Busaras, I salute your ridiculousness.

Archeron

I have been on this forum before about the wonderful service provided by Busaras to commuters, but this week I once again had reason to use this place, and once again, its levels of stupidity blew my mind.

First and foremost, I decided to get the bus into Dublin for the three days I was in there as there wasnt really much point bringing a car as the bus brings me almost door to door. Yeay!

On Monday evening, I arrived in the station at 4.25 to go home. The door indicated that I had just missed the 4.30 bus service to Athboy/Trim and that the next bus was at 5pm. Fair enough. I went for a pint across the road rather than waiting in the earthly paradise that is Busaras.

I arrived back in the bus station at 4.50 to be safe and proceeded to queue at the back of the large line that formed at the relevant gate. The announcer called for this bus to board, among others, despite the fact that there was no bus there. Everyone waited patiently and at ten past five, the information display flipped over to tell us that this bus had departed, despite having not actually turned up to begin with.
Further questioning of incredibly rude staff revealed that the bus had decided to leave at 4.35 instead of 5, to try and beat the traffic. ????

So, everyone waited for the Athboy bus at 5.20, which turned up on time. However, because you had all the passengers from that bus, along with everyone from the previous bus, it meant that the bus was packed to the gills, had no seats spare, and had to pass by about 20 people at various official stops along the route and leave them behind in the rain.

On Tuesday, the 5.20 bus loaded up at 4.50 and left immediately. One girl came running out of the station to catch it and the driver reluctantly let her on, depite the fact that he shouldnt have left at this time. Also to point out that the aircon on the bus was stuck on "on" and the air filter above my head was broken meaning I couldnt turn it off or point it away from me. I didnt mind, but the girl beside me was shivering all the way to Meath.

What the hell is it with Busaras that thy they think its okay for a major bus station to allow buses to leave way before time to beat the traffic, and thus leave dozens of people standing in the rain for a bus which may, or may not turn up. Is the timetable more of a rough guide than an accurate list of departure times?

From now on, I'm taking my car, as I am sick to bloody death of this incredibly crappy service. Between rude ignorant staff, the dodgiest toilets in Ireland, a fine sprinkling of criminals and beggars everywhere, and now buses that leave whenever they feel like it, Busaras should really cop the hell on. I'm just glad I'm not one of those poor people who have no choice but to use it because if anything defines someone who looks world weary, its them.

blah

I don't really know what to say. I live in London, and every time I read one of these threads I think about staying here a little longer.

Stark

Outrageous. Not just the leaving early part, but the bit where they don't even tell people until they've been standing around for 30 mins waiting for a bus that's already left.

Archeron wrote:

From now on, I'm taking my car, as I am sick to bloody death of this incredibly crappy service.

Well there's the train, which I take if I've noone to share a car journey with. Barring the odd wildcat strike (stupid Cork staff), it's a fairly reliable and relaxed way to travel. Probably slightly more expensive than the petrol for the journey, but gives me time to catch up on reading and stuff.

Archeron

Stark wrote: »

Outrageous. Not just the leaving early part, but the bit where they don't even tell people until they've been standing around for 30 mins waiting for a bus that's already left.



Well there's the train, which I take if I've noone to share a car journey with. Barring the odd wildcat strike (stupid Cork staff), it's a fairly reliable and relaxed way to travel. Probably slightly more expensive than the petrol for the journey, but gives me time to catch up on reading and stuff.

Yeah, the train is cool, but unfortuanately, most of us Meath people dont really have that luxury. I'm in the middle of Meath and their are no commuter trains into Dublin, so its car or bus.
At the start of the week, I thought how cool it would be to use public transport to work (I really would love that, imagining it not mattering if you're not fully awake when you leave the house ), but my mind is changed somewhat now.

skelliser

two words come to mind: unions and shifts

View Profile

Thats three words.

Ill get my coat.......

Nostradamus

Archeron wrote: »

What the hell is it with Busaras that thy they think its okay for a major bus station to allow buses to leave way before time to beat the traffic, and thus leave dozens of people standing in the rain for a bus which may, or may not turn up.

This is almost like something from Spike Milligan's Puckoon. The "Stage Oirish" mentality.

Random

Irish people. FFS. You complain when the bus is late and you complain when the bus goes early!

Seriously though, load of ****e. Why bother with a timetable? Catching a bus is like hitch hiking!

