Bus Route 39 (No more going to Blanch. Shop)

ciaran76

Hi ,
Noticed yesterday no number 39's going to Blanchardstown Shop. center (B.S.C). And this morning i was talking to a fellow commuter who said it was for X-mas time only ?

Anyone know more about this? My neighbour was delighted as he was in town 15 mins quicker then normal. But not really fair for people who work in centre or the old people who use the bus to go shopping.

Ciaran

Traffic

This might explain it from todays indo:

'Traffic chaos at blanchardstown shopping centre has led to Dublin bus drivers dropping shoppers a 10 minute walk away to avoid huge delays on their routes'

This was due to heavy traffic congestion around the centre yesterday
I dont see anything on their website re. the changes. I think its highly unlikely that DB would drop the 39 from the shopping centre on an ongoing basis.

ciaran76

As someone who has lived/living there a long time. I have even wrote a letter to Dublin bus suggesting that they should have a better local service going to Blanch. and would stop people using the 39 just for local journeys but they didn't listen.

LFCFan

ciaran76 wrote:

As someone who has lived/living there a long time. I have even wrote a letter to Dublin bus suggesting that they should have a better local service going to Blanch. and would stop people using the 39 just for local journeys but they didn't listen.

the local service to the centre is brutal. The 236 for instance goes from Tyrrelstown a few times a day and the times are stupid beyond belief and there is no weekend service.

Victor

ciaran76 wrote:

Noticed yesterday no number 39's going to Blanchardstown Shop. center (B.S.C).

You mean Blanchardstown Town Center (withthe cinemas) - Blanchardstown Shopping Center is the Superquinn one on the Main Street in Blanchardstown.

funk-you

The 39 doing that enormous loop around lohunda/hartstown/huntstown and then into the centre and also on to blanch village before heading to town needs some serious re-evaluation.

I live just after Ongar heading towards the centre and if i get on the 39 to head to town it will take me a minimum of an hour. If there is any kind of traffic at all it can take up to an hour and a half sometimes more. The trains only go every hour/hour and a half but still i'm usually better off waiting the hour for the train to get to town. By car this journey would be about 20 mins with not much traffic.

One major link to the city centre for the people of blanchardstown is not enough, as a previous poster said there are too many people doing the local journey and just the pure distance of the journey if you stretched it out is enormous never mind the traffic or it getting bogged down in the centre or village.

If a local bus serving the loop was introduced it would free up the 39 to go directly from ongar(skipping the left it takes up lohunda) straight to the centre, then without looping back out the same way it came in, go down towards the village via the road behind KFC then into the village and onto the navan road. Its the only thing i can think of to alleiviate its problem now without having to lay on loads of extra routes. Either that or just make one or two of the 39's an hour take this route, say every half hour on the half hour that way people could get to town with a lot less hassle.

Just my little idea anyway and it would still serve all the people it does now with only two buses every hour skipping the long way round.

ciaran76

Victor wrote:

You mean Blanchardstown Town Center (withthe cinemas) - Blanchardstown Shopping Center is the Superquinn one on the Main Street in Blanchardstown.

Yes thats what i meant

Also spoke to a bus driver this morning who said that they were only by-passing the BTC for a week.He said there is a dispute between Dublin Bus and the BTC managers ?????

HomunQlus

Victor wrote:

You mean Blanchardstown Town Center (withthe cinemas) - Blanchardstown Shopping Center is the Superquinn one on the Main Street in Blanchardstown.

The big one is officially called

Blanchardstown Shopping Centre or BSC.

The little one is called

Blanchardstown Village - The one with the Superquinn.


However, I checked the website of them, no news, no announcements, no nothing. I spoke to one driver, he told me it's because of the traffic (which is to my experience practically zero between 6-7 AM). He also told me this change is in place for indefinitely.

If they really go ahead with this, people have to walk at least 400 meters until they get to the Centre... I mean, Dublin Bus, let's face it: That's suicide.

Also, I think they should have told the people in advance, not like just doing it.

I have been living here for 4 1/2 years, the route never changed. The 39 has become the bus I take the most. This is an outrage!!

If it's because of a dispute, fine, let them have a dispute. This is however, no reason whatsoever not to serve the BSC anymore, and leave all the people behind that rely on the bus going into the BSC.

:mad: :eek:

_Kaiser_

HomunQlus wrote:

However, I checked the website of them, no news, no announcements, no nothing. I spoke to one driver, he told me it's because of the traffic (which is to my experience practically zero between 6-7 AM). He also told me this change is in place for indefinitely.

