RPA people at luas stops (red line) this morning

maxheadroom

Did anyone else notice the RPA people at the luas stops on the red line this morning? Looked like they were recording the time the tram arrived at the stop and the number of people who got on.

Traffic

They are doing their first major census.
Its similar to the annual Irish Rail census which occurs on the third Thursday of November (last thur)
I think they are recording ppl on and off each tram and prob timings as well.

Majority of them are not RPA OR CONNEX but similar ot the irish rail census are subcontracted in for the day.

It s a long day starting at frist tram this am and finishing at the last tram.
The day is broken into three shifts

maxheadroom

Thanks Traffic - assumed it was something like that alright

Traffic wrote:

Majority of them are not RPA OR CONNEX but similar ot the irish rail census are subcontracted in for the day

I saw a big RPA logo on their record sheets, so I guessed they were RPA people

John R

maxheadroom wrote:

Thanks Traffic - assumed it was something like that alright



I saw a big RPA logo on their record sheets, so I guessed they were RPA people

They were all students hired in for the day. :eek:

Traffic

Similar with the irish rail census the majority of them are taken from DIT Bolton st from the transport department there.

Genghis

Traffic wrote:

They are doing their first major census.
Its similar to the annual Irish Rail census which occurs on the third Thursday of November (last thur)

I noticed the guys doing this last week at Heuston. Then the thought struck me - a couple of days previously IE announced their new timetable for 2005 (effective 11/12/04 to apx 11/12/05).

Now would it not make more sense to do the survey before they schedule services for the next year?

Traffic

The survey is done on an annual basis to quantify the number of pax passing through each station in order to calculate:
rents on shops in stations
rates for advertising

As well as to see how many are using the service on a daily basis

John R

Genghis wrote:

I noticed the guys doing this last week at Heuston. Then the thought struck me - a couple of days previously IE announced their new timetable for 2005 (effective 11/12/04 to apx 11/12/05).

Now would it not make more sense to do the survey before they schedule services for the next year?

With all the elements involved in scheduling it is probably just in time to influence the 2006 timetables.

jonnybadd

Did the same on the busses last wednesday or thursday

Alun

Why the need to do a survey? Surely they could get enough information from the ticketing machines, both the diy ones and the ones the guys at the ticket offices use to issue tickets. OK, they wouldn't be able to identify exactly what train the people who were buying the tickets were trying to get on, but they could hazard a pretty good guess. Season tickets would pose a problem, but again there's probably a fairly limited number of possibilities per route given the times most people with these kind of tickets would travel.

John R

Alun wrote:

Why the need to do a survey? Surely they could get enough information from the ticketing machines, both the diy ones and the ones the guys at the ticket offices use to issue tickets. OK, they wouldn't be able to identify exactly what train the people who were buying the tickets were trying to get on, but they could hazard a pretty good guess. Season tickets would pose a problem, but again there's probably a fairly limited number of possibilities per route given the times most people with these kind of tickets would travel.

Alright then, assuming that I have a weekly Bus/Luas ticket, what times do I use the Luas and what stops do I get on/off at?

Alun

John R wrote:

Alright then, assuming that I have a weekly Bus/Luas ticket, what times do I use the Luas and what stops do I get on/off at?

Sorry, I was referring to trains since the thread seemed to have drifted in that direction. i should have made that clear.

I assumed that if you buy a train season ticket of any sort that it is confined to a particular route, and while you may not be able to pin down the exact trains used by each ticket, you could reasonably narrow down the choice, possibly to one for some routes, based on journey times and average work starting times.

For single use tickets it would not be unreasonable to assume that a ticket bought would probably be used on the next available train on that route.

Can't be much less reliable than a bunch of disinterested students counting heads in the rush hour.

Traffic

Alun being one of those "disinterested students counting heads in the rush hour": Irish Rail have of course examined the process of carrying out the census by ticket sales alone but this would not have been accurate enough
Therfore for the past five years IR have subcontracted transport degree students from Bolton St. Being a recent honours graduate of this course and with 6 surveys completed i believe the students carry out a very accurate count.

sliabh

Traffic wrote:

Being a recent honours graduate of this course and with 6 surveys completed i believe the students carry out a very accurate count.

Bah, then you are not a neutral observer. Your posts may have been tainted by your biases. If you can't provide an inpartial and fair view there is no place for you here on the internet. Please stop posting!

Traffic

Alas i am not a neutral observer, i therefore according to sliabh must stop posting on the internet
If you had to be a neutral observer on this message board there should be no messages posted!

Victor

Alun wrote:

I assumed that if you buy a train season ticket of any sort that it is confined to a particular route

Some are, many aren't. The Dublin Bus Monthly tickets cover anywhere from Swords to Lucan to Shankill. So by default, all those people used route 1?

Alun wrote:

For single use tickets it would not be unreasonable to assume that a ticket bought would probably be used on the next available train on that route.

But will it tell the marketing people whether you are an 18-34 male ABC1?