BoatMad

disband Bus Eireann - fast, any replacement would be better, anything.

cyberbob

i travel regularly thru busaras on an almost weekendly trip to navan (one of the more frequently serviced routes)

to be honest , once you get used to the fact that you may as well ignore the signs and forecourt staff .. and the timetables , and familiarise yourself with their liberal approach* to timing , its a decent service given the circumstances.

(* eg bus x always leaves x minutes before/after its supposed to etc)

people who are good at keeping time (and expect others to be) arent particularly compatable with our public transport service.

god help those poor sods who optimistically wait on the nearby dublin city stops.
oh and yeah , the jacks are rank .

cailinoBAC

It's really annoying on the 101 route to Drogheda. I don't generally take the bus at rush hour, so I don't know how it is then, but they used to timetable it to take 20 minutes to get to the airport from town. Suddenly they changed it to 30 minutes, but (at least when I take it) most of the buses only take 20 minutes (if even). I know buses never stick to their timetable in Ireland, I just don't get why they changed it in the first place. Now, every time I'm coming from the airport I have to take ten minutes off the timetabled time, which is ok, when you know how it works, but not everybody in the airport would be. Also, whatever about all the other buss, the last one should wait until it is timetabled to leave.

John R

Archeron wrote: »

I have been on this forum before about the wonderful service provided by Busaras to commuters, but this week I once again had reason to use this place, and once again, its levels of stupidity blew my mind.

First and foremost, I decided to get the bus into Dublin for the three days I was in there as there wasnt really much point bringing a car as the bus brings me almost door to door. Yeay!

On Monday evening, I arrived in the station at 4.25 to go home. The door indicated that I had just missed the 4.30 bus service to Athboy/Trim and that the next bus was at 5pm. Fair enough. I went for a pint across the road rather than waiting in the earthly paradise that is Busaras.

I arrived back in the bus station at 4.50 to be safe and proceeded to queue at the back of the large line that formed at the relevant gate. The announcer called for this bus to board, among others, despite the fact that there was no bus there. Everyone waited patiently and at ten past five, the information display flipped over to tell us that this bus had departed, despite having not actually turned up to begin with.
Further questioning of incredibly rude staff revealed that the bus had decided to leave at 4.35 instead of 5, to try and beat the traffic. ????

So, everyone waited for the Athboy bus at 5.20, which turned up on time. However, because you had all the passengers from that bus, along with everyone from the previous bus, it meant that the bus was packed to the gills, had no seats spare, and had to pass by about 20 people at various official stops along the route and leave them behind in the rain.

On Tuesday, the 5.20 bus loaded up at 4.50 and left immediately. One girl came running out of the station to catch it and the driver reluctantly let her on, depite the fact that he shouldnt have left at this time. Also to point out that the aircon on the bus was stuck on "on" and the air filter above my head was broken meaning I couldnt turn it off or point it away from me. I didnt mind, but the girl beside me was shivering all the way to Meath.

What the hell is it with Busaras that thy they think its okay for a major bus station to allow buses to leave way before time to beat the traffic, and thus leave dozens of people standing in the rain for a bus which may, or may not turn up. Is the timetable more of a rough guide than an accurate list of departure times?

From now on, I'm taking my car, as I am sick to bloody death of this incredibly crappy service. Between rude ignorant staff, the dodgiest toilets in Ireland, a fine sprinkling of criminals and beggars everywhere, and now buses that leave whenever they feel like it, Busaras should really cop the hell on. I'm just glad I'm not one of those poor people who have no choice but to use it because if anything defines someone who looks world weary, its them.

Do you have a copy of the timetable that lists a 16.30, 17.00 or 17.20 departure from Dublin to Trim/Athboy? If you do I would greatly appreciate you posting it up here.

As far as I am aware the timetable has not changed recently and it has departures only at 15.30, 17.30, 18.00, 18.30.

In this case what you saw were extras that are put on in advance of the scheduled departure (17.30) that leave when full/nearly full instead of a struggle to load 3-4 bus loads at the scheduled time.

This is not unusual on certain routes where the demand has vastly outgrown the timetable but for various reasons the timetable has not been able to be updated.

BE are currently in the process of taking on extra buses and drivers for Dublin commuter routes and a new timetable for some of these routes including Trim/Granard will be part of the improvements as will a real-time information system that is now being installed.

