Dublin Public Transport

RoadToCatan

hi,

Is there any organised group for putting pressure on the Government or Dublin city council regarding improving public transport in Dublin? If so can you send me their details.

Things I would like to see improved

1. Integrated Ticketing System for Lias, Dart and Bus (including private buses)
2. Web site similar to Transport for London (http://www.tfl.gov.uk/) where it gives you city route information for walking, cycling and all forms all public transport
3. Better transport links to Industrial Parks, eg the 114 bus route from Sandyford industrial estate goes at the 16.30 and then the next one is at 20:20. How does that encourage you to use buses?

Anyway don't want to whinge (too much!) - just want to get involved so any details would be appreicated.

Thanks,

Victor

This place tend to be a melting pot and lots of people here do their own thing.

There there are organisations like Dublin Cycling Campaign, Rail Users Ireland, An Taisce and the Irish Wheelchair Association all do bits within their own remit.

I am currently going about setting up an organisation to represent bus users.

paulm17781

www.railusers.ie is the main rail lobby. They've been quiet lately. I used to be on the committee but fell out, mainly politics. They have a message board too so it could be worth a look.

A big problem is lack of political interest and that's something that seems hard to change.

DWCommuter

Okay, off the top of my head this is how things stand at the moment.

Railusers Ireland - National rail lobby, includes Dublin area and luas.

Dublin cycling campaign - self explanatory

Various local groups on particular rail lines into the city.

There was also an aborted attempt to start a campaign group to get the N81 road from blessington improved. Lack of support killed it off.

There is no Bus lobby that I am aware of (except victors forthcoming, trail blazing kick in the head to BAC.:D) or a general road traffic lobby. Don't have all my notes to hand so I may have left something out.

I agree that the city urgently needs a customer run lobby for all transport modes. But I genuinely doubt that it would receive widespread support and I can guarantee that its activities would be criticised regularly on numerous forums by the same people it attempts to assist, but who in turn wouldn't sign up and support it outright.

The other problem is that it will be hi-jacked by all sorts of "experts" who may have a really great knowledge of the subject, but an inability to present that knowledge in a way that connects with commuters. That can be a problem. Furthermore a public transport lobby would also be invaded by political wannabes to improve their profiles as they ascend the political ladder towards a council seat. An active member of a political party is not a good thing to have on any public transport lobby. A lobby or campaign group must be free of any political attachment. How you vote is a private matter decided by you in a polling boot. But if you are chair of your local FF branch for example, then its pretty obvious that you won't be running around the place screaming blue murder about the balls that party in Government has made of things. A lobby needs to reserve the right to do things like that. No compromise.

I hope somebody takes up the baton for an all embracing public transport lobby. Regardless of the membership take up/criticism, it would scare the bejaysus out of the Government.

KC61

Frankly, without such a users' body having a statutory basis, it will never get sufficient teeth to make a difference, and even then may suffer from the political ills that DW Commuter refers to.

DWCommuter

KC61 wrote: »

Frankly, without such a users' body having a statutory basis, it will never get sufficient teeth to make a difference, and even then may suffer from the political ills that DW Commuter refers to.

I appreciate what you're saying and there's a tonne of truth in there. PaulM, a former colleague of mine, has alluded to it above. However I do believe that if a lobby is agressive and media savvy it will push politicians to act. I have no doubt that without the huge work we did in P11 during 2004 to put the interconnector on the agenda, it may not have have been mentioned in T21. Even when we addressed the transport committee the previous year, they, like us, still didn't know how the interconnector would work. Stuff like this is frightening. The poor level of communication between Government and the likes of CIE that I witnessed would scare anyone.

Even devoid of a statutory basis, a lobby can be effective. But it needs to be appealing, un-relenting and hard hitting. Love ins with operators and letters to your local TD are a total and absolute waste of time. Fight your battles in the pages of newspapers, in public online forums and you get noticed and listened to very quickly.

dub_commuter

RoadToCatan wrote: »

g the 114 bus route from Sandyford industrial estate goes at the 16.30 and then the next one is at 20:20. How does that encourage you to use buses?

The Luas is both quicker and more often. Waste of money having a regular bus service to the City centre when it's not needed, capacity is better used elsewhere.

Semi State companies such as CIE and the RPA should not be trying to use taxpayers money to compete against each other.

Carawaystick

dub_commuter wrote: »

Semi State companies such as CIE and the RPA should not be trying to use taxpayers money to compete against each other.

Except the govt in their wisdom decided that they must in fact compete against each other, not co-operate.

Aard

dub_commuter wrote: »

The Luas is both quicker and more often. Waste of money having a regular bus service to the City centre when it's not needed, capacity is better used elsewhere.

Semi State companies such as CIE and the RPA should not be trying to use taxpayers money to compete against each other.

The 114 is an orbital route, not a radial.

SickCert

RoadToCatan wrote: »

hi,

3. Better transport links to Industrial Parks, eg the 114 bus route from Sandyford industrial estate goes at the 16.30 and then the next one is at 20:20. How does that encourage you to use buses?

Between 1630 and 2020 there are numerous departures.

http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/Your-Journey1/Timetables/All-Timetables/114/

16:30 17:00
17:35 17:55 18:45 19:40
20:50

KC61

I think that Aard is referring to the new proposed timetable on the 114 which is awful. It takes no account of passenger flows and badly needs a second bus in the evening peak.

http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/Your-Journey1/Timetables/All-Timetables/New-timetable-Route-114/

There is a driver break from about 1820 to 1920 right in the middle of the peak travel period.

What would have been more reasonable would have been two buses running on the route with similar departures from each terminus from 15:10 to 19:20, which could have been two "workout" duties (i.e. a driver duty with no break). Allowing for time to get to/from Donnybrook this could be done within the 5 hours 40 minute restriction and would have delivered a meaningful service to the customer rather than the ludicrous timetable that is proposed.

You would have ended up with services in either direction at:
1510, 1550, 1630, 1715, 1800, 1840 and 1920.

SickCert

Thats a shock, first time seeing it as well.
The service is being dissolved from what it was to well nothing!

Im not sure if the unions have met about this bill yet, hopefully it was be altered.