O´Connell Street Closed Sunday Afternoon

Victor

O´Connell Street, Dublin will be closed Sunday afternoon from 1500-1900.

I presume its bus only to avoid the shopping chais that was there last week.

AlekSmart

Shopping..?
You Philistine Victor.....Why its the annual Festival of Light.
The switching on of O Connell Streets new Festive Lighting and of course the Christmas Crib.....(Eh can we still refer to that Boss ??)

I`m sure that the event will be far better managed than last year,when it essentially collapsed cross-city Bus Services as nobody had bothered to plan for any real alternative...(Well we don`t really DO planing anyway....do we..?)

I remain optomistic this year as of course The Capital now has a new Management Team following the departures of Mr.Fitzgerald and his able deputy Mr Keegan so there may be a totally new and innovative approach taken to mass scale Public Transport Disruption...?

Or maybe Not.........Tellus Luv is it Status Quo doin the Hymn`s this year ..?? :rolleyes:

markpb

Slightly OT but I just realised last night that there's a bus lane on the southbound carriageway of O'Connell st. Odd idea that - putting a bus lane on a street that is supposed to be closed to private vehicles anyway

flogen

markpb wrote:

Slightly OT but I just realised last night that there's a bus lane on the southbound carriageway of O'Connell st. Odd idea that - putting a bus lane on a street that is supposed to be closed to private vehicles anyway

Are they not both marked as bus lanes?
And there is a point where private vehicles can legally get onto o'connell st, isn't there?
Even more OT, but if only the proper authorities would set up a plate-reading device on O'Connell St. (like that used in London for the CCs) they'd make an absolute fortune.

markpb

There are bus lanes north and southbound but only the southbound lane is closed to public vehicles which is why I was so surpised to see a buslane there.

You're probably right, you can legally get to it from the side streets so maybe it does make sense but it stinks of lack of conviction in their own ideas. And yes, a ANPR system to enforce bus lanes would be terrific.

DublinWriter

AlekSmart wrote:

You Philistine Victor.....Why its the annual Festival of Light.

As opposed to what O'Connell St. is the rest of the year - The Festival of Sh...

Traffic

Traffic can legally turn onto O'Connell st from Cathal Brugha St

Bluetonic

markpb wrote:

Slightly OT but I just realised last night that there's a bus lane on the southbound carriageway of O'Connell st. Odd idea that - putting a bus lane on a street that is supposed to be closed to private vehicles anyway

It's not supposed to be closed to private vehicles, would love to know where you got that idea from.

markpb

If memory serves, the intention was to close O'Connel st buti t couldn't be done because people needed access from Cathal Brugha St so North Frederick St and Parnell Sq. East were closed to discourage people from going to OCS.

Reyman

markpb wrote:

Slightly OT but I just realised last night that there's a bus lane on the southbound carriageway of O'Connell st. Odd idea that - putting a bus lane on a street that is supposed to be closed to private vehicles anyway

Yes right!

And cars aren't supposed to turn left at the bottom of Dawson st. and drive through centre city as well .

That's another bit of a joke.

Bluetonic

markpb wrote:

If memory serves, the intention was to close O'Connel st buti t couldn't be done because people needed access from Cathal Brugha St so North Frederick St and Parnell Sq. East were closed to discourage people from going to OCS.

But it's not supposed to be closed to private traffic at all, for one there's actually an entrance to a car park off the street.

b3t4

Yesterday was chaos in town. I was on a 16a out from the airport and it took around 30mins to get from one side of O-Connell street to the other.

Not to mind have an idiot bus driver who hadn't a clue what he was doing.

A.

AlekSmart

Please B3T4 be gentle with your driver cos U may just be correct,he may not have had the slightest notion of what was going on,and neither might his controlling Inspectors.

Most likely the driver had little notion of where ,what or when to go,do or expect as he attempted to service a "Diversion" which was cobbled up in a "Last Stand At Stalingrad" like attempt to keep as clsoe to O Connell St as possible...come what may.

And whatever did come,it almost certainly was`nt your bus.

Its one thing acquiescing to the closure of a Bus Prioritized O Connell St for the Festival of Light.
However it is extremely bad planning,verging on commercial negligence,in failing to ensure that similar Priorities were not in place along the "Diversionary Route".

How can it be acceptable to force Busdrivers into a situation whereby they were required to run a steel gauntlet of (Legally) Parked Cars along the outbound side of Gardiner St ?

Are we to understand that there was NOBODY in the employ of Dublin City Council or an Garda Siochana who could see the good sense of cancelling all on-street parking along Gardiner St for the Day that was in it.

Surely the quid-pro-quo for this cancellation was the November 95c Sunday promotion which theoritically should compensate the poor Car Driver for the awfulness of leaving the motor at home.

Instead Sundays Festival of Light was yet another example of how the City`s major provider of Public Transport Services was prepared to sacrifice virtually ALL of its cross-city services in order to present a fatuous "Business as Usual" image to the City Centre.

Events such as the FoL constantly illustrate how certain sections of Dublin Bus management appear happy to abandon large numbers of legitimate customers in order to fulfill some disturbed vision of perfection.

In this instance perfection being the maintainance of a full service through Parnell Sq and at least they kept the Buses as close to O Connell St as possible.

Not for the first time do I point out that as the MAJOR Public Transport provider in the City,Dublin Bus cannot continue to simply abandon the huge numbers of passengers who DO NOT wish to do business in or about O Connell St.

The company should at least have well publicised strategy for closures such as Sunday`s.
A set number of X-City routes should follow a diversion which keeps them as far from the closure as possible.
These "Buses on Diversion" should interconnect with other routes which are operating to the City Centre ONLY.
For the purposes of Last Sunday the 95c Promotional Fare should have served as a single-transfer to those routes for those pax desiring to visit An Lar.

It is more and more apparent that the single greatest attribute missing from those who style themselves as Traffic and Transport Professionals or Planners is I N T E R E S T.

The week just gone has really underlined the almost total absense of INTEREST at the Highest levels as we saw the Civil Service "Lets not be hasty" dictum taken to its limits,especially on the N11/M50 stage.

Still...must`nt grumble as I`m sure €36 Billion of T21 funding will sort some of the problems out....won`t it..????? :eek: