Is there an election this week? New Route 142 starts tomorrow, Tuesday 22 May

KC61

In all the years that I have observed the operations of Dublin Bus and the Dublin City Services of CIE before that never (and I repeat, never) has a new bus service been announced on a Monday and introduced on a Tuesday. What a blatantly political stunt!

I would imagine that the route is avoiding North Wall Quay due to the heavy traffic there and is using the bus lanes on North Strand instead. It also looks like it is using the Drynam interchange onto the M1.

The terminus is Palmerston Park in Rathmines and not Palmerstown Park!

From www.dublinbus.ie

New Route 142

Dublin Bus are pleased to advise customers that from Tuesday 22nd May 2007 a new commuter route will come into operation,from Strand Road Portmarnock via the Port Tunnel to Palmerstown Park, Rathmines.

This low floor wheelchair accessible route will offer quicker journey times by utilising the Port Tunnel and will link Portmarnock, Malahide and the Kinsealy area with North Strand,Connolly Station, IFSC, City Centre and onwards to Rathmines.

The service will operate from Strand Road via Wendell Avenue, Blackwood Lane, Malahide Village,Yellow Walls Road, Seabury, the M1, Port Tunnel, East Wall Road, Amiens St., Georges Quay, D'Olier St., St. Stephen's Green, Earlsfort Terrace, Rathmines Road Lwr. to Palmerstown Park.

Timetable is at:
http://www.dublinbus.ie/your_journey/viewer.asp?route=142

Ham'nd'egger

KC61 wrote:

In all the years that I have observed the operations of Dublin Bus and the Dublin City Services of CIE before that never (and I repeat, never) has a new bus service been announced on a Monday and introduced on a Tuesday. What a blatantly political stunt!

I would imagine that the route is avoiding North Wall Quay due to the heavy traffic there and is using the bus lanes on North Strand instead. It also looks like it is using the Drynam interchange onto the M1.

The terminus is Palmerston Park in Rathmines and not Palmerstown Park!

From www.dublinbus.ie

New Route 142

Dublin Bus are pleased to advise customers that from Tuesday 22nd May 2007 a new commuter route will come into operation,from Strand Road Portmarnock via the Port Tunnel to Palmerstown Park, Rathmines.

This low floor wheelchair accessible route will offer quicker journey times by utilising the Port Tunnel and will link Portmarnock, Malahide and the Kinsealy area with North Strand,Connolly Station, IFSC, City Centre and onwards to Rathmines.

The service will operate from Strand Road via Wendell Avenue, Blackwood Lane, Malahide Village,Yellow Walls Road, Seabury, the M1, Port Tunnel, East Wall Road, Amiens St., Georges Quay, D'Olier St., St. Stephen's Green, Earlsfort Terrace, Rathmines Road Lwr. to Palmerstown Park.

Timetable is at:
http://www.dublinbus.ie/your_journey/viewer.asp?route=142[url][/url]

Not wanting to spoil the party on you, KC, but I got behind a bus with 142 on it's DMD this evening on Nassau Street this evening, was it on a dummy run by any chance or in service?

Victor

KC61 wrote:

The service will operate from Strand Road via Wendell Avenue, Blackwood Lane, Malahide Village,Yellow Walls Road, Seabury, the M1, Port Tunnel, East Wall Road, Amiens St., Georges Quay, D'Olier St., St. Stephen's Green, Earlsfort Terrace, Rathmines Road Lwr. to Palmerstown Park.

I don't think it should go via Georges Quay, much better going via Westland Row, I think.

The stages seem a bit wonky.

KC61

No Victor the stages are quite right!

Remember that city centre is always 25 going south and 75 going north, and that the 42 terminus in Portmarnock is 00 and 00, so the 142 would have to have an abundance of stages in/at the Port Tunnel to make up the difference!

The same holds with the 76A as it traverses the West Link.

KC61

Hamndegger wrote:

Not wanting to spoil the party on you, KC, but I got behind a bus with 142 on it's DMD this evening on Nassau Street this evening, was it on a dummy run by any chance or in service?

I would imagine that it was a dummy run - the service launched this morning and the first journey took 50 minutes to get to D'Olier Street - the main delay being at Connolly Station.