If they really go ahead with this, people have to walk at least 400 meters until they get to the Centre... I mean, Dublin Bus, let's face it: That's suicide.

Also, I think they should have told the people in advance, not like just doing it.

I have been living here for 4 1/2 years, the route never changed. The 39 has become the bus I take the most. This is an outrage!!

If it's because of a dispute, fine, let them have a dispute. This is however, no reason whatsoever not to serve the BSC anymore, and leave all the people behind that rely on the bus going into the BSC.

:mad: :eek:

Ah that explains why the 39 took a left at the roundabout to the shopping centre this morning :rolleyes:

As usual it's another idiotic decision by DB... Direct your complaints to :

Declan Murray (Phibsboro depot - seems Phil Donohue has moved to Donnybrook).
(01) 703 3284 Mon. - Fri. 0830 to 1700
(01) 703 3462 Mon. - Sun. 0700 to 2330

jlang

If they can shorten the route at Christmas, when more people want to go to the shopping centre, why can't they do it all year round and save the 20mins it takes to go up and back down that little road.

_Kaiser_

A better routing might be to come off the N3 at the Snugborough road sliproad, turn left, up that road and then right into the Centre (similar to how the 70 runs) and onto Ongar from there and then out the same way on the return trip.

fly_agaric

funk-you wrote:

The 39 doing that enormous loop around lohunda/hartstown/huntstown and then into the centre and also on to blanch village before heading to town needs some serious re-evaluation.

I live just after Ongar heading towards the centre and if i get on the 39 to head to town it will take me a minimum of an hour. If there is any kind of traffic at all it can take up to an hour and a half sometimes more. The trains only go every hour/hour and a half but still i'm usually better off waiting the hour for the train to get to town. By car this journey would be about 20 mins with not much traffic.

One major link to the city centre for the people of blanchardstown is not enough, as a previous poster said there are too many people doing the local journey and just the pure distance of the journey if you stretched it out is enormous never mind the traffic or it getting bogged down in the centre or village.

If a local bus serving the loop was introduced it would free up the 39 to go directly from ongar(skipping the left it takes up lohunda) straight to the centre, then without looping back out the same way it came in, go down towards the village via the road behind KFC then into the village and onto the navan road. Its the only thing i can think of to alleiviate its problem now without having to lay on loads of extra routes. Either that or just make one or two of the 39's an hour take this route, say every half hour on the half hour that way people could get to town with a lot less hassle.

Just my little idea anyway and it would still serve all the people it does now with only two buses every hour skipping the long way round.

So, would people in those estates serviced by the "loop" have to change buses into town or walk a fair way - while the Ongarites still have their direct route into town? Getting there faster to boot! Very nice setup for getting all the busy-bees in the new estates to and from work but a tad unfair wouldn't you say?

_Kaiser_

How about...

- Through the village, up the Clonsilla Road, past the firestation as normal
- RIGHT at the roundabout there and down past the apartments, then left into the centre (like the 237 does) and on out as it runs now to Ongar.

..Same on the way back. Saves the loopback and that road (you know the one I mean) is served by the 39B (I think?) anyway

funk-you

fly_agaric wrote:

So, would people in those estates serviced by the "loop" have to change buses into town or walk a fair way - while the Ongarites still have their direct route into town? Getting there faster to boot! Very nice setup for getting all the busy-bees in the new estates to and from work but a tad unfair wouldn't you say?

as i said if you'll take another look: two buses per hour take the route i mentioned and the rest of the 39's take the original route. lets face it, there are plenty of 39's(although possibly never when you want one)and two per hour skipping part of the journey which is mainly used by locals to go to the centre instead of town would cause little or no disturbance to the schedule. ive lived all over blanch my whole life and was actually on the very 1st 39 to ever serve the area but since then the route has just been lengthened whereas another should be put on along side it. this isnt exactly feasable at the moment(due to lack of buses) so the best idea i can come up with off the top of my head would be this. if you can think of something better and more practical i would gladly like to hear it and take it on board. would you not agree that you are basically trapped in ongar with little ways out be it because of terrible traffic along the clonsilla road and train station junction and the navan road and then if there is little traffic still take sometimes 30-40 mins just to get to the centre never mind town?

and the busy bees comment makes me think you might have something against someone who's been saving for years to buy a new house in dublin. ive grown up in blanch and am as down to earth as you'll get so i dont particularly like that part of your post. i'm not trying to sound argumentative but seriously, no need for it.

HomunQlus

I have written to Dublin Bus via their website, asked what's going on. Here's what I got back:

Thank you for your e-mail.

