Disruption to Dublin Bus services

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Ham'nd'egger

howiya wrote: »

Never understood why Dublin Bus run services to the likes of Dunboyne, Blessington etc

It's a throwback to the mid 1930's when private companies were bought out by the then Dublin United Tramways Company; they were the forerunner to what we know as Dublin Bus. Many of these companies held route licences to far flung corners such as Newtownmountkenneddy, Donard, Dunboyne and Maynooth, licences which still are honoured to this day. Private services to other towns like Ashbourne and Naas would have been subsumed into different companies, hence they being with what is now Bus Eireann.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

MiniD

I know the weather conditions have been unpredictable and severe, but the customer information from Dublin Bus has been pretty poor these past few days.

The Dublin Bus website seems to think putting the name of a pub as a terminus point is acceptable.

3 - terminating at Vicount Pub

7 - to Graduate pub

25a - terminating at Penny Hill Pub

77/a - to Molly Heffernans Pub

122 - terminating at Halfway House pub

For anybody unfamiliar with pubs in Dublin, this information is useless. At least put the name of the road or area (with the pub name in brackets). In the case of the Halfway House Pub, this could mean either end of the 122 route, as there are pubs of the same name in Ashtown and Drimnagh. The 77A has never run as far as Fortunestown, so I'm assuming this diversion only applies to Route 77.

There are many more examples where the information given has been misleading.

25a - not serving Superquinn (where is this Superquinn?)

104 - stopping at 17a terminus (doesn't state where that is)

66a - terminating at 66b terminus (doesn't state where this is)

With another few days of snow forecast for this week I hope Dublin Bus puts a bit more effort in getting more detailed information to passengers. Many passengers rely on correct and clear information before making journeys in bad weather. I'm assuming whoever is updating the website at Dublin Bus has basic information like street names of their routes, so just pass it on to the passengers.

markpb

MiniD wrote: »

I know the weather conditions have been unpredictable and severe, but the customer information from Dublin Bus has been pretty poor.

Fixed that for you - you can leave out "these last few days"

104 - stopping at 17a terminus (doesn't state where that is)

Or, for that matter, which terminus. Most bus routes have two!

KC61

sheepshagger wrote: »

Great to see Dublin Bus using their Twitter profile to keep people informed. . . it was last updated in September :rolleyes:

That was not an official Dublin Bus site.

richardjjd

KC61 wrote: »

That was not an official Dublin Bus site.

Shouldn't public service providers should use all appropriate means at their disposal to communicate with their clients / customers / audience? Shouldn't they communicate using channels that their customers use and not just the ones they find convenient?

KC61

richardjjd wrote: »

Shouldn't public service providers should use all appropriate means at their disposal to communicate with their clients / customers / audience? Shouldn't they communicate using channels that their customers use and not just the ones they find convenient?

I'm not disagreeing with that - however I am just pointing out that the twitter site referred to was bogus - it was not an official Dublin Bus site.

The Dublin Bus website page is being updated every half-hour from what I can see.

http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/News-Centre/Travel-News/Bad-Weather/

richardjjd

KC61 wrote: »

however I am just pointing out that the twitter site referred to was bogus

Apologies, I misunderstood.

howiya

Seems bus drivers are taking it on themselves to decide how their route should be curtailed.

Tried to board a bus this morning. Driver asks where I was going. His response was Oh I'm not going that way. Decided to walk instead as assumed every other bus would be the same. Only for 3 buses to pass me while I was between stops

KC61

howiya wrote: »

Seems bus drivers are taking it on themselves to decide how their route should be curtailed.

Tried to board a bus this morning. Driver asks where I was going. His response was Oh I'm not going that way. Decided to walk instead as assumed every other bus would be the same. Only for 3 buses to pass me while I was between stops

The situation is constantly changing as can be seen from the Dublin Bus website. It could well be that the instructions changed after that bus left.

From my observations, the Dublin Bus website is being updated every 30/45 minutes as necessary.

http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/News-Centre/Travel-News/Bad-Weather/

dub_commuter

Unfortunately it now seems that someone in Dublin Bus or a group of people are now looking for excuses to not run services into certain parts.

I was on a route yesterday where we were driving through a road that was fully clear of ice or snow, and the driver was radioed to ask about the conditions from Central Control. The driver said the road was clear and perfectly driveable, however control then told him they really really want to pull out of the area, so is he sure and trying to pressure him to go out despite there is nothing wrong with the roads.

It's a similar story in Ballycoolin Industrial Estate this morning, the road was clear last night, no further snow has fallen and I actually came in on that road this morning and it was still clean and not slippy, yet now I see that they have also withdrawn services from there due to bad conditions no doubt it will save a bit of fuel and wear and tear.

I spoke to an inspector at the garage in question and he told me that Dublin Bus services are now controlled in a central control room via each garage, and therefore they no longer have any say in what happens and decisions are now made by people who largly do not know more about a lot of route than what they read on the website.