Enigma365

Connolly station is spelt wrong on the time table(Connelly).

They must have really just put this together in a rush as OP suggests.

Victor

KC61 wrote:

Remember that city centre is always 25 going south and 75 going north, and that the 42 terminus in Portmarnock is 00 and 00, so the 142 would have to have an abundance of stages in/at the Port Tunnel to make up the difference!

I mean at the other end. Only 3 stages between Yellow Walls School and the M1.

Because some of the buses go via Swords Road, others Malahide Road and others Howth Road / Coast Road, Malahide stage numbers add up badly for the 102 and 230.

KC61

The licence was apparently applied for on Friday and issued on Monday.

The ludicrous situation of the bus route licensing system is highlighted by the fact that depite passing through Holywell estate, route 142 cannot pick up there because a private operator holds a licence to "potentially" service this area (but has not yet commenced operations).

It does beggar the question: For whom are the buses operated? The operators or the customers?

The current system of issuing licenses to operators on an open-ended basis is now bordering on farce. Once issued with a licence there is no obligation on an operator to commence a service within a specified period. Hence we have situations where Dublin Bus are in a position to provide a service and other operators who are sitting on licences (maybe for several years!) can object, thereby preventing the residents of the area concerned from getting a service, and delaying the whole process even longer!

Is it any wonder that public transport is in a mess?

Until rigid timeframes are introduced for the introduction of new services (I would suggest 6 months maximum), this situation will perpetuate and the main loser will be the travelling public. The sooner all of the service planning is taken out of individual operators' control and handed over to a central agency the better.

And no, the Department will not divulge which operator has been issued with licences for which routes as that is apparently commercially sensitive information!

KC61

Victor wrote:

I mean at the other end. Only 3 stages between Yellow Walls School and the M1.

Because some of the buses go via Swords Road, others Malahide Road and others Howth Road / Coast Road, Malahide stage numbers add up badly for the 102 and 230.

Unfortunately the licence does not permit Dublin Bus to pick up passengers on route 142 on the Swords side of the M1, hence the last pick up stop is Waterside and the next stage is the M1. The stages from Waterside to Alexandra Road are all notional due to there being no stops.

At the end of the day the route needs to be at the same stage number in Malahide as the 42 when the two routes meet and that's what happens. What does differ is the 42/142 and 32A/102/230 between Malahide Village and Sands Hotel and it's here that it appears the 42/142 are two stages shorter taking the inland route than the 32A/102/230 along the coast road in order to arrive at the terminus at Sands Hotel with the same number of stages from city centre.

The result? Local journeys between Sands Hotel and Malahide via route 42/142 = EUR 1 and via routes 32A/102/230 = EUR 1.40, thereby discriminating in favour of longer distance commuters over local journeys.

AlekSmart

Quote [KC61] "
It does beggar the question: For whom are the buses operated? The operators or the customers? [End]

Any easy one this......Neither !

The current.......ahem...."Licencing" system is run solely for the ease of administration of the established Civil Service.

A quick chat with senior people in Dublin Bus`s Service Planning Dept might surprise a great many people who see the company as being stagnant in this regard.
Suffice to say that the flow of proposals,clarifications and licence applications would give a Green Party ecologist a hissy fit.

Sadly however much of this flow is unidirectional and even the most mundane alteration to a Licence Condition can take months if not years. :eek:

The real problem began post NDP,when the serious money started to flow and the Senior Departmental Administrators suddenly found themselves appearing at Press Conferences next to powerful figures such as Mammy or Batty Brennan.

Suddenly we had the spectre of medicore career Civil Service Administrators realizing that they suddenly had POWER !
And therein began the slide to the chaotic situation prevailing today.

The established Civil Service,especially at Senior Staff level regards anything to do with change,particularly rapid change as heresy.
Now matter how pressing the need for a New Licence or a Material Alteration the request will always have to go through the channels which usually begins with a request for "clarification"

In Dublin Bus`s case this usually entails any "Potential" Private Sector licence applicants being canvassed for their views on the DB proposal.
My understanding is that there are several DB applications currently in this administrative limbo as the Dept dutifully seeks out some potential Captain of the Bus Industry prepared to "Stick in an oul Application" thereby keepin DB in their place.