Mint Sauce

Archeron wrote: »

I have been on this forum before about the wonderful service provided by Busaras to commuters, but this week I once again had reason to use this place, and once again, its levels of stupidity blew my mind.......

have used this fine estabilment my self a few times as well, between missing buses leaving early, no space at all on national services, no space on dublin bus, exteamly helpful and curtious staff, etc, etc

live on the other side of the country and i dont like the place

Archeron wrote: »

the dodgiest toilets in Ireland.......

a good part of a thread on this in after AH

Archeron wrote: »

a fine sprinkling of criminals and beggars everywhere......

resulting in a arguement with a bus driver on a national service over this last time i got a bus from there, refused to put my holdhold in the luggage because it got stolen the last time, had just came back from holidays, clothes, gifts, stuff i'd bought for my bike all in there, bags carried at owners risk is the sign, i'm not risking it, 'you cant bring that on the bus' i was told, 'it got stolen last time' was my response, 'if you put it on a seat you'll need to pay for it' was theirs, 'i'll hold it on my lap all the way to donegal if need be' was mine

now i just get the train, private bus, or even the plane

cast_iron

John R wrote: »

Do you have a copy of the timetable that lists a 16.30, 17.00 or 17.20 departure from Dublin to Trim/Athboy? If you do I would greatly appreciate you posting it up here.

As far as I am aware the timetable has not changed recently and it has departures only at 15.30, 17.30, 18.00, 18.30.

I suspected the same, and a check on the Bus Eireannn journey planner confirm the OP's times are wrong and you are indeed correct.

Quite how the OP can expect us to believe the rest of the story is called into question, considering that the facts he bases it on appear completely false.

Perhaps the "pint" he had led him to confuse the times...

Slice

I suspected the same, and a check on the Bus Eireannn journey planner confirm the OP's times are wrong and you are indeed correct.

Quite how the OP can expect us to believe the rest of the story is called into question, considering that the facts he bases it on appear completely false.

Perhaps the "pint" he had led him to confuse the times...

Yes, this story does sound a bit extreme, even by BE standards. Just goes to show everything on this forum should be taken with a pinch of salt

eve

During my work experience for college I went home to live with the parentals because it would be less expensive and getting to work from their house was no longer than from where I was living at the time. Those six months taught me that I do not want to live out on the country again.

I was getting buses from just South of Navan to Blanchardstown and back every day. The first few morning buses that passed while i was waiting from around 7 were invariably full. The record was having to wait for the 6th bus a few days to pick us up.

Getting home was even worse as we were standing at the round about on the motorway at the end of Blanchardstown village. You were pretty much guaranteed to wait for 40 mins for a bus that was 1) going via Navan and 2) had seats. One day I was so frustrated with the number of people waiting and the time spent waiting that I rang Busaras. Here's the gist of the conversation:

Me: Can you tell me when the next Navan bound bus is due at Blanchardstown?
Them: Em..there should be a Kells one there in the next few minutes.
Me: That just passed. It was full. We've all been waiting a long time.
Them: How many people are there? Half a dozen?
Me: About 25.
Them: Oh...Give me a second...Ok. Ive just spoken to the bus inspector and he's sending out an empty bus now.

In fairness a bus with about 10 people did come out about half an hour later but the whole thing of waiting for a bus to be full before they send it on its way is Bullsh*t. At least with a train you will generally get onto it even if it is cramped. The driver can't just decide to skip a station cause there's too many people on the platform.

Aquavid

Bus Eireann are addressing this capacity problem on the Navan service this year, with the introduction of double-deck commuter coaches and an increased timetable.

Aquavid

AlekSmart

Whilst queuing to mount the reviewing stand in order to salute Busaras I stumbled upon Eve`s post and decided to surrender my position.....Quote Eve :

"
Quote:
Me: Can you tell me when the next Navan bound bus is due at Blanchardstown?
Them: Em..there should be a Kells one there in the next few minutes.
Me: That just passed. It was full. We've all been waiting a long time.
Them: How many people are there? Half a dozen?
Me: About 25.
Them: Oh...Give me a second...Ok. Ive just spoken to the bus inspector and he's sending out an empty bus now.