There is on going dispute which has resulted in the unions advising their members not to go into the centre. The traffic situaitonin the centre has been a serious problem in the centre for a number of years and the unions decided to bring tit to a head .Dublin Bus were unaware of this wildcat action when it took place on monday and the management have done their utmost to resolve the issue between the centre and the drivers, through their unions. The matter should be resolved by the weekend.

Our apologies for the problems caused by this but we were not in any position to rectify the matter.

John Graham
Administration Officer
Public Affairs Office
ph 7033160

That is really interesting.

daymobrew

Dublin Bus wrote:

Our apologies for the problems caused by this but we were not in any position to rectify the matter.

Why can't they discipline the drivers? By not taking the proper route they are not doing their jobs.

I realise that traffic through the Centre can be a real PITA (I avoid the place at weekends) so the drivers could be avoiding it because:
1) they are being consious of the customers and want to provide a better service to the city centre, or
2) they are getting pressure from their managers for not getting to the city centre quick enough

In neither case do they have the right to change the route without permission.

funk-you wrote:

would you not agree that you are basically trapped in ongar with little ways out be it because of terrible traffic along the clonsilla road and train station junction

Maybe the 39 will be routed down the new road (Ongar to Blanch Road South, parallel to Clonsilla Road), thus avoiding the situation you describe.

ciaran76

daymobrew wrote:

Maybe the 39 will be routed down the new road (Ongar to Blanch Road South, parallel to Clonsilla Road), thus avoiding the situation you describe.

From what i heard from 1 driver is they are talking about new routes going down the Ongar road instead of going to B.S.C. But nothing has been finalised yet and also heard on George Hook radio show on Newstalk some fella from Dublin Bus saying they are waiting for the Ongar road to open and new routes will be assigned to the area.

_Kaiser_

Thank you for your e-mail.

There is on going dispute which has resulted in the unions advising their members not to go into the centre. The traffic situaitonin the centre has been a serious problem in the centre for a number of years and the unions decided to bring tit to a head .Dublin Bus were unaware of this wildcat action when it took place on monday and the management have done their utmost to resolve the issue between the centre and the drivers, through their unions. The matter should be resolved by the weekend.

Our apologies for the problems caused by this but we were not in any position to rectify the matter.

John Graham
Administration Officer
Public Affairs Office
ph 7033160

Hmm.... so they couldn't have:

1. Advised people of this by maybe calling Dublin radio stations and asked them to advise people of this "wildcat action" on their news bulletins - simultaneously also painting the union in a very bad light for inconviencing people like this without notice or having gone through the "proper channels?

2. Had inspectors onsite to advise people who may have been standing there for ages waiting on a bus? (If this in fact happened then never mind )

3. Suspended/disciplined the drivers in question? What kind of a response is "we weren't in a position to recify the matter"??? After all, who runs this company? Tail wagging the dog I think, and something that should be actively stamped out. Do the job your being paid to do, or find employment elsewhere! If you think you have a legitimate complaint then there's a process for raising this, but the union and drivers involved should be held accountable and action taken in this instance.

4. Run a spell checker through their emails before they send them - especially from the Public Affairs office!

oneweb

Last week there were at least 4 people with clipboards taking note of the busses going into town and 1 guy (probably more, I fell asleep) on the way back. I'd imagine they're trying to calculate a decent timetable or new route - EVENTUALLY.

The traffic around the town centre is brutal in the run-up to Christmas. The fact that planning permission for the hotel complex near the Centre had a requirement of the development of a major transport hub at the centre says it all, and by the looks of it the developers will get away with leaving that bit out.

The drivers have a stupid knack of not stopping where there's supposed to be stops, taking the odd detour without informing passengers (tree blown down on Coolmine Road, apparently) and speeding around the unfinished roundabout at Powercity only to jam on the brakes to avoid a 4" road depth difference.

The 30-minute-inch from the Roselawn junction as far as the village junction is just the sh!t altogether. I'd hate to have to commute from Ongar on a daily basis on, as say-all do-little Joan Burton calls it, the wanderly wagon.

TempestSabre

The problem is they've built too many house apartments in D.15. The traffic infrasturcture can't handle it. They've ruined the area now. The problem is not limited to BTC, all over the area the traffic is brutal, there simply isn't capacity to take all the traffic. One of the reasons why public transport is so dire in the area. The roads can't take bus lanes, so the buses get stuck. The train can't take the numbers who need to use it. So everyone uses cars. it can take 20mins just to get out my estate in the mornings.

I'n about 1/2 mile from BTC. But it easier to get to Liffey Valley SC then BTC.

MrJoeSoap

Buses in D15 are a joke, full stop.