Now in such situations,this "Clarification" proces has usually been ongoing for many months or years with Busdrivers,Controllers,Inspectors et al being the recipients of skip fulls of abuse from Customers and POTENTIAL Customers who see Dublin Bus as the RESPONSIBLE agency for their suffering.

Generally speaking by the time some Senior Administrative Officer,Asst Departmental Secretary or similar has "Assessed" this,by now mountainous information those POTENTIAL Public Transport Users have shagged off and bought a Bicycle,Moped or a Little Car and waved Bye-Bye to Public Transport FOREVER.

Quote [KC61] "The current system of issuing licenses to operators on an open-ended basis is now bordering on farce. Once issued with a licence there is no obligation on an operator to commence a service within a specified period. Hence we have situations where Dublin Bus are in a position to provide a service and other operators who are sitting on licences (maybe for several years!) can object, thereby preventing the residents of the area concerned from getting a service, and delaying the whole process even longer!

And no, the Department will not divulge which operator has been issued with licences for which routes as that is apparently commercially sensitive information!
[End]

Not content with the actual p[osession of Power,the established Civil Service Senior Administrator now finds that the setup actually encourages Power Broking as a career option.
The Dept of Transport has,it seems,taken on the mantle of Protector of the Private Enterprise as it suddenly gets to grip with this new fangled idea of "Commercial" sensitivity..(Well worth signing up for an MBA to allow further progress)

The odd situation whereby a Publicly Issued legal document such as a Road Passenger Service Licence becomes a confidential item serves nobody,particularly the PUBLIC.

It is interesting that ALL Dublin Bus licences are regarded by the Same Department as being in the public domain with Information freely available to whomsoever desires it,be that Media,Competitor or Prowling Politician....

However a request to the same Department of Transport for information non a Privately held Licence will be met with upheld crucifixes,cloves of garlic and much crossing of the heart !

The present Licencing System is Corrupt and operated for the benefit of nobody except a cabal of senior Civil Administrators,few if any of whom use the Bus Service.

And remember people,if anybody thought the Dublin Transport Authority was going to end all this........It won`t...Its Teeth were well and truly extracted by The Dentist at the initial Press Conference.....NO Land use Powers for You,thank you very much.
Exit Prof Margaret O Mahoney stage left......and who could blame her !! :mad:

TScul

Has anyone taken this bus regularly? How long does it take to get from Seabury to City Centre? Considering trying it some time but don't want to risk it taking an hour.
Also we'd never even heard of this new route until 2 days before the election when Darragh O'Brien's canvassers called round with a timetable telling us he was responsible for it all. Coincidental timing, eh?

KC61

TScul wrote:

Has anyone taken this bus regularly? How long does it take to get from Seabury to City Centre? Considering trying it some time but don't want to risk it taking an hour.
Also we'd never even heard of this new route until 2 days before the election when Darragh O'Brien's canvassers called round with a timetable telling us he was responsible for it all. Coincidental timing, eh?

The first service inbound (0725 ex-Portmarnock) has been getting into D'Olier Street for about 0815.

On Monday last the 1730 departure from Palmerston Park reached Abbey Street by 1800 and Malahide village by 1840.

quigo

I took the 142 today for the first time today, it picked me up at 725 in Portmarnock and it exited the port tunnel just before 8am I was quite impressed with it. The bus was also relatively empty for that time of the morning compared to the sardine conditions of the dart.

The driver was a learner and driving extra carefully so I expect that it can make it into town faster.

WetDaddy

Does anybody know where abouts in the Richmond St. South area this bus stops? I'm on Harcourt Road and fancy getting the 17.45 one home

Victor

Folex wrote:

Does anybody know where abouts in the Richmond St. South area this bus stops? I'm on Harcourt Road and fancy getting the 17.45 one home

There is only one Dublin Bus stop (on each side) on Richmond St. South

KC61

Folex wrote:

Does anybody know where abouts in the Richmond St. South area this bus stops? I'm on Harcourt Road and fancy getting the 17.45 one home

The 142 stops on South Richmond Street, Charlotte Way, and on Earlsfort Terrace (just before St. Stephen's Green).