Dublin Bus Network Review

A2000

AlekSmart wrote: »

A2000 wrote: »

Got a 40 in Dame st this morning and the woman in front of me asked the driver for 1.85. Cranky looking driver snaps at her its 2.15 and has been since the 1st January, its people like you that holds the buses up. Cool as a cucumber the woman looked at him and said: This is the first time I have used the bus this year as its idiots like you with bad attitudes that stopped me using them in the first place. One happy woman took her ticket and went to her seat. One further disgruntled driver then glared at me as I paid my fare as I was still laughing at the surprised look on his face as I dont think he expected the woman to retort. Yes I know little amuses me.............

I'm going to be a Devils Advocate and enquire as to how one can so accurately,deduce human moods...?

I have to say,that it's my experience that looks can deceive...be it staff,customer or interested observer.....although yes,I now see how amusement can be found in the process....:)[/Quot

unkempt Unshaven Cranky looking driver. The sort who looks like they are spoiling for a fight. When he opened his mouth my suspicions were confirmed. Looks can be decieving attitude is not. Rude response to the ladys request for a ticket. Accused the lady of holding up the bus when the whole episode unfolded in about 15 seconds.
All totally unneccesary. Could have been handled very differently with a little training. Looks can be decieving but then again some things are just exactly as they are seen.

dfx-

Dodge wrote: »

Interestingly, there was an abundance of 13s yesterday at about 4.30. 2 arrived together at College Green, with the first one completely empty. Another one followed 8 minutes later (I was waiting on someone). 2 40s also arrived about that time

If you wanted to get from town to Inchicore/Ballyfermot/Clondalkin at 1945-2000 this evening, you were spoiled...

AV227, AV186 and AV194 on the 40
AX525 and AX520 together on the 13 on Dame St.

Five buses in that 15 minute period. Average of one every three minutes, network direct delivering its promise...:pac:

Once again...

Got off a 79 at the Central Bank awaiting a 27 which was displayed as arriving in 10 minutes. Arrived quicker than that but when it did, it was going to the City Centre only. :mad:

D14

Shouldn't the 15 & 14 be in some way coordinated? They run the exact same route from Rathgar village to doney carney church? Shouldn't they stop at the same stops (St. Stephens green north & dolier street) ?

LXFlyer

They do stop at the same stop on St Stephen's Green North.

The only stops they don't share are:
Northbound - Eden Quay
Southbound - Georges Quay / Hawkins Street (15)/ D'Olier Street (14) and College Street
(15)

Both Eden Quay and Georges Quay require additional space as that is the driver handover point.

I'd be loath to see the 14 move off D'Olier Street as it is the one stop it shares with the 16 and 16a (serving Churchtown and Ballinteer) and I don't think D'Olier Street could take another route as it is jam packed already.

D14

lxflyer wrote: »

They do stop at the same stop on St Stephen's Green North.

The only stops they don't share are:
Northbound - Eden Quay
Southbound - Georges Quay / Hawkins Street (15)/ D'Olier Street (14) and College Street
(15)

Both Eden Quay and Georges Quay require additional space as that is the driver handover point.

I'd be loath to see the 14 move off D'Olier Street as it is the one stop it shares with the 16 and 16a (serving Churchtown and Ballinteer) and I don't think D'Olier Street could take another route as it is jam packed already.

The 14 & 128 managed, what about those going to terenure ? 15 & 16/a?

KD345

D14 wrote: »

The 14 & 128 managed, what about those going to terenure ? 15 & 16/a?

The frequency of the 15 is greater at peak times than the 128 was.

D'Olier Street has the 14, 83 and 140 for Rathmines, and the 14 and 16 for Churchtown and Ballinteer.

Terenure passengers can go to Hawkins Street for the 15, 65 or 65B, or College Street for the 15, 15A or 15B.

The frequency of all these routes combined makes it impracticable for them to all serve D'Olier Street.

angel01

Was waiting for a 40D last night from Parnell Street for over 45 mins. 3 buses cancelled. :mad:

This never happened before Network Direct. Thanks DB for ruining yet another route. :rolleyes:

D14

KD345 wrote: »

D14 wrote: »

The 14 & 128 managed, what about those going to terenure ? 15 & 16/a?

The frequency of the 15 is greater at peak times than the 128 was.

D'Olier Street has the 14, 83 and 140 for Rathmines, and the 14 and 16 for Churchtown and Ballinteer.

Terenure passengers can go to Hawkins Street for the 15, 65 or 65B, or College Street for the 15, 15A or 15B.

The frequency of all these routes combined makes it impracticable for them to all serve D'Olier Street.

Regardless of this the 15 & the 14 are very often coming together off & on peak

LXFlyer

That is not really surprising given that the 15 operates every 10 minutes throughout the day.

