What do you think of Dublin Bus?

monument

This is one for bus users of any type. As the thread title says: What do you think of Dublin Bus?...

At bus stops

Are bus stops in good condition?

Is the information at bus stops useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date?

At stops, do buses always stop close to the footpath or do they often leave a notable gap?

At stops, do bus drivers ever ignore you and drive past even when you hailed the bus?

Reliability

Is the bus route you use reliable? Does the bus turn up on time? Is the bus often late? Is the bus often early?

Does the bus sometimes not turn up at all?

Does your bus ticket always work with the card reader?

Communication on buses

At times where these is unclear delay are you told what happened or is happening?

Is the information on buses useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date?

Are the bus drivers polite and helpful?

Others

Are the buses mostly clean and comfortable?

How often can you remember buses taking the wrong route or skipping part of a route?

Does anybody often play music, smoke or generally be disruptive? If so what does the driver do? Do you complain to the driver or otherwise to Dublin Bus?

Any other comments?

foggy_lad

At bus stops

Are bus stops in good condition? generally in the city centre yes but outside of the centre no.

Is the information at bus stops useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date? not much use unless you know the time the bus takes from the terminus, not in good condition and illegible.

At stops, do buses always stop close to the footpath or do they often leave a notable gap? have to say dublin bus are great for usually getting right into the kerb!

At stops, do bus drivers ever ignore you and drive past even when you hailed the bus? has never happened me.

Reliability

Is the bus route you use reliable? Does the bus turn up on time? Is the bus often late? Is the bus often early? usually reliable but usually not on time/late by a few minutes up to 30minutes

Does the bus sometimes not turn up at all? this has happened but the bus went by out of service

Does your bus ticket always work with the card reader? no

Communication on buses

At times where these is unclear delay are you told what happened or is happening? no.

Is the information on buses useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date? what information?

Are the bus drivers polite and helpful? usually just doing their job which is great. sometimes reading the herald on the steering wheel or chatting with a friend.

Others

Are the buses mostly clean and comfortable? clean yes but maintenance staff need training on how to put the seats back correctly as many are turned the wrong way.

How often can you remember buses taking the wrong route or skipping part of a route? never

Does anybody often play music, smoke or generally be disruptive? If so what does the driver do? Do you complain to the driver or otherwise to Dublin Bus? rarely but i stay on the lower deck.

Any other comments? best of the three CIE companies.

shofukan

At bus stops

Are bus stops in good condition?
Honestly, no. The bus stops in my area are usually in bits.. Ripped out of the ground, smashed glass, burnt plastic, chewing gum everywhere etc.

Is the information at bus stops useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date?
Nope, the information might be up to date but it's usually been ripped to shreds or lit on fire and damaged badly enough that you can't read it.

At stops, do buses always stop close to the footpath or do they often leave a notable gap?
Varies according to driver.. There have been times when I might as well have crossed the road to get on the bus.

At stops, do bus drivers ever ignore you and drive past even when you hailed the bus?
Has happened a lot of times. I know of drivers leaving early/late so that they don't have to stop to pick up students coming out of schools.

Reliability

Is the bus route you use reliable? Does the bus turn up on time? Is the bus often late? Is the bus often early?
I genuinely don't think there is a timetable. The way I look at it is, turn up at the bus stop and wait. If it comes soon, yay! If not you just have to enjoy being late.

Does the bus sometimes not turn up at all?
Not really.

Does your bus ticket always work with the card reader?
No, the card readers can be very dodgy (both the old magnetic strip and the smart card readers) I've put a 5 day rambler through the smart card reader that I knew for a fact had days on it and it either won't read or reads as 0.

Communication on buses

At times where these is unclear delay are you told what happened or is happening?
No. Never.

Is the information on buses useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date?
If by information you mean the 'don't fúcking wreck the busses' stuff then yeah. Other than that there isn't really anything other than ads is there?