In fairness a bus with about 10 people did come out about half an hour later but the whole thing of waiting for a bus to be full before they send it on its way is Bullsh*t. At least with a train you will generally get onto it even if it is cramped. The driver can't just decide to skip a station cause there's too many people on the platform." END ]


Oh dear I thought,that sort of response from "Them" did`nt really tie-in with the OP`s opening reason for Saluting "Busaras"...in fact it appears to fly-in-the-face of the OP`s original contention that "Busaras" could`nt care less about Passengers and their needs.

Oh well another enterprising crusade postponed....

Returning to Eve`s all too familiar predicament I would love to see some posters make enquiries from those many,sane,sensible and by now very highly placed "Planners" who relocated thousands of otherwise content people to places such as Navan,Trim,Kells,Cavan,Carrickmacross and never posed themselves the question...

"If all these shiny,happy new country dwellers are WORKING in Dublin City,HTF are they going to commute TWICE daily to the place on the current Public Transport system"

That question never even appeared on the Civil Service entrance exam,never mind on a briefing document for a Minister for Transport..Instead,the normal Irish methodology was used..."Lets get it started Lad`s ,an sure we can fiddle around with them oul buses as we go along"..

Eve,although she fails to realise it,experienced the finest in customer service from "Them" in Busaras,a level which would mightily impress any customer of a "Private " operator anywhere.

EG:

Eve,frustrated at seeing FULL buses passing (Slowly?) through Blanchardstown decides to ring "Them"

"They" explain their current position,ie:Kells Bus en route.

Eve tells them it`s full and gone through.

"They" enquire of situation at Blanch,Eve details it.

"They" Inform Eve an empty Bus is being despatched to Eve & Co.

30 Mins later (Above average for Busaras-Blanchardstown in evening peak) 53 seater (?) with 43 seats available arrives for Eve and her 24 fellow passengers.

Is this the case ?

If t`is then I could not fault it as an example of customer service and neither I suspect would Microsoft,Dell,Irish Biscuits or indeed the Minister for Health,Transport or even An Taoiseach......


Well done "Them" in Busaras is what I would say....I`m tempted to sign this post...."Adam".....:)

_Kaiser_

cast_iron wrote: »

I suspected the same, and a check on the Bus Eireannn journey planner confirm the OP's times are wrong and you are indeed correct.

Quite how the OP can expect us to believe the rest of the story is called into question, considering that the facts he bases it on appear completely false.

Perhaps the "pint" he had led him to confuse the times...

*sigh* Gotta love the arrogance of this post (and a few others like it).. :mad:

We all know that the CIE group regularly take liberties with the official timetable - be it extra buses, rerouted buses, missing buses etc - that it in effect becomes nothing more than a "serving suggestion", and of no practical value to passengers in many cases.

So just because these buses aren't shown on the official timetable, the OP must be making it all up right, because CIE COULDN'T be making it up as they go along, eh? :rolleyes:

Reliability, Efficency and Customer Service - all words that mean nothing where CIE is concerned.

AlekSmart

I have to agree with the Kaiser here....cos WE ALL know these things to be true

Recognising the need to keep arrogance and indeed nonsense at bay was why Eve meticously transcribed the Telephone conversation (Exchange?) with "Them" in Busaras.....and fair play to "Them" for their response I say

Now that`s only MY opinion so I can immediately plead Not Guilty to a charge of Arogueance !!:eek:

eve

AlekSmart:

I should have pointed out that the person I spoke to on the phone actually sounded surprised that there would be so many people waiting to get on a bus from that location. It was if it had never occured to them that not everyone goes to Busaras to get a bus home.

I would also like to point out that I am not one of those people who re-located to the country for cheaper housing. Going back generations I cannot find a direct relative who lived in a city or even a town. But due to there only being jobs in my expertise within cities I have been forced to move within the Dublin Bus area.

Archeron

John R wrote: »

This is not unusual on certain routes where the demand has vastly outgrown the timetable but for various reasons the timetable has not been able to be updated.

Well there you go. I understand that some things take time to change, such as online or printer timetables, but surely to God, the man who actually ANNOUNCED "now boarding the bus to Trim", and then "last call for boarding the bus to Trim" despite the fact that there was clearly no bus there should know whether or not a bus is even present in the station? In fact, considering he is in the glass birds nest with a great view of everything, you would think he would have noticed there was no bus there.
The strange thing is that so many of the people in the queue just laughed it off as if this is an everyday occurance.

cast_iron wrote: »

I suspected the same, and a check on the Bus Eireannn journey planner confirm the OP's times are wrong and you are indeed correct.