I would have thought it rather inevitable.

Given the two routes operate at different frequencies and different length routes with different termini, integrating the timetables would be next to near impossible.

RentDayBlues

Have been getting the 39A into work recently from UCD - always empty as it starts there unlike all the other buses at the stop. Had it done to a fine art, bus is every ten minutes - if I get the 8:30 bus I'm in before 9

Last 2 mornings, the bus was a no show - emailed Dublin Bus to see if there's been a change to the schedule but wont hold my breath

Is this just a case of not bothering?

LXFlyer

No change to the schedule - sounds like either:

1) It was running late to UCD; or
2) It broke down; or
3) It didn't operate due to driver being unavailable

kthnxbai

angel01 wrote: »

Was waiting for a 40D last night from Parnell Street for over 45 mins. 3 buses cancelled. :mad:

This never happened before Network Direct. Thanks DB for ruining yet another route. :rolleyes:

As someone who used to use the 40D (and the 40A) a lot, I don't know if that's true. I experience it being cancelled/diverted an awful lot prior to ND. That said, the route no longer serves my area, so I don't know how much it has deteriorated since ND. Granted, it wasn't very often that I had a 45 minute wait, but it has happened me in the past.

Although, I have noticed something similar with the 40 the past few days. They seem to be only running every 20 minutes instead of every 12, as timetabled. I realise that this happened a lot because multiple buses would turn up together, but this has not been the case in the past few days.

Has something similar been happening on the 40D?

angel01

kthnxbai wrote: »

As someone who used to use the 40D (and the 40A) a lot, I don't know if that's true. I experience it being cancelled/diverted an awful lot prior to ND. That said, the route no longer serves my area, so I don't know how much it has deteriorated since ND. Granted, it wasn't very often that I had a 45 minute wait, but it has happened me in the past.

Although, I have noticed something similar with the 40 the past few days. They seem to be only running every 20 minutes instead of every 12, as timetabled. I realise that this happened a lot because multiple buses would turn up together, but this has not been the case in the past few days.

Has something similar been happening on the 40D?

For the second day running, the 6pm 40D was cancelled so I had to wait again for the 6.15 bus. I challenged the inspector who was quite rude. Everyone is fed up, pissed off that the likes of Ray Coyne has destroyed this route.

It seems to be a regular occurance now that buses are cancelled/don't turn up. In the past, the route was very reliable. I get it twice a day and yes there were diversions in the past but that was due to stone throwing by yobs in Finglas but there were rarely any cancellations (if any at all) and now, I get to the stop in Parnell Street after a long day and can't get the timetabled bus home.

Fed up. :mad:

kthnxbai

That does sound quite annoying alright. I particularly dislike it when the inspectors are no help at all.

It's odd that it's the same bus that keeps getting cancelled. All (or at least the majority of) the buses on the 40D are the newest model, right? So it's hardly break-downs or anything.

In respect to this and Network Direct in general, I find that Dublin Bus has shoddy communication with their customers.

patrickbrophy18

kthnxbai wrote: »

I find that Dublin Bus has shoddy communication with their customers.

It seems that this is a well known fact at this stage. I found this out the hard way when I spent an hour writing to them only to get a "cut and paste(ed)" email back from them a week later.:mad:

Fair enough, the re-routing of the 46A was a massive improvement which saw 10-20 minutes knocked off the trip to UCD and Stillorgan which demonstrated their sensible side.

Nevertheless, the lack of creativity, engagement with customers and intrapreneurship within Dublin Bus is an absolute disgrace. It is a real pity because their are so many opportunities for Dublin Bus to improve their services and increase revenue. However, this proportionality seems to be inverse at the moment.

D3sperado

I've finally given up on Dublin Bus and bought a car. Having happily used buses since I moved to Dublin 8 years ago I've lost patience. Since Network Direct was launched I've found myself having to leave the apartment 30 mins earlier than I used to and the evenings are generally even worse. To top it off I need to switch buses in the city centre and the second bus I get has severe capacity issues by the time it reaches me.

Granted the Real Time updates have been a welcome improvement its not enough for me to keep faith with Dublin Bus, in my personal experience the key focus of Network Direct has been to save money and I don't think things are going to get any better in the short term with the state of the economy so I wouldn't be surprised to see more cutbacks.

I appreciate that ND has worked out well for some people and their routes are now better but these appear to be very much in the minority, although i'm open to correction on this. My first week with the car has been a great success, taking almost 30 mins off my commute in and nearly 45 mins off my trip home.

the groutch

D3sperado wrote: »

Iar to be very much in the minority, although i'm open to correction on this. My first week with the car has been a great success, taking almost 30 mins off my commute in and nearly 45 mins off my trip home.

and how much extra does it cost you?

markpb

D3sperado wrote: »

Since Network Direct was launched I've found myself having to leave the apartment 30 mins earlier than I used to and the evenings are generally even worse.