Are the bus drivers polite and helpful?
Mostly... It really varies by driver, there's a small few drivers who are incredibly sound, one of them just turned around to my friend as he got on the bus one day and said 'when you get on the bus in the morning it makes me smile' he's an early morning 45 driver who looks like he should be playing guitar in a punk band and is always listening to classic rock on the radio!

Others

Are the buses mostly clean and comfortable?
Usually, though I've been on some which were really filthy..

How often can you remember buses taking the wrong route or skipping part of a route?
Rarely, it's only ever happened to me when roadworks were taking place.

Does anybody often play music, smoke or generally be disruptive? If so what does the driver do? Do you complain to the driver or otherwise to Dublin Bus?
Schmad lads play music up the back all the time.. Been on busses where lads were mess fighting or drinking.. I've only ever seen someone get kicked off when they're smoking.

Any other comments?
Nope.. I'm bored. I prefer the bus to the train/Dart/Luas etc. just 'cause it's cheaper.

mikemac

This is one for bus users of any type. As the thread title says: What do you think of Dublin Bus?...

At bus stops

Are bus stops in good condition? Good in city centre, suburbs no

Is the information at bus stops useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date?
It's up to date but it gets damaged after a few months.

At stops, do buses always stop close to the footpath or do they often leave a notable gap? Close to footpath, I don't have an issue with this

At stops, do bus drivers ever ignore you and drive past even when you hailed the bus? No, no issues

Reliability

Is the bus route you use reliable? Does the bus turn up on time? Is the bus often late? Is the bus often early?
I don't realy know the timetable, I show up and wait.
It happens a lot that they show up together and drive into town leapfrogging each other, taking every 2nd stop. Not sure why this happens, it goes on most days.

Does the bus sometimes not turn up at all? Nope, they'll get here

Does your bus ticket always work with the card reader? Yes

Communication on buses

At times where these is unclear delay are you told what happened or is happening? No

Is the information on buses useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date?
Yes

Are the bus drivers polite and helpful?
Yes, bar the odd exception.

Others

Are the buses mostly clean and comfortable?
78/78A/79/79A are filthy in the evenings but ok in the mornings
Sometimes the 79 is a brand new modern bus like the 46A route get, I like those buses.

How often can you remember buses taking the wrong route or skipping part of a route?
Never, the drivers are good

Does anybody often play music, smoke or generally be disruptive? If so what does the driver do? Do you complain to the driver or otherwise to Dublin Bus?
Again, 78/78A/79/79A , I'd be shocked if they wasn't music, smoking and disruption
The driver plays a pre recorded message about fines, the scum just laugh.

Any other comments?

Yes, a driver is entitled to their break. Maybe they want to sit on the bus and chat with their co-workers if it's raining at the terminus, that's cool.
The next time I watch a gang of drivers smoking on the bus, it's getting reported. I've done it before, will do it again.
Lead by example after all, the reek of smoke on the lower deck after 4-5 finish a break!

robbie_998

The bus route im using for this is the 210/76/76A/76B

monument wrote: »

This is one for bus users of any type. As the thread title says: What do you think of Dublin Bus?...

At bus stops

Are bus stops in good condition?

Some are in good enough nick apart from some writing on the screens but they get cleaned up... my local stop did have a seat but it was removed and a whole new bus stop was put down but still no seat.

monument wrote: »

Is the information at bus stops useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date?

yes

monument wrote: »

At stops, do buses always stop close to the footpath or do they often leave a notable gap?

close to the footpath. wheelchair ramp used for wheelchair users and bus lowered for buggies etc.

monument wrote: »

At stops, do bus drivers ever ignore you and drive past even when you hailed the bus?

no

monument wrote: »

Reliability

Is the bus route you use reliable? Does the bus turn up on time? Is the bus often late? Is the bus often early?

yes, very.....usually all arrive around the time there meant to.

monument wrote: »

Does the bus sometimes not turn up at all?

no... they all turn up.

monument wrote: »

Does your bus ticket always work with the card reader?

yes when i do have a card but when paying cash fairs drivers tend not to put the right stage e.g. where i got on the bus and where my ticket will get me to.

