will be seen on the other roads.

dmeehan · 23-08-2005 1:16pm

Victor wrote:

Councils don't do bus services....

... but if they did, they wopuld probably be the best bus services in the world

sorry, couldnt resist!

Metrobest · 24-08-2005 10:45pm

murphaph wrote:

Starting it at the Hospital would be a bad idea, given that FCC are currently widenning Snugborough Road North from Ballycoolin Ind Est (big employment centre) ad adding bus lanes all the way to the N3, Be a better idea to start in Ballycoolin and take in the NAC and the other employers along that road. I'm trying to figue out how Blanchardston can better be served, not really how buses run to town, but how transport works in D15 internally.

There could be other bus routes for those areas, Philip, and I think you have the knowledge to advise on those! But what I'm talking about, for this route, is a really reliable quality bus corridor which achieves three things:
- A quality link between Blanchardstown hospital/village and Castleknock train station
- Ditto for Castleknock village and station
- And a high-speed, direct route into town via the Park

To make connections between Blanchardstown and Castleknock station reliable and frequencies smooth, the bus needs to terminate as close as possible to the village. The situation we're all familiar with is the bus that left its terminus in the most random housing estate miles from the main road, gets caught in traffic, and bunches up with three other buses, leaving a posse of irate passengers at the latter end of the bus route who have to wait far longer than neccessary. Simple bus routes make things simple.

murphaph · 25-08-2005 10:40am

Metrobest wrote:

There could be other bus routes for those areas, Philip, and I think you have the knowledge to advise on those! But what I'm talking about, for this route, is a really reliable quality bus corridor which achieves three things:
- A quality link between Blanchardstown hospital/village and Castleknock train station
- Ditto for Castleknock village and station
- And a high-speed, direct route into town via the Park

To make connections between Blanchardstown and Castleknock station reliable and frequencies smooth, the bus needs to terminate as close as possible to the village. The situation we're all familiar with is the bus that left its terminus in the most random housing estate miles from the main road, gets caught in traffic, and bunches up with three other buses, leaving a posse of irate passengers at the latter end of the bus route who have to wait far longer than neccessary. Simple bus routes make things simple.

The whole point of quality bus lanes is that they eliminate this uncertainty. The bus lane is already being built from Ballycoolin to the N3 (right beside the hospital) so there would be no loss in service reliability by extending your proposed route up the Snugborough Road along the new bus lane to Ballycoolin, thus capturing a whole othe rmarket-people living in town/Castleknock/Blanch and working in Ballycoolin.

gurramok · 27-08-2005 1:15pm

murphaph wrote:

The whole point of quality bus lanes is that they eliminate this uncertainty. The bus lane is already being built from Ballycoolin to the N3 (right beside the hospital) so there would be no loss in service reliability by extending your proposed route up the Snugborough Road along the new bus lane to Ballycoolin, thus capturing a whole othe rmarket-people living in town/Castleknock/Blanch and working in Ballycoolin.

Hmm..
Is the bus lane the reason way they are chopping down the trees on the residential side of Snugborough road?
Will they have traffic lights at Rosemount Bus Park?..(long overdue)
Is that a new slip road they are building from Ballycoolin road onto Snugborough from rosemount direction?

murphaph · 27-08-2005 2:09pm

gurramok wrote:

Hmm..
Is the bus lane the reason way they are chopping down the trees on the residential side of Snugborough road?

Yes. Council says that they own that land and to widen on the other side would be a whole can of CPO's they can avoid by hacking down the 10 year old trees. Would have been nicer if they could have moved them or something but I don't know how feasible that would be.

gurramok wrote:

Will they have traffic lights at Rosemount Bus Park?..(long overdue)

Dunno.

gurramok wrote:

Is that a new slip road they are building from Ballycoolin road onto Snugborough from rosemount direction?

Dunno, haven't seen it. Must take a look.

Mailman · 27-08-2005 2:46pm

Until they get the interchanges with the N3 and the interchange between the N3 and M50 sorted it is all for naught - it just moves traffic jams to different locations.
Blanchardstown Road North\South N3 interchange is of a poor design but the Snugborough road N3 interchange is a disaster.

murphaph · 27-08-2005 2:56pm

Mailman wrote:

Until they get the interchanges with the N3 and the interchange between the N3 and M50 sorted it is all for naught - it just moves traffic jams to different locations.
Blanchardstown Road North\South N3 interchange is of a poor design...

Not when it was built, but today it is lacking alright, however a bus lane right to the junction means the buses only have to sit in traffic for the length of the bridge itself at most.

Mailman wrote:

...but the Snugborough road N3 interchange is a disaster.

Horrendous monstrosity. I personally think the slip road up from the N3 should never have been built. Anyway, the council has plans to modify it but I can't see what can really be done (at grade) that will be any use. Again though, the buses need only sit in traffic until they get the lights if there's a bus lane right to the junction on both sides of the bridge.

murphaph · 22-10-2005 6:06pm

Well, the bus stops have been installed on this new stretch of road. The blacktop is down at the Ongar end roundabout and the junction with Shelerin Road is closed tomorrow morning to do the tie-in there. They really are flying woth this project, so hopefully some effing use can be made of the bus lanes by actual buses!

What new bus services will Blanchardstown get?

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