Dublin Bus Network Review

A2000

Currently a 67 min gap in westbound 40 from oconnell st. Late night shopping on thursday. There was a bus at 19.50 and the next one is 20.57. Disgraceful and getting worse by the day.

dfx-

Chances are that the intermediate 40 is at the terminus with its engine switched off. The service is every 20 minutes after 8pm, I've been on buses at the terminus that have departed FInglas at 2010, 2030 etc.

The 13 on the other hand, seems to be just a two-hourly service in the evening so it can't help out..

A2000

dfx- wrote: »

Chances are that the intermediate 40 is at the terminus with its engine switched off. The service is every 20 minutes after 8pm, I've been on buses at the terminus that have departed FInglas at 2010, 2030 etc.

The 13 on the other hand, seems to be just a two-hourly service in the evening so it can't help out..

Currently according to rtpi there is now a 45 min gap in ballyfermot westbound and then 2 buses at 21.17. There is also a 36 min gap northbound so seems to b 3 buses missing. It will have taken me just short of 2 hours from oconnell st to clondalkin.

LXFlyer

There could also be a driver change en route - buses vanish temporarily from the system when driver 1 signs off and driver 2 signs on.

As dfx says there is also a small time window just before departure where the scheduled time switches to the live time, and if a driver has not signed on the bus can vanish temporarily

All is not quite always as black and white as you suggest A2000.

However, I do agree that (certainly off-peak) there can be serious bunching issues on route 40.

Cookie_Monster

He posted 23 mins apart with basically the same situation, hardly a bus vanishing temporarily. certainly looks to me like services are simply not running

A2000

lxflyer wrote: »

There could also be a driver change en route - buses vanish temporarily from the system when driver 1 signs off and driver 2 signs on.

As dfx says there is also a small time window just before departure where the scheduled time switches to the live time, and if a driver has not signed on the bus can vanish temporarily

All is not quite always as black and white as you suggest A2000.

However, I do agree that (certainly off-peak) there can be serious bunching issues on route 40.

It is perfectly black and white as u say as i stood for over an hour in oconnell st as i have many times before. 1 bus appeared on rtpi at 20.10 counted down 4 mins and vanished without the bus appearing. A 1 hour gap on such a busy service is unacceptable. At peak hour there are 2 buses every 20 mins. A complete waste of resources and a badly run service from a badly managed company.

LXFlyer

Apologies - didn't realise you were actually standing there that long.

Sounds like one bus was curtailed to the city centre for whatever reason (presumably no driver to take up).

This is a serious shortcoming of the on-street displays. While the online app will show them as curtailed the onstreet displays continue displaying the direction, rather than the curtailment.

But I agree - all round not good enough.

sweep77

was just wondering is it me or does anyone else think the 29a service has gone just so unreliable.i know have been on here before giving out but just cant understand how such a reliable bus service has gone so bad.have spoken to drivers and rang dublin bus, drivers say that the bus route was cut, dublin bus says its an improvement.well i believe drivers there is no way this is an improvement.

Mr Simpson

Imo Its the most reliable bus on ghe Howth Rd, always turns up and the Real time is pretty much spot on

Joshycat

sweep77 wrote: »

was just wondering is it me or does anyone else think the 29a service has gone just so unreliable.i know have been on here before giving out but just cant understand how such a reliable bus service has gone so bad.have spoken to drivers and rang dublin bus, drivers say that the bus route was cut, dublin bus says its an improvement.well i believe drivers there is no way this is an improvement.

I couldnt be more happy with the service on the route I have used it at least twice if not more a week since its has been extended to Baldoyle and every bus I have waited for has showed up on time with the exception of one which was only 5 minutes late

liger

I guess its nearly 3 years since this network direct was announced and changes then started to be made. I was wondering the other day, When will they review what they have done and how it has impacted the passenger numbers, the revenue etc and declare it a sucess OR just sweep it under the carpet and pretend it never happen.

Has it been just another waste of money people should ignore at the next fare hike, Just like the ever changing livery, Green to swift to blue and yellow and then to change that to the new black circle logo, Paying €1000's to have the reg numbers in sequence and probably much more I dont even know about,

LXFlyer

The reg numbers of new buses have not been in sequence for several years, while livery repaints have happened only in the normal reprinting cycle.

But sure don't let that get in the way of bar stool talk.

KD345

liger wrote: »

I guess its nearly 3 years since this network direct was announced and changes then started to be made. I was wondering the other day, When will they review what they have done and how it has impacted the passenger numbers, the revenue etc and declare it a sucess OR just sweep it under the carpet and pretend it never happen.