monument wrote: »

Communication on buses

At times where these is unclear delay are you told what happened or is happening?

never came across it.

monument wrote: »

Is the information on buses useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date?

yes.

monument wrote: »

Are the bus drivers polite and helpful?

sometimes you can get an angry bollox but other times you can get the lads that are good craic !

monument wrote: »

Others

Are the buses mostly clean and comfortable?

mostly yes but i do recall one day when one of the buses smelt like pure poo.

monument wrote: »

How often can you remember buses taking the wrong route or skipping part of a route?

no, unless it was official and due to some major event. e.g. mini marathon.

monument wrote: »

Does anybody often play music, smoke or generally be disruptive?

yes. sometimes but rare music.
smoke. sometimes.
disruptive.. kids acting the bollox

monument wrote: »

If so what does the driver do?

depending on the driver he will do nothing OR will not move the bus until they stop.

monument wrote: »

Do you complain to the driver or otherwise to Dublin Bus?

only did once to Dublin Bus directly for a driver using her phone while driving and as a result drove out of her lane and almost hit another road user.

monument wrote: »

Any other comments?

no... but can't wait for the network review for Clondalkin.

Corruptedmorals

At bus stops

Are bus stops in good condition? Yes, here. Glass broken maybe once a month though.

Is the information at bus stops useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date? Yep

At stops, do buses always stop close to the footpath or do they often leave a notable gap? A gap, mostly.

At stops, do bus drivers ever ignore you and drive past even when you hailed the bus? The only times have been when the bus is clearly at bursting point.

Reliability

Is the bus route you use reliable? Does the bus turn up on time? Is the bus often late? Is the bus often early? 66 is often late, the 66B is very reliable but is also occassionally late. Coming from town they're sometimes early, especially off-peak at weekends.

Does the bus sometimes not turn up at all? A few times, particularly from town.

Does your bus ticket always work with the card reader? Yes.

Communication on buses

At times where these is unclear delay are you told what happened or is happening? Yes.

Is the information on buses useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date? I don't know.

Are the bus drivers polite and helpful? No problem with them.

Others

Are the buses mostly clean and comfortable? Yes.

How often can you remember buses taking the wrong route or skipping part of a route? Usually only for the Leixlip Festival and marathons. Once or twice a bus has skipped the sliproad into Lucan, and another the sliproad at Liffey Valley.

Does anybody often play music, smoke or generally be disruptive? If so what does the driver do? Do you complain to the driver or otherwise to Dublin Bus? Spanish summer students, occassional knackers (not very often). Not much music being played. Smoking, not that I've noticed.

Any other comments? Terrible frequency on my busses off-peak.

ordinary_girl

This is one for bus users of any type. As the thread title says: What do you think of Dublin Bus?...

At bus stops

Are bus stops in good condition?
Yep, certainly marked improvement on how they used to be.

Is the information at bus stops useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date?
In all honesty, not really. It's hard to calaculate the fare to pay if you're not familiar with the "stage" system, the buses I get are late on a regular basis so the timetables are inaccurate and unreliable.

At stops, do buses always stop close to the footpath or do they often leave a notable gap?
Sometimes they leave a notable gap, sometimes they don't. Seems to vary depending on driver.

At stops, do bus drivers ever ignore you and drive past even when you hailed the bus?
This has happened to me on a few occasions, but thankfully such occurances are few and far between. And as I understand it, the buses that did pass were completely full and seemingly couldn't hold anymore passengers.

Reliability

Is the bus route you use reliable? Does the bus turn up on time? Is the bus often late? Is the bus often early?
Nope, the bus is often late. Sometimes I wait at the terminus and the bus will have been there for about 20minutes with the driver taking his time reading and have a smoke. The time comes around for the bus to move up to the stop, and usually they extend their break by about 10-15mins while passengers wait at the stop looking at said driver.

Does the bus sometimes not turn up at all?
Yep.