Do you mind me asking which route you took/take?

the groutch wrote: »

and how much extra does it cost you?

Does it really matter? An hour a day in additional commute time is unacceptable. I stopped using DB for the same reason - my commute went from 90 minutes each way (Coolock to Sandyford) to almost two hours each way as a result of the first round of ND messing. I cancelled two annual DB tickets (which my wife and I had been buying for five years) and never looked back

Dodge

markpb wrote: »

Does it really matter?

It does to some in fairness.

dfx-

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

pity he didn't **** her off the bus for being abusive and calling him names :pac:

The driver of the last 13 westward last night had every reason to on Emmet Rd. An old man decided to board the 13 (AV405) to abuse the driver why his 40 hadn't turned up and how he wanted to get home and the driver should contact the garage to find out where it was.

He stormed off, driver got in touch with the garage, but unfortunately the 40 was a few seconds behind so he probably got on. I was hoping he'd be refused and have to walk home. No excuse for that behaviour.:mad:

Dyr

D3sperado wrote: »

although i'm open to correction on this. My first week with the car has been a great success, taking almost 30 mins off my commute in and nearly 45 mins off my trip home.

that can't be everyone knows the bus is much quicker :pac:

dfx-

D3sperado wrote: »

I appreciate that ND has worked out well for some people and their routes are now better but these appear to be very much in the minority, although i'm open to correction on this. My first week with the car has been a great success, taking almost 30 mins off my commute in and nearly 45 mins off my trip home.

But if you started out 30 minutes earlier anyway, it's the same commuting time as before ND, not a great advantage before you get hit with tax, insurance and petrol costs soon.

The 40 (AV108) in front of our 13 (AX520) on the way this afternoon 'operated' (there were still people left on it) out of service from James Hospital, leaving the rest to the 13.

markpb

dfx- wrote: »

But if you started out 30 minutes earlier anyway, it's the same commuting time as before ND, not a great advantage before you get hit with tax, insurance and petrol costs soon.

Except that he/she has now recovered 1 hour a day or 240 hours a year that they can relax or do their own thing instead of sitting on a bus. I'm not sure how this isn't obvious - maybe some people like sitting on a bus going nowhere but not all of us feel that way

dfx-

Much easier to sit on a bus, listen to music - either your own or someone else's for free, go to sleep, read a book, read a newspaper, talk to friends (or the resident crazy person) or conduct business on the phone...than concentrating being at the wheel.

Then when you get home 30 minutes later, safe in the knowledge that you only ever need to go a petrol station to get one litre of milk than €50 petrol, no visit to the motor taxation office nor cursing the idiot who made you miss the lights and got you caught in unexpected traffic :P

markpb

dfx- wrote: »

Much easier to sit on a bus, listen to music - either your own or someone else's for free ( ), go to sleep, read a book, read a newspaper, talk to friends or conduct business on the phone...than being at the wheel.

That's fair enough (it's your opinion after all ) but you're not going to convince many people that commuting for an *extra* hour a day is good for the soul. Like D3sperado said, I'm glad for people who experience a better DB because of ND, but I'm not one of them and there's no way I'm paying DB more to provide a worse service.

I'm a huge fan of public transport but there comes a point in time where people are happy to trade money for personal time. I was, almost everyone I work with are and almost everyone I know is.

qerty

I've noticed new 40 timetables on a few stops going towards town that are in the same format as the 123 timetable. It advertises the route operating every ten minutes from 5.50 am to 19.00 Monday to Friday.

However the timetables on the DB website have the route operating every 12 minutes between 10.30 and 16.00 and still use the longer form of the timetable!

So which is it >.<

howiya

And they still haven't fixed the 27 yet.

Didn't cycle today and got on the 27 at Amiens Street. Two 27s arrived at the same and the second bus followed all the way to the Square where it turned around after emptying its passengers onto the first bus.

My dad boarded the same bus I was on at College Green and said he had been waiting half an hour.

We got off the bus a couple of stops later (2351 i think) and two more 27s passed us less than two minutes after we disembarked.

When are they going to fix it?

paddyandy

i key the stop no in ..get the timetable same as on display ..then into favourites but how do i retrieve it ?

CIE

howiya wrote: »

And they still haven't fixed the 27 yet.

Didn't cycle today and got on the 27 at Amiens Street. Two 27s arrived at the same and the second bus followed all the way to the Square where it turned around after emptying its passengers onto the first bus.

My dad boarded the same bus I was on at College Green and said he had been waiting half an hour.

We got off the bus a couple of stops later (2351 i think) and two more 27s passed us less than two minutes after we disembarked.

When are they going to fix it?

Time to bring back the 77, maybe?