The metro and public transport operating hours

strassenwolf

If the metro via the Airport is built, I would imagine that considerable use will be made of it, both by incoming passengers and would-be outgoing passengers.

As a considerable amount of flights leave Dublin in the very early morning, check-in times of between 5 and 6 in the morning are not uncommon. As a result, there may be a lot of demand for travel on the metro in or around these hours.

If the metro is to start operations at around 4.30-5.00 am, as would be common in, say, Continental Europe, can we expect that services which connect with the metro (i.e. DART, LUAS and the buses) will also start to operate at earlier times than they currently do? And maybe perhaps finish a little bit later?

dmeehan

i forsee dart drivers unions' et al looking for more money to make this happen (if it will be the case)

Victor

strassenwolf wrote:

If the metro is to start operations at around 4.30-5.00 am, as would be common in, say, Continental Europe, can we expect that services which connect with the metro (i.e. DART, LUAS and the buses) will also start to operate at earlier times than they currently do? And maybe perhaps finish a little bit later?

You still need to leave a maintainence period of a few hours in the middle of the night, expecially for tunnel sections.

Ham'nd'egger

dmeehan wrote:

i forsee dart drivers unions' et al looking for more money to make this happen (if it will be the case)

Given that for years train drivers have driven trains 24/7 in Ireland, it would not be a major issue on the railways to run a little earlier if required. What would be an issue is that there would be insufficient rolling stock to run extra services unless additional sets are ordered. AFAIK, Dublin Bus drivers agreed to later runnings and earlier starts some time ago, maybe somebody in the know can confirm this, while buses would also fall into the rolling stock issue.

Victor

Rolling stock availibilty isn't a problem in those hours. Vehicles serviced in the late evening would be available.

The problem at that hour is parking space.

Ham'nd'egger

Victor wrote:

Rolling stock availibilty isn't a problem in those hours. Vehicles serviced in the late evening would be available.

Victor, the problem would be that the times available to service vehicles would be curtailed somewhat, also the fact that stock will be doing additional mileage would lessen it's active live, especially if maintainance times are lessened. Certainly, it is not impossible but it would push things greatly.

cast_iron

strassenwolf wrote:

If the metro is to start operations at around 4.30-5.00 am, as would be common in, say, Continental Europe, can we expect that services which connect with the metro (i.e. DART, LUAS and the buses) will also start to operate at earlier times than they currently do? And maybe perhaps finish a little bit later?

Well they can't even manage to integrate tickets for the various modes of public transport, so i'm guessing the operating times will prove just as tricky to change.:rolleyes:

Victor

Hamndegger wrote:

Victor, the problem would be that the times available to service vehicles would be curtailed somewhat, also the fact that stock will be doing additional mileage would lessen it's active live, especially if maintainance times are lessened. Certainly, it is not impossible but it would push things greatly.

Assuming at rush hour you are using 99% (because you will always have casualties and annual maintainence) of your vehicles, you can fall back to 50-80% off peak and down to 30% in late evening / early morning. When you take the first vehicle off line in the evening - about 19:00-19:30 you can start cleaning, fueling, inspoecting, etc. - the full daily service. These vehicles won't be needed until 07:00 the next morning and won't be serviced again until 19:00 the next day. These vehicles are perfectly suited for late night usage, even if it means they need a quick sweep at 06:00.

shltter

strassenwolf wrote:

If the metro via the Airport is built, I would imagine that considerable use will be made of it, both by incoming passengers and would-be outgoing passengers.

As a considerable amount of flights leave Dublin in the very early morning, check-in times of between 5 and 6 in the morning are not uncommon. As a result, there may be a lot of demand for travel on the metro in or around these hours.

If the metro is to start operations at around 4.30-5.00 am, as would be common in, say, Continental Europe, can we expect that services which connect with the metro (i.e. DART, LUAS and the buses) will also start to operate at earlier times than they currently do? And maybe perhaps finish a little bit later?

Buses serving the Airport already start at 5.00am Route 41 or 5.15am route 747
The 41N nitelink also services the Airport with a bus at 00.30 and 02.00 Mon to Thurs and a bus every 30 minutes minimum and more regular if demand dictates from 00.30am till 04.30am Fri and Sat


There is no problem in Dublin Bus in regards to workers agreement it was agreed years ago the company have not taken advantage of that agreement because of lack of demand and costs in fact the Nitelink services have been pared back since that agreement rather than expanded due to a lack of demand.

With the new regulator alledgedly on the way it will be up to the regulator to decide on levels of service and operating hours ( and of course to subvent those if they are uncommercial)

shltter

Victor wrote:

Assuming at rush hour you are using 99% (because you will always have casualties and annual maintainence) of your vehicles, you can fall back to 50-80% off peak and down to 30% in late evening / early morning. When you take the first vehicle off line in the evening - about 19:00-19:30 you can start cleaning, fueling, inspoecting, etc. - the full daily service. These vehicles won't be needed until 07:00 the next morning and won't be serviced again until 19:00 the next day. These vehicles are perfectly suited for late night usage, even if it means they need a quick sweep at 06:00.

You are right Victor there is plenty of capacity available to run at those hours (although running buses trains and trams for longer might have an long term effect on reliability and lenght of useful service)
The problem is the lack of demand and the cost in providing services during those hours Extra staff extra deisel more maintenance with little or no extra income does not make any commercial sense if it did you could be cock sure that the PAMBO buses would be lining up to operate during those hours