Has it been just another waste of money people should ignore at the next fare hike, Just like the ever changing livery, Green to swift to blue and yellow and then to change that to the new black circle logo, Paying €1000's to have the reg numbers in sequence and probably much more I dont even know about,

It will take a while to establish if the all the network direct changes have been a success. However, I believe if the changes hadn't happened, the company would be in a worse financial position. In the meantime, you're free to check out the performance of Dublin Bus with the NTA. As you'll see, there really is no sweeping under the carpet.

Perhaps you can explain how you feel buses being painted yellow was a waste of money. Buses need to be painted regardless. The only difference was that when buses were being repainted they were painted into the yellow livery. The fleet now has a very distinctive livery along with a strong logo and colour scheme.

As lxflyer correctly points out, the reg numbers are no longer in sequence to match fleet numbers.

LXFlyer

Add to that, the current livery was designed following consultations with visually impaired groups, with a view to coming up with a colour scheme that would facilitate such passengers.

Hence the yellow.

Stevek101

Sure it still hasn't been completed...

Conway635

. . and the new livery had nothing to do with Network Direct, it was introduced from 2003 on rolling refurbishments and from 2004 on new deliveries.

Reg numbers in sequence were used when these could be booked free of charge, however was dropped when the charge of e1000 was brought in.

And this practice (with reg numbers) was followed by virtually every major fleet in these islands from the 60s to the 90s, and only dropped when similar charges were introduced in the UK.

There are many inefficiencies in DB/BE, but colour scheme and fleet numbering policy are not among them.

C635

schemingbohemia

liger wrote: »

I guess its nearly 3 years since this network direct was announced and changes then started to be made. I was wondering the other day, When will they review what they have done and how it has impacted the passenger numbers, the revenue etc and declare it a sucess OR just sweep it under the carpet and pretend it never happen.

Has it been just another waste of money people should ignore at the next fare hike, Just like the ever changing livery, Green to swift to blue and yellow and then to change that to the new black circle logo, Paying €1000's to have the reg numbers in sequence and probably much more I dont even know about,

It will be very difficult to fully ascertain the effect of the changes compared to if they had done nothing in an economy in such drastic shape. There's a strong corrolation between employment/GDP and public transport users so when one of the first two are in freefall then that impacts on passenger numbers.

Cookie_Monster

To be declared a success it actually needs to be finished...
Until the rarely mentioned stage of re-numbering and number rationalising is completed it's still ongoing, though I doubt that they'll bother with this at this point.

LXFlyer

Re-numbering was only ever posted as a rumour. Nothing official was ever published.

To be honest, given the financial straits DB currently face, the less potential confusion for customers right now the better - changing route numbers en mass would cause more immediate confusion than benefit I would suggest, which is probably something they could do without.

Cookie_Monster

it was in the deloitte report

LXFlyer

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

it was in the deloitte report

But a large scale renumbering was never mentioned by DB in their Network Direct plans.

What Deloitte recommended was:

Simplify the network and reduce the number of variations of bus routes.

As I said - given the current economic realities facing the company, confusing customers by changing numbers around would probably cause more problems than solutions right now.

qerty

There has been a 13C passing through Ballyfermot at about 6:20 Monday - Friday the last few days. I've been getting it to the city centre? Does anybody know about this? It's not on the 13 timetable or anywhere else!

LXFlyer

It's one of the early morning "ghost" buses that operate to get staff into the garages, most of which operate unusual routings and which more often than not carry normal passengers as well.

Aard

I've seen the odd 14c as well at, but at night. My understanding is that it stops in town and doesn't continue to the normal terminus. Maybe it's a last-bus thing.

LXFlyer

Aard wrote: »

I've seen the odd 14c as well at, but at night. My understanding is that it stops in town and doesn't continue to the normal terminus. Maybe it's a last-bus thing.

That's different - it's a short working on route 14.

trellheim

44 being extended to airport I heard today plus a load of others I couldn't get detail on.

Stevek101

Is there plans for another round of Network Direct?

Cookie_Monster

trellheim wrote: »

44 being extended to airport

Conway635

Stevek101 wrote: »

Is there plans for another round of Network Direct?

We're still waiting on the final two rounds:

* 27B/79 merger (delayed by terminus infrastructure issues)

* Airport routes - changes to 41 and 33 family (wending its way very slowly through roster design and approval).

I'd expect the 41/33 sometime soon, the 27B/79 next year, or never.

C635

murphaph

lxflyer wrote: »

That's different - it's a short working on route 14.

Why does a short working need a suffix I wonder?

My local bus, the M41 in Berlin often runs short and terminates at a major U Bahn station, but they use the same number just with the "short" destination.

I think a number rationalisation and simplification is actually a really important part of the review from a usability perspective.