Quite how the OP can expect us to believe the rest of the story is called into question, considering that the facts he bases it on appear completely false.

Perhaps the "pint" he had led him to confuse the times...

I appreciate the sarcasm but as regards buses that dont appear on timetables, the poster up above has informed me that sometimes extra buses are put on, so there you go; it appears you cant actually disprove everything through the internet.
In answer to the question, no I cannot post a link to the timetables as I didnt use the timetables. I had no idea when I was going to be going home, so decided that I would check each day when I arrived in the station as to when the next bus was due to depart. As I stated, they didnt depart at the times they were supposed to according the display over the ticket booth, and the displays over the gates and THAT was what pissed me off. It surely isnt too hard to change the display that runs over each gate is it? Or to inform the announcer that the bus is gone?
Perhaps it is too much to ask for to be able to walk into a bus station in the centre of a city and be able to actually find out when the next bus is leaving and to obtain correct information. Shame on me, why didnt I just KNOW this in advance....

I dont normally even be in Dublin, but was on a 3 day course. I thought to myself that it would be wiser to get public transport instead of driving. While the journey into the city is always a pleasure (and inbound buses are always very punctual), its getting out of the city that poses problems.

I have no issue with Bus Eirrean themselves, as they are generally good quality buses, nice people driving, but Busaras itself is a joke. And whether or not the buses I was looking at listed on the relevant gates WERE extra buses or not, its still inexcusable to have a huge line of people waiting to board a bus that has already departed. Especially laughable when the announcer actually says "now boarding bus to Trim" when there is clearly no bus even there. If they knew how to simply reprogram the overhead display over the gates, I would have been on that bus that left early and would have been home in nice time, but blatantly stupid things like this serve only to make people very weary indeed.

And as for timetables, I got one for the Athboy/Trim buses from a very pleasant girl behind the info counter for my dads future reference as he is getting the bus into Dublin soon and has no internet access. When I got home, I had a look through it, and lo and behold, the timetable had been poorly photo-copied resulting in all of the names of the stops on the left hand side of the page and some of the times the bus arrives being cut off.
I'm possibly being pedantic, but if a major national bus station cannot even photocopy timetables properly, well that just says a lot.

BoatMad

I'd replace it with some nice trees, a little water feature, and some cute benches so you could sit and watch the LUAS go by, Oh Ok a little plaque in the corner that mentioned something ridiclous used to be here

jjbrien

irish-stew wrote: »

resulting in a arguement with a bus driver on a national service over this last time i got a bus from there, refused to put my holdhold in the luggage because it got stolen the last time, had just came back from holidays, clothes, gifts, stuff i'd bought for my bike all in there, bags carried at owners risk is the sign, i'm not risking it, 'you cant bring that on the bus' i was told, 'it got stolen last time' was my response, 'if you put it on a seat you'll need to pay for it' was theirs, 'i'll hold it on my lap all the way to donegal if need be' was mine

now i just get the train, private bus, or even the plane

Ah yes this old chestnut I was taking a bus from Enniscorthy to Dublin last year I had two bags with me one I put in the hold and the other a laptop bag. The driver says to me "you have to put that in the hold" I told him "no it will get stolen" agrued with him for 5 mins and he decided not to carry me as I refused to put my laptop in the hold. Its not a big laptop bag and any thief seeing it would know its a laptop and steal it. I just said to him forget it the train will be along in 20 mins and I dont have to put my laptop out of sight. What annoyed me was his stupity and the fact I had already purchased a ticket and had to buy a train ticket then after. Bus Eireann have no cop on or any idea of customer service.

RadioCity

It is not unreasonable for a driver to tell a passenger to put large or cumbersome items in the boot.
However, items that are clearly high value items, a bit of discretion on the part of the driver could have been observed.

jjbrien

RadioCity wrote: »

It is not unreasonable for a driver to tell a passenger to put large or cumbersome items in the boot.
However, items that are clearly high value items, a bit of discretion on the part of the driver could have been observed.

It was a small laptop bag much smaller than a briefcase. It normally fits under the seat or in the overhead storage area