Any update on GPS location service for Bus Éireann

ressem

Back in Spring '06, there was PR saying that Siemens had received a €4.2 Million contract to set up GPS tracking on Bus Eireann busses.

There appears to be a modern Siemens instrument installed above the driver, so is there any sign of the service being available to the public this winter? Or any test web service apis accessible so we could throw out our own frontend?

Those 25~55 minute waits for busses out of Galway aren't relaxing in the winter evenings.

John R

It is still being installed in the fleet at present, AFAIK it is now live on some expres routes where all the coaches have it installed. They will be running the system on the whole network of express, local and city services so until it is all installed and tested I wouldn't expect a public system to be available.

Red Alert

Web Service API & Bus Eireann - you've got to be joking!

dochasach

I can't imagine SIPTU approving of a device that would let passengers know when and where a bus will arrive anymore than I could imagine them approving displaying the current passenger count so would-be passengers (and management) know for certain that the bus that just bypassed their stop wasn't anywhere near full.

Besides, the current system is much easier to understand. In the cases where there is no schedule posted at a stop or the schedule is torn off or 40 years out of date, the passenger simply guesses that a bus may come in the next hour or three (except Sunday, strike or bank holiday when 36 hours should be added to the estimate). And in the cases where the schedule is displayed at a stop, it's intuitively obvious when the schedule clearly shows the bus leaves it's first stop at 8:00 a.m., the bus will arrive at this stop at or about 9:45 give or take an hour or three.

Alternatively, technically capable passengers may be able to hop into a nearby web cafe during the "free time" before a bus arrives and navigate to Dublin bus's hideous web page (somehow without crashing their browser) and find out theoretically when the next bus will arrive. Or they could choose to spend the time browsing websites in Norway, Portugal, Germany, or even nations that nearly gave up on public transportation and finding that a bus will arrive there long before it arrives at your stop.

Imagine having new sources of locale targeted Ad revenue help support a modern first, second or third world public transportation system.

FFS, last week's disruption came down to resistance to running an alternate route. Can you imagine trying to push a whole new customer centric way of thinking? No, it couldn't possibly work here in the 3rd-9th wealthiest nation on the planet. We'll let our public transportation completely unravel as it did in the U.S. from 1960-1980 and sometime around 2050 when Dublin is underwater because of rising sea levels, we'll spend trillions rebuilding an underwater GPS bus tracking system. Ahead we plan. (alw
ays)

Ham'nd'egger

Well done. You have just awarded yourself "Idiotic post of the Month" with that load of horse droppings.

dochasach wrote: »

I can't imagine SIPTU approving of a device that would let passengers know when and where a bus will arrive anymore than I could imagine them approving displaying the current passenger count so would-be passengers (and management) know for certain that the bus that just bypassed their stop wasn't anywhere near full.

Besides, the current system is much easier to understand. In the cases where there is no schedule posted at a stop or the schedule is torn off or 40 years out of date, the passenger simply guesses that a bus may come in the next hour or three (except Sunday, strike or bank holiday when 36 hours should be added to the estimate). And in the cases where the schedule is displayed at a stop, it's intuitively obvious when the schedule clearly shows the bus leaves it's first stop at 8:00 a.m., the bus will arrive at this stop at or about 9:45 give or take an hour or three.

Alternatively, technically capable passengers may be able to hop into a nearby web cafe during the "free time" before a bus arrives and navigate to Dublin bus's hideous web page (somehow without crashing their browser) and find out theoretically when the next bus will arrive. Or they could choose to spend the time browsing websites in Norway, Portugal, Germany, or even nations that nearly gave up on public transportation and finding that a bus will arrive there long before it arrives at your stop.

Imagine having new sources of locale targeted Ad revenue help support a modern first, second or third world public transportation system.

FFS, last week's disruption came down to resistance to running an alternate route. Can you imagine trying to push a whole new customer centric way of thinking? No, it couldn't possibly work here in the 3rd-9th wealthiest nation on the planet. We'll let our public transportation completely unravel as it did in the U.S. from 1960-1980 and sometime around 2050 when Dublin is underwater because of rising sea levels, we'll spend trillions rebuilding an underwater GPS bus tracking system. Ahead we plan. (alw
ays)

dochasach

Hamndegger wrote: »

Well done. You have just awarded yourself "Idiotic post of the Month" with that load of horse droppings.

Would you care to elaborate or is this just an attack on me? The comment about Dublin being underwater and a few others were exaggerations. I'd hope you can lighten up about those and see the truth in the rest of the post.

I'll make it easy. Which of these statements is false?

1) Unions would not immediately welcome GPS bus tracking (including time of arrival at major stops) for Bus Eireann and Dublin bus.