Thie was perfectly illustrated when I called them about an error in the diversion section in their website. It wasn't anything to do with the diversions directly, it was due to them clearly not knowing the route they were talking about as the information they provided was both unclear and incorrect. I got called a liar because "The Website is right" sadly before a quick call to the garage would clarrify things, but now they've kicked the staff out and are forwarding calls to HQ, it's absloutely useless.

You also have the problem of many drivers of the same route doing different diversions at any one time because of the complete lack of communication in the new useless central control situation. I was on one bus where the driver radioed to control as he wanted them to send a message out about the diversions due to conflicting information - nothing was sent out leaving hundreds of pax freezing, so the drivers resorted to stopping alongside fellow buses to help their colleagues out as that was the only way to get any information.

Whilst the conditions are still not good, it's nearly 6 days on and there is absloutely no need for as many cutbacks going on that there are. Yes there are roads that are dangerous out there but a lot of the things being avoided are perfectly driveable as long as people drive sensible and they have a bus in good working order. The fact that despite conditions are improving in some areas, yet diversions seem to be increasing, there are perfectly clear roads which are now being avoided, that is a disgrace to a PUBLIC SERVICE.

KC61

The central control centre at Broadstone is part of the AVLC rollout - what it has delivered is largely real time website updates to diversions. The Dublin Bus website has never been updated this regularly before.

With any major change like this there are going to be hiccups but the eventual benefits will be significant in that the person responsible for updating the website will be on site and aware of what is happening rather than having to ring around 9 different depots.

While there are some initial shortcomings, by and large the benefits will win out.

dub_commuter

Oh I agree, but the issue we generally have is the people in Broadstone do not have knowledge of a lot of the routes they are posting about which leads to people spouting off a lot of stuff which makes absloutely zero sense to people who actually use the routes they are refering to.

At least with the Garages when you called them you had someone who if you asked about a particular route they would know the route and the stops and know what you are refering to, whereas if you phone HQ or a driver phones central control they seem to just read from the website which in a lot of cases is incorrect.

It's frustrating as a regular user to have to phone HQ now asking for information only to be called a liar, told I am incorrect and to stop arguing with them when the fact is they have never used such a route in their lifetime and have no idea about it other than what they read, whereas I use it every day and they seem to think I am wrong as the website says otherwise.

Whilst a central control may work, it needs to work in such a way that the people who are updating it have WORKING knowledge of the WHOLE network from travelling on and running routes not just certain parts, otherwise it leads to incorrect and misleading information to customers. Whilst phoning all the garages may have been time consuming, it would have lead to a lot more accurate information.

The kind of thing that could be done in the future for such diversions is to use the google bus stop maps they have, and name for each route the stops that would be missed out, this is a foolproof way and would be of great help to passengers.

angel01

If Central control works so well as some will say, why can't we ring them rather than the HQ as when I ring up HQ, I get the wrong information, they claim I am wrong and then get told "sorry I don't know the route". I would like to speak to someone who actually knows the route and can give me accurate information.

When we rang the garage in the past, we got told exactly what was happening.

KC61

The new central control centre has only just started operating - I think people need to have a little bit of patience. It is unfortunate that just at the same time as it is being rolled out we have had the worst snowfall in years in the city.

From what I can see, the level of information being provided to the customer is far greater on this occasion than ever before - and by and large from my experience it has been correct.

I'd have to say that getting into arguments with people doesn't help anyone. I can only imagine that they are working in a stressful situation too as the road conditions are constantly changing.

dub_commuter

Trouble is when you've beem waiting for the freezing cold for 45 minutes because someone in Dublin Bus can't put something in plain simple English then what else are you supposed to do?

EG, One well known problem yesterday is that the 40D has been saying for ages that it is "terminating at shops on main road at Tyrellstown Estate."

Several issues with this
- It has no information on the stops it is missing out or the diversion, just where it terminated.
- The normal routing outbound after Blanchardstown Corporate Park is Tyrrelstown Main Road, Tyrrelstown Estate (5 Stops), Shops in Tyrrelstown Town Centre (Not on the main Road)
- Terminating at shops on Main Road gives you the impression it is running up until this stop. The Shops are the second but last stop, so it would give most sane people the impression it was only missing the last stop
- Actually it's missing out the whole estate and after the main road, it's going to the shops which is in the far side of the estate which is not on the main road.

By using the words at the estate, on the main road and the shops, it confuses the hell out of everyone because it's very unspecific. It creates an even bigger issue on outbound which has different stops rather than across the road. does it start on the main road (Six stops from normal start) Through the Estate, Or the old Outbound stop which hasn't been used in over a year near the shops.

The issues caused were today we had people sitting at many of these stops not knowing where to wait for a bus. Yesterday I got through to the garage and they managed to get the information changed as they agreed it was confusing, only for someone to change it back again.

