Suggested DB route

markpb

I had a thought this morning on the bus to work, I'm curious to know if I'm on the ball or just plain crazy

A lot of people I know cross the city to get to work (typically Santry, Coolock, Raheeny, Donaghmede to Sandyford). If you attempt this by public transport, it's fairly slow and is easily beaten by car. I take the bus to the city centre and a Luas to Sandyford. If I walk between bus and Luas, it takes 20 minutes. If I get a 15/128, it's no faster because of traffic. If I get the Dart, I first have to get to a Dart station and then get the unreliable (and soon to be downgraded) Dart feeder buses. Pretty poor options (like the Carslberg ad).

What I'd suggest be better is a bus down the Malahide road, cross the Eastlink bridge and then down the coast road to the N11 before cutting off to Sandyford. Both the Malahide road and N11 have decent bus lanes and it avoids the city centre so the travel time should be comparable to a car, especially if it operated as an expresso service.

Thoughts?

loyatemu

in my experience traffic around the port and along strand road can be very heavy at time - not sure this would actually save you a lot of time.

KC61

The other issue is that you boil back to the fundamental problem with orbital routes.

Are there sufficient numbers travelling to provide decent loads all along the route? That's why the existing routes (such as the 17 and 75) take the odd detour to serve UCD (17) and Ballinteer/Sandyford (75).

It's not as straightforward as operating a bus along the direct radial routes to/from the city where there are good loadings in either direction all along the route.

Cookie_Monster

potential better solution is to re-route / extend the 4 up to Sandyford from the Blackrock terminus. Not sure how practical this would be though.

markpb

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

potential better solution is to re-route / extend the 4 up to Sandyford from the Blackrock terminus. Not sure how practical this would be though.

The 4 goes through the city centre which is the whole problem. Typically for me it takes 20 minutes to get from Malahide / Tonlegee to Fairview and 20 minutes to get from Harcourt to Sandyford on the Luas. The other 30 - 40 minutes of my commute is the shortest bit, the bit in the middle getting through the city centre.

Cookie_Monster

markpb wrote: »

Tonlegee

Off topic but this is the best placename ever

"Arse to the wind":D:D:D

(Well in relation to the mountain in Wicklow of the same name anyway)

Rawr

markpb wrote: »

What I'd suggest be better is a bus down the Malahide road, cross the Eastlink bridge and then down the coast road to the N11 before cutting off to Sandyford.

Thoughts?

A bus-route? Not via An Lar? How delightfully obsurd!:D

Cookie_Monster

Would there be any issues with the busses fitting under the east link, was it built to be high enough way back when?

loyatemu

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Would there be any issues with the busses fitting under the east link, was it built to be high enough way back when?

they'll fit under fine - the rivers pretty deep there...

Cookie_Monster

loyatemu wrote: »

they'll fit under fine - the rivers pretty deep there...

:P

GerardKeating

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Would there be any issues with the busses fitting under the east link, was it built to be high enough way back when?

Well the HGV's have no problem...

antoinolachtnai

I think there is something to what you are suggesting, but you need to go through the census figures to see if it actually works, i.e., if there are enough people making those journeys to merit the route. Chances are you would get it to work on peak in the morning, but getting the return journeys to add up would be tougher, and off-peak buses would be very difficult indeed to justify.

Sorting out the centre city connections would seem to be the easiest way to sort out the particular journey you are talking about. This is the concept behind the bus priority on College Green. It's also what drives integrated ticketing.

Cookie_Monster

GerardKeating wrote: »

Well the HGV's have no problem...

and busses are bigger than them....


I assume they wouldn't have a problem. But with the track record this country has with transport I wouldn't be surprised to hear otherwise

wayne2107

Double decker buses use the East Link on a daily basis, so they will have no problem there.

shltter

wayne2107 wrote: »

Double decker buses use the East Link on a daily basis, so they will have no problem there.

Another option could be to use the M50 by

It would need work and some land at the junctions but if buses like the 4s and the 128s were collecting people along the main corridors Malahide road,Ballymun road, Finglas Road, Navan rd etc all around the M50 and joining up with a service that used a bus lane along the M50,
with a frequency of say 5 minutes in each direction along the M50 with feeder buses bringing people from the surrounding areas to the stops at the M50 junctions, You could also have a park and ride element at these Junctions

So in the OPs case he would board a bus in the coolock area to take him to the N32/M50 stop then transfer to a bus that would using a dedicated bus lane take him to the Sandyford junction and a transfer to the local service for the sandyford area.

There would also be the option of express buses at peak times operating limited stops along the M50 as well those serving all the Junctions.

markpb

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

Sorting out the centre city connections would seem to be the easiest way to sort out the particular journey you are talking about. This is the concept behind the bus priority on College Green. It's also what drives integrated ticketing.

I never anticipated it being an all day service - I think there would only be sufficient demand in the mornings and evenings which is why I suggested an express service. I'm normally against sporadic or limited timetables and think they're the antithesis of a good bus service but in specific cases (that suit me ) I think they're a good idea.

I know several people making the journey (or something similar) and all of them abandoned public transport once they realised it was quicker by car. None of them go through the city centre. The obvious caveat is that my company are extremely flexible with time so many of them make the journey before or after the peaks.

I agree that we should sort out the city centre and fully support the bus gate scheme (and have been plaguing councillors to let them know) but I think there will always be a good argument for buses that avoid the city centre.

antoinolachtnai

For the bus to be anything like viable, the fare would have to be quite high. The problem is the bus would only be doing one run in the morning, and one run in the evening. If you fill a bus both ways with 70 passengers @1.80 each, that's ony 252 euros per day, or about 65,000 a year. For Dublin Bus, that would mean that they would be making a loss of EUR 130,000 on the service (costs nearly 200k a year to have a peak-only bus on the road under the present operating model).

KC61

Antoinolachtnai makes a very good point.

The other problem with a service such as this is that while people often travel to work at the same time, they often finish up at a variety of differing times, or go training, or may not go home immediately. Therefore while there may be a good loading in the morning, evening loads tend to spread out more. So while the bus "might" be full in the morning, it would be likely to not carry the same loads in the evening.