Disruption to Dublin Bus services

Dyr

Maybe? They never came back for some people. Funny to see the columns of out of service buses managing to make it up the same streets that had their routes pulled though. :rolleyes:

Be interesting to see if other transport companies gave up the ghost in the manner that dublin bus did. God forbid that this city ever have a real catastrophe

tesslab

Adverse weather conditions developed early this afternoon which made bus operation extremely difficult. Dublin Bus attempted to continue to operate services during the evening peak. Unfortunately operating conditions have deteriorated and in the interests of safety Dublin Bus will be unable to continue to provide a service this evening. Dublin Bus has been informed that a heavy programme of gritting is planned for tonight and therefore expects to be able to restore services tomorrow morning.
Dublinbus.ie and news bulletins will be updated as services resume tomorrow morning and our Customer Service line on 01-8734222 will be available from 07:00hrs.
Dublin Bus apologises to customers for the inconvenience caused by this service disruption.
Last updated 19:00 6th January.

Agent J

Buses are back off again...

lord lucan

Bambi wrote: »

Maybe? They never came back for some people. Funny to see the columns of out of service buses managing to make it up the same streets that had their routes pulled though. :rolleyes:

Be interesting to see if other transport companies gave up the ghost in the manner that dublin bus did. God forbid that this city ever have a real catastrophe

If it's not safe to drive then they have to pull them imo. They have to get the buses back to the garages to be cleaned/fueled. The liability of operating in these conditions with passengers on board just isn't worth it. Can you imagine if a bus went off on black ice,"50 injured in bus smash" the tabloids would scream and 100 "Dublin bus are eejits for running buses in them conditions" threads would start.

I know it's a pain in the arse for those trying to get home but these are unusually tough conditions we're experiencing right now.

gurramok

I can confirm that for the last hour a continuous stream of buses are heading to bed at Ringsend garage for the night!!

The noise of them roaring past my apt at crawling speed with 'Out Of Service' signs on them is quite a sight

d31b0y

Thankfully they got the Dart running again after the breakdown scare. Caused a delay of about 45 minutes (me stuck in the Dart behind the train) but AFAIK they are back running as normal again now.

Any longer a delay would have been unthinkable. Safe home everyone.

one2one

For when the website is down, someone at DB had the bright idea of setting a bebo account up. http://www.bebo.com/wwwdublinbusie/

spoonface

It's all over for today. Dublin Bus has confirmed no more buses will run today but will resume tomorrow after gritting tonight.All routes affected.

one2one

one2one wrote: »

For when the website is down, someone at DB had the bright idea of setting a bebo account up. http://www.bebo.com/wwwdublinbusie/

/facepalm

Jip

gurramok wrote: »

The noise of them roaring past my apt at crawling speed with 'Out Of Service' signs on them is quite a sight

Cabin fever setting in there gurramok ?

one2one

Why the /facepalm? i thought it was a pretty good idea!!

howiya

If it's unsafe to operate buses then that's fine.

However the lack of information coming from Dublin Bus earlier today was astonishing. Several people have cited the website not being updated from 12.45

Even Dublin Bus admit that their website failed. Pathetic

one2one

one2one wrote: »

Why the /facepalm? i thought it was a pretty good idea!!

They have it private, so you can only see if it your a friend, not much use unless they have someone constantly accepting friend requests!

one2one

Im not a friend and I get on fine?

one2one

one2one wrote: »

Im not a friend and I get on fine?

won't let me on

Says I need to be a friend. Odd.

Ginny

Luckily I grabbed one of the last 145s into town, lovely Lady driver who insisted on getting us to St. Stephens green when all the other buses were unloading everyone at Donnybrook.
Had to walk through town and it was lethal, especially on O'Connell bridge.
Funny I actually rang Dublin Bus customer care at 2pm, the phone rang out, I then rang Harristown who said there was no expected disruption to service today, and yes it had been snowing most of the morning out there,so you'd think they'd have an idea of the plan going forward.
I'm assuming as usual the site won't be updated before 7am, which is useless if people are looking for alternative transport.

KC61

howiya wrote: »

If it's unsafe to operate buses then that's fine.

However the lack of information coming from Dublin Bus earlier today was astonishing. Several people have cited the website not being updated from 12.45

Even Dublin Bus admit that their website failed. Pathetic

While I'm not defending it, even www.aaroadwatch.ie has failed on occasion, including this afternoon!!!

Today was quite unprecendented in my 20 years travelling to/from work by bus. I have never seen roads like it - the city centre was horrific, with ice covered and untreated streets, and as for the suburbs well everything was at a standstill and the roads like ice rinks. There have been several bus crashes apparently and I really cannot condemn DB for withdrawing the service. It is a nightmare out there.

The local authorities need to get their act together and provide a safe working environment on the main routes for a bus service to operate tomorrow.

I find some of the posts here really rather pathetic (and I am not referring to the website crash). Please try and remember that the company has an obligation to provide a safe working environment for its drivers and for the passengers. If that is rendered impossible by local authority inaction, then what are they to do?

I am at home now after a marathon 3 hour 50 minute Walk/Train/LUAS/Walk (Slide)/LUAS/Walk trip.

Not looking forward to tomorrow!