I live roughly a 25 minute walk from the centre, it would probably be a 4/5 minute drive at this hour of the night from my front door to the blue entrance of the Centre.

Getting a bus to the centre, however, takes about 30-35 minutes (10 minute wait followed by a scenic tour of Hartstown). There should certainly be a split between the Ongar route and the Clonsilla/Hartstown route, increased frequency of service and hopefully they will make use of the new road being built.

The traffic on the Clonsilla road from the Shell garage to Clonsilla village is pretty pathetic at any sort of a busy hour of the evening, and hopefully the new road will ease this problem to some extent.

As for the actual topic being discussed here, I can understand people who commute to the City Centre from anywhere past the Blanch Centre (Hartstown, Clonsilla, Ongar etc...) being delighted. The little detour into the centre is a major problem. As suggested above, it would make so much more sense if the bus would turn right at the roundabout after the fire-station (on the way back from town). It would cut about 10-15 mins off the journey straight away, the only (and very slight problem imo) being that people going to the centre would have to exit the bus on the library side of the road. No biggie, imo.

Mimikyu

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ciaran76

Good idea there on the 39A's.

Also the buses are back going into the BSC. But also noticed yesterday they are putting down some new bustops outside the McDonalds (drive thru) /Xtra-Vision on both sides of the road. Strange

^CwAzY^

They are goin thru the centre again now..

Victor

I was there today. Buses were coming in the west entrance and going back out that way. They don't normally do that, do they?

John R

Victor wrote:

I was there today. Buses were coming in the west entrance and going back out that way. They don't normally do that, do they?

Most of them do.

murphaph

Those new bus stops near McDonalds are the same design as have been installed all along the Ongar Distributor Road. Are they the new standard for Dublin? They are a definite improvement over the older type, at least aesthetically they are. I hope they're robust though.

jlang

Victor wrote:

I was there today. Buses were coming in the west entrance and going back out that way. They don't normally do that, do they?

Ridiculous, but that's the route.

oneweb

Victor wrote:

I was there today. Buses were coming in the west entrance and going back out that way. They don't normally do that, do they?

That's the normal route for the 70. Every 39 I've gotten lately has gone by Power City, not sure if it goes into the centre after that though, but looking at the gridlock last Saturday afternoon, I'm not surprised some don't.

ciaran76

Victor wrote:

I was there today. Buses were coming in the west entrance and going back out that way. They don't normally do that, do they?

Are you sure that wasn't the 39X Victor ?

Victor

ciaran76 wrote:

Are you sure that wasn't the 39X Victor ?

Nah, I didn't get lucky.

I think it was just a vanilla 39 (using an articulated bus).

Xylophonic

ciaran76 wrote:

From what i heard from 1 driver is they are talking about new routes going down the Ongar road instead of going to B.S.C. But nothing has been finalised yet and also heard on George Hook radio show on Newstalk some fella from Dublin Bus saying they are waiting for the Ongar road to open and new routes will be assigned to the area.

It will be numbered route 139 and it will become a direct service for Ongar to City Centre

Mimikyu

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Random

Around 6ish was it Solitaryman666? The traffic was backlogged in all directions. It stretched from the Blanch centre down to the Total Fitness roundabout ... all around the centre .... and what not ... I can only imagine they didn't wanna sit in it for 3 hours.

funk-you

The buses were pulled from the centre as they couldn't get anywhere near it - in or out. it was taking buses 3-3 1/2 hours to get into the centre. There was no Garda presence directing traffic that i saw either.

-Funk

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

MrJoeSoap

Traffic today was unreal. I walked from the new roundabout to Coolmine Sports Complex without the cars moving once.

funk-you

Solitaryman666 wrote:

This post has been deleted.

its not the drivers responsibility to make ANY route change whatsoever, the controllers instructed them to cut out the centre because all available buses were geting stuck there within a half mile of eachother and thus not able to supply the service to the rest of the route. the buses were going around the centre though, just not into it so its not really that much hassle to walk the 5-10 mins out to the stop across by fortlawn although it would be preferrable not to have to. There were two inspectors at the centre and they informed people but they can hardly get around to telling all of the thousands of people. there is a phone number for phibsboro garage in the timetable if you experience any problem or have an enquiry you can give them a call and they should be able to give you any info you need.

If ever in doubt about your bus coming just ring the garage, thats what they expect people to do as its just not in any way practical to inform every single person in dublin about the service.

-Funk

Mimikyu

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funk-you

Solitaryman666 wrote:

This post has been deleted.

From what ive heard it was an inspector who pulled them that time too but it's only hearsay i could be wrong.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.