[PR] Dublin Bus: New Route 7E

Heart

Quality Bus Corridor opens on Rock Road

Dublin Bus is pleased with the announcement by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council of the opening of the new Quality Bus Corridor on the Rock Road commencing 30th July 2007.

To coincide with this, Dublin Bus will operate an additional 33 departures (Monday to Friday) in each direction between Blackrock and O'Connell Street from 30th July (Route 7e) and an additional 22 departures on Saturdays.

MarkoP11

Of course we already have the 4,4a,5,7,7a,8 and 45. All this with the DART line never more than 200m away, takes half the time and even at peak hours you can get a seat.

At the same time the 17 and 114 buses which link Blackrock to UCD, Dundrum, Sandyford, Stillorgan QBC and the Luas operate at a useless service frequency, not forgetting many routes elsewhere particularly in West Dublin are in a similar situation.

So why waste buses on what is already one of the best served corridors in Dublin when other routes are begging for more services? Why not the 17 and 114, or is it against DB policy to actually provide feeder services to Luas and DART? Or is this a cherry picking exercise with a hope of grabing some existing DART passengers? Joined up thinking it ain't

MiniD

MarkoP11 wrote:

So why waste buses on what is already one of the best served corridors in Dublin when other routes are begging for more services?

I take it you're not a daily commuter on this road. Despite how it looks on paper, the service between City Centre and Ballsbridge/Blackrock needs more buses. This new route is badly needed. Most 7s are full leaving O'Connell Street and leave crowds behind at busy stops and the 4 carries a heavy cross city crowd with buses full at peak times. This is without the regular crowds who attend the RDS for various events.

My only problem is the numbering of the 7E. This will create confusion considering the 7B and 7D also serve the same stops but take a different route. Surely a better choice would have been the number 6?

MarkoP11

I've been a passenger on and off and never had a major problem, second bus was always fine, still though point to note is heaps of seats are going empty on the DART in the evening rush, 17:54, 18:00, 18:10, 18:15 from Pearse all have empty seats upon arrival.

Trick is to board at Grafton Street/TCD and thus have the 45 option and if you are going beyond Blackrock Park you also dodge the minmum fare which puts the short stage passengers off to the 4 & 7.

What I see is bus after bus in coming up the main street in Blackrock with heaps of empty seats, in fact the village will have serious issues with the extra buses.

The 4 remains a mystery to many as it doesn't seem to run to Stradbrook as proposed which would be actually useful. The 7e should be called the 5 as it is following the traditional 5 route, there is no 7c, 7b & 7d doesn't go anywhere near the 7 route, really should be 46 somethings. It seems to be the cool thing to start adding routes all over the shop instead of looking at the current route to sort them out.

I do remember the days when the 8:15 114 out of Blackrock had people sitting on the ledge behind the windscreen on the old KD double deckers, service frequency hasn't changed in years despite actually being a very useful route even more so with the Luas and Stillorgan QBC, its so bad that companies in Sandyford have toyed with private buses to collect there staff from Blackrock. Dublin Bus could have come up with a 5/6/114 merged route Sandyford Blackrock Dublin which would have been honestly useful

And of course the bus lane outbound has a big contraint just beyond Ballsbridge

paulm17781

MarkoP11 wrote:

Of course we already have the 4,4a,5,7,7a,8 and 45.

There is no 4a. If there is even DB are keeping it a secret.

dowlingm

MarkoP11 wrote:

is it against DB policy to actually provide feeder services to Luas and DART?

Er, yes. It's what the PDs call "competition".

MarkoP11

4a is programmed into the system, there appears to be a possibilty that when the 4 finally gets to its destination up in Stradbrook not all will terminate there some will only go as far as Blackrock village hence a 4/4a

gazzer

It would be nice if Dublin Bus could reroute some of these new buses for the 39 service and put an end to people waiting an hour for a 39 to stop on the quays instead of flying past full up(a common occurrence if you try to get the bus between 6 and 7pm on a weekday)

Nevyn

or between 5 and 7 on a Saturday or Sunday and it is not just the quay it is up passed stoneybatter.