Corruptedmorals

Absolutely disgusted that the last update was 12:45 and there was none between then and when I left my house for my bus at 14:15. The 14:00 66 from Maynooth got to leixlip at 14:40- kinda funny really. For some reason it went through Lucan- most 66's skipping it- and eventually pulled in at the big blue building before the liffey valley sliproad and we all had to get out. So I might have made it into work if the site had been updated- could have got the train!:mad: Have been getting busses from last Saturday and they've all been fine so assumed this would be fine too since that's what the website said..

Dyr

I'm stuck in work..tempted to stay here too...

Ham'nd'egger

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

Absolutely disgusted that the last update was 12:45 and there was none between then and when I left my house for my bus at 14:15.

PFrom what we can see today, the roads went from safe to unsafe literally in minutes and with probably tens of 000's of people on it all day at any one time. Now fair enough, it wasn't up when we most needed it but unless you think it should be updated every minute for your convenience....:rolleyes:

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

The 14:00 66 from Maynooth got to leixlip at 14:40- kinda funny really. For some reason it went through Lucan- most 66's skipping it- and eventually pulled in at the big blue building before the liffey valley sliproad and we all had to get out. So I might have made it into work if the site had been updated- could have got the train!:mad: Have been getting busses from last Saturday and they've all been fine so assumed this would be fine too since that's what the website said..

Nobody stopped you getting the train, did they?:D

howiya

KC61 wrote: »

While I'm not defending it, even www.aaroadwatch.ie has failed on occasion.

Bus passengers will logically turn to Dublin Bus' own website for information. When this failed they may have gone to secondary sources like RTE, the AA etc.

We're in the age of information. If a plane crashed on the other side of the world we'd know about it. There is no excuse for Dublin Bus failing to inform it's customers of the lack of services.

KC61 wrote: »

I find some of the posts here really rather pathetic. Please try and remember that the company has an obligation to provide a safe working environment for its drivers and for the passengers. If that is rendered impossible by local authority inaction, then what are they to do?

Yes it is ultimately the responsibility of the local authorities although gritting is obviously less effective when gritting in traffic. The company has many obligations to its passengers and while safety is top of the pyramid they failed their customers in other ways today. In relation to providing a safe working environment for its drivers I fail to see how drivers driving empty out of service buses around Dublin conforms to this.

howiya

Hamndegger wrote: »

PFrom what we can see today, the roads went from safe to unsafe literally in minutes and with probably tens of 000's of people on it all day at any one time. Now fair enough, it wasn't up when we most needed it but unless you think it should be updated every minute for your convenience....:rolleyes:

That is a pathetic comment. Dublin Bus were updating their own website at least every half 45 minutes. Then all of a sudden they stop when as you point out people needed information.

Nobody is suggesting it should be updated every minute even though many cities manage to provide real time information about public transport.

Dublin Bus failed the public today with the disappearance of their updates which until this afternoon had been quite good and informative

DDigital

While the information side of things from DB was poor, (based on reports here) there was no way in hell it was safe to operate the service on the roads. From my own experience, it was the most terrifying drive Ive ever made. All clear in Sandyford at 12pm. I headed to Enniskerry, where it was like the Alps in winter. By the time I got back down to Sanyford the damage had been done there too. From 1.30pm onwards it deterioated rapidly. I can't possible see how buses would manage it safely. All the way across south Dublin to west Dublin was very dangerous.

So I can fully understand why buses were pulled.

one2one

Disapperance caused by over 8'000 people trying to access the site at one time! Seriously give it a rest, they had it up & running as fast as they could. AAroadwatch went down at the same time!

howiya

one2one wrote: »

Disapperance caused by over 8'000 people trying to access the site at one time! Seriously give it a rest, they had it up & running as fast as they could. AAroadwatch went down at the same time!

8,000 people is that all? makes it even more ridiculous

DDigital

one2one wrote: »

Disapperance caused by over 8'000 people trying to access the site at one time! Seriously give it a rest, they had it up & running as fast as they could. AAroadwatch went down at the same time!

Very true.

Realistically (and Im no expert) surely the major problem here is the complete lack of preparation. This weather was predicted and yet no grit was put anywhere across the city before the snow storm unleashed itself. DB are just victims of a higher force that can't seem to do its job. Web site updates/crashes would be less inconvenient if some attempt was made to treat the roads and prepare the city for the weather.

howiya

DDigital wrote: »

Very true.

Realistically (and Im no expert) surely the major problem here is the complete lack of preparation. This weather was predicted and yet no grit was put anywhere across the city before the snow storm unleashed itself. DB are just victims of a higher force that can't seem to do its job. Web site updates/crashes would be less inconvenient if some attempt was made to treat the roads and prepare the city for the weather.

The roads were obviously gritted overnight. Otherwise there wouldn't have been Dublin Bus services to withdraw.

Jeanious

i don't know if anyone has mentioned it but the dublin bus website was completely offline from about 12:45 to 1:15....why, just why?!

ian_m

Whats the story with buses first thing in the morning??

Standard Toaster

My bro's a bus driver and his cie bus broke down out in Blach today. Dead as a dodo.
That was before 3pm today. He's still out there with the bus at 9pm as he can't leave it alone. Disaster of a day all round!