All it needs is a common sense approach to wording it:
Normal until Tyrrelstown Main Road, bypassing/serving Estate and terminating at the shops.
Inbound: Starting from Main road, not serving Tyrrelstown Estate

angel01

I am afraid, I can't agree that they are doing a good job, I have had this problem for quite a long time. When I ring up, they clearly do not know the route, obviously reading from a book or website and cannot tell me exact details.

The information they give is basic and does not tell me exactly where I should go. The last person told me "I do not know the exact route so I can't tell you more information", well that is great :eek:

Yesterday, I missed the first bus because of the information on the website wasn't updated and the phone line doesn't open until 7am. Bit late for me when I want to catch a bus at 6.35 :rolleyes:

The website keeps telling you where the bus terminates, but it doesn't state where the bus starts from. In not all cases, will they be the same stop.

angel01

richardjjd wrote: »

Shouldn't public service providers should use all appropriate means at their disposal to communicate with their clients / customers / audience? Shouldn't they communicate using channels that their customers use and not just the ones they find convenient?

Oh yes, I would agree with this. Dublin Bus are not good at the PR front.

angel01

KC61 wrote: »

I'm not disagreeing with that - however I am just pointing out that the twitter site referred to was bogus - it was not an official Dublin Bus site.

The Dublin Bus website page is being updated every half-hour from what I can see.

http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/News-Centre/Travel-News/Bad-Weather/

It is being updated alright... with useless information which is as clear as mud :eek:

KC61

Don't shoot the messenger - I don't work for DB. However I can say that the examples that I've experienced involving route updates have actually been quite good, for example the 16 was not serving Grange Road for some time yesterday and that's what the website said. Similarly the 78A was not serving Neilstown or Fonthill for a period and that's what the website said.

I fully agree that there are some examples of insufficient information being issued, but the point that I'm making is that it is actually still an improvement on previous efforts. There is still some way to go.

To suggest that all of the updates are useless is being disengenuous in the extreme.

The depots should by and large still be aware of what is happening - is that not still the case?

KC61

angel01 wrote: »

Yesterday, I missed the first bus because of the information on the website wasn't updated and the phone line doesn't open until 7am. Bit late for me when I want to catch a bus at 6.35 :rolleyes:

Did you try ringing the garage?

dub_commuter

The garages inspector numbers have been been having their calls forwarded for the past few days to HQ, so it's not really a goer anymore like it used to be.

When the normal number is rung I've had a driver answer that they're not sure what is going on as garage staff are telling them one thing and central control are ordering another, and nobody is communicating with the drivers at all via radio, just by terminus and at base.

As stated previously yesterday a driver told central control to send a message out to clarrify things as people were doing various different diversions, they didn't do this so the confusion continued. In the old days the driver would just ring up on the radio and a message would be issued straight away.

The drivers seemed to only know what was on the website when either a stance inspector told them at a terminus or a passenger - they were clearly not being informed by central control.

Although looking outside it's going to be far worse tonight!

angel01

KC61 wrote: »

Did you try ringing the garage?

Yes and I got no answer and then when I did get an answer, it was being forwarded elsewhere.

Just looked out the window, It is not looking good here :eek:

KC61

This is odd.

Having done some checking, as far as I know the only bus route currently controlled from the central unit is the 123.

All other routes remain controlled from the respective depots, until the next rollout of the AVLC.

The website is being updated at Head Office, but they do rely on the information supplied by the garages.

angel01

KC61 wrote: »

This is odd.

Having done some checking, as far as I know the only bus route currently controlled from the central unit is the 123.

All other routes remain controlled from the respective depots, until the next rollout of the AVLC.

The website is being updated at Head Office, but they do rely on the information supplied by the garages.

I just rang the garage at lunch time who gave me the Broadstone number and says they are unable to take my call regarding the route I am inquiring about.

markpb

angel01 wrote: »

I just rang the garage at lunch time who gave me the Broadstone number and says they are unable to take my call regarding the route I am inquiring about.

That has happened me for two different H'town routes.

dub_commuter

They told me the same that they are not allowed to deal with calls about their routes as they are now simply a base with buses and are managed from Broadstone rather than managed locally. He apologised and did not sound very happy with it but the order had come from above.

It's a sad sad day when people who have done one hell of a job in the past are pushed out for people who have no idea. It seems to be however a good job people do in DB, they will always be hung out to dry by the clueless top level management.

angel01

The website hasn't been updated since 12:45, this is ridiculous, when people want to know the latest as it has been snowing heavily.

Surely when the snow is actually falling is when the updates are needed but suddenly they go quiet....is that because they actually have to inspect the routes rather than just pick an area and target it to be pulled out regardless??

Whippersnapper

I was on the bus in to work this morning and the drivers were giving radio updates on conditions to the garages as they were driving along the route.