2) Bus arrival in parts of Ireland follows a variant Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, it is impossible for passengers to determine both the time and position of a bus with any level of accuracy. Schedules posted at various stops provide the time the bus theoretically left the station, not the time it arrives at the stop.

3) There are countries with a lower per capita GDP and a better level of public transportation service.

4) Ireland's public transport system can survive with its current level of customer service even when the vast majority of its customer base are beginning to find alternatives.

5) Because of poor design and customer service, Ireland appears to be following the U.S. "car based" transportation system. This has a negative environmental impact on this country and planet.

Be careful, some of these can be proven one way or the other, at least within the next couple of years.

Ham'nd'egger

dochasach wrote: »

Would you care to elaborate or is this just an attack on me? The comment about Dublin being underwater and a few others were exaggerations. I'd hope you can lighten up about those and see the truth in the rest of the post.

I'll make it easy. Which of these statements is false?

1) Unions would not immediately welcome GPS bus tracking (including time of arrival at major stops) for Bus Eireann and Dublin bus.

2) Bus arrival in parts of Ireland follows a variant Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, it is impossible for passengers to determine both the time and position of a bus with any level of accuracy. Schedules posted at various stops provide the time the bus theoretically left the station, not the time it arrives at the stop.

3) There are countries with a lower per capita GDP and a better level of public transportation service.

4) Ireland's public transport system can survive with its current level of customer service even when the vast majority of its customer base are beginning to find alternatives.

5) Because of poor design and customer service, Ireland appears to be following the U.S. "car based" transportation system. This has a negative environmental impact on this country and planet.

Be careful, some of these can be proven one way or the other, at least within the next couple of years.

Pretty much all of what you posted in your first post was claptrap and added nothing to the debate, you post deserved to be castigated as nonsense. Your last post on the other hand, that makes some sense

On GPS, central funding was halted to roll it out, hence it's not on Irish buses. Bus tracking was experimented with some some routes to the west of Dublin with some success, so point 1 isn't correct; it is not a unionised issue.

Point 2 is true but GPS won't make buses go any faster en route though it is indeed useful to know when your bus will arrive.

On point 3, it is true but equally, both richer and poorer countries have poorer services than we do. Given the fiscal system that DB and BE run under (very low levels of state subsidy), they offer a high level or service with a low aged fleet.

Point 4, other transport providers in Ireland do not operate on a level playing field compared to CIE and yet often fail to offer acceptable service levels or else pull out of their routes. CIE do not have this option. This is a major issue with private operations in the UK, they make money where they can and sod the loss leaders like off peak services.

Point 5, Department of Transport awards route, providers can't just chop and change a route/timetable as they wish; until this anomaly is sorted out, public transport will struggle to be flexible. Ireland's public transport is the loser for this policy.

dochasach

Hamndegger wrote: »

Pretty much all of what you posted in your first post was claptrap and added nothing to the debate, you post deserved to be castigated as nonsense. Your last post on the other hand, that makes some sense

Apologies, I also forgot to flag a big chunk of the message as sarcasm. Perhaps it wasn't obvious to those who don't regularly rely on CIE service (sic).

Hamndegger wrote:

...On GPS, central funding was halted to roll it out, hence it's not on Irish buses. Bus tracking was experimented with some some routes to the west of Dublin with some success, so point 1 isn't correct; it is not a unionised issue.
...

I sincerely hope you're correct here because on the off-chance funding ever does reappear, I don't think passengers would stand for more foot-dragging by the unions.

Thanks for the information in the remainder of the post. I'm not happy with the state of public transport nor with the effectiveness of CIE's current balance between public monopoly and competitive entity. But to understand that someone somewhere knows the reason behind this mess will help me cheerfully pass my time the next time I wait for a bus that never comes watch a bus bypass its assigned stop because the driver couldn't be &R$'d to provide the service he is being paid to provide.

Zoney

Ham'nd'egger:

Anyone relying on Bus Éireann city bus services is doing well to post anything half as coherent as dochasach's sarcastic post.

I have no doubt that Bus Éireann have actually impacted on people's expected lifespan from the stress induced by the aforementioned "uncertainty principle" (i.e. outrageous lies and make-believe timetables). Not to mention the intense rage induced when the drivers don't bother to serve a bus stop because they can't be bothered to do one of the following: a) ask the current passengers in the bus to move back (passengers can be ignorant about this too, but considering the fuss if you aren't already at the front for your stop...), b) pull in to the stop if someone is parked before/after it or there is heavy traffic, c) pull in if they are trying to make up time and there's either only one or two people at the stop, or an unruly angry mob who've been waiting an hour.

I sincerely hope they do bring this GPS tracking thing in. I would use it even if checking a web app on my mobile phone cost as much as the bus ticket in bloodsucking carrier data charges. It would be nice to know if the bus isn't arriving this century, and I can just walk, get a taxi, have another coffee, travel later, etc.