Does your bus ticket always work with the card reader?
No, on one occasion a driver accused me of using an out-of-date card when the machine double-beeped. It wasn't out of date, but he still made me pay the fare because of the malfunctioning machine. On many occasions the machine double-beeped on me, and several other card users. Never had an issue with the electronic cards though.

Communication on buses

At times where these is unclear delay are you told what happened or is happening?
Never. Not once in years of using Dublin Bus have I ever recieved an explanation for a bus being delayed.

Is the information on buses useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date?
No
Are the bus drivers polite and helpful?
Some of the drivers are incredibly helpful and pleasant, some are rude and inefficient. For the most part, I have no issue with bus drivers. They get me to where I want to go, albeit a bit late.

Others

Are the buses mostly clean and comfortable?
Yes

How often can you remember buses taking the wrong route or skipping part of a route?
It has happened before when I was on the bus, but rarely.

Does anybody often play music, smoke or generally be disruptive? If so what does the driver do? Do you complain to the driver or otherwise to Dublin Bus?
Such behaviour frequently occurs. The driver does nothing, and I can understand why. I don't complain to the driver, I don't want to risk being attacked or accosted.

dfx-

I use all garages except Clontarf, but mainly 51B/C/56A/77A

At bus stops

Are bus stops in good condition? Suburbs yes, city centre no

Is the information at bus stops useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date? No, very often no information at all

At stops, do buses always stop close to the footpath or do they often leave a notable gap? Sometimes there's no choice

At stops, do bus drivers ever ignore you and drive past even when you hailed the bus? It has happened hailing a 13A, but rare

Reliability

Is the bus route you use reliable? Does the bus turn up on time? Is the bus often late? Is the bus often early? Most are reliable, one is certainly not. Most leave their terminus on time, after that it is a lottery.

Does the bus sometimes not turn up at all? On the unreliable route, yes..often enough to try someone's patience

Does your bus ticket always work with the card reader? 80% of the time.

Communication on buses

At times where these is unclear delay are you told what happened or is happening? No

Is the information on buses useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date?Yes to all but up-to-date

Are the bus drivers polite and helpful? 90% of the time yes

Others

Are the buses mostly clean and comfortable? Yes except the old Airport buses and 01D and 02D buses.

How often can you remember buses taking the wrong route or skipping part of a route? Once where a driver took the wrong exit off a roundabout and twice because of crashes on the same bridge caused diversions. Otherwise snowbound diversions.

Does anybody often play music, smoke or generally be disruptive? If so what does the driver do? Do you complain to the driver or otherwise to Dublin Bus? Very few times is there disruption. Playing music isn't really disruptive to be honest

Any other comments? It's a lot better service than is given credit or acknowledged. The double doors on certain buses should be used. The company at times comes across as very inflexible if something goes wrong.

Reeni

My answers are for the 29A route

At bus stops

Are bus stops in good condition? For the most part yes.

Is the information at bus stops useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date? The timetables are usually ripped in places, if there at all

At stops, do buses always stop close to the footpath or do they often leave a notable gap? Close to the footpath

At stops, do bus drivers ever ignore you and drive past even when you hailed the bus? Yes, I have especially noticed this on the last bus of the night, it sometimes never arrives (and I go out over 10mins before) or as has happened in one instance stopped where I told him by bf was running for it at the next stop and would he stop for him, driver said yes. Bf was waiting at stop and the driver turned lights off and drove by.

Reliability

Is the bus route you use reliable? Does the bus turn up on time? Is the bus often late? Is the bus often early? I wait at the stop 10 mins early because the bus is almost always either early or late.

Does the bus sometimes not turn up at all? Yes, far to often

Does your bus ticket always work with the card reader? Yes

Communication on buses

At times where these is unclear delay are you told what happened or is happening? Yes

Is the information on buses useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date? Yes

Are the bus drivers polite and helpful? Can't really generalise, there are some lovely drivers on my route and some horrible drivers.

Others

Are the buses mostly clean and comfortable? Few papers and bottles mostly

How often can you remember buses taking the wrong route or skipping part of a route? Hardly ever, only happened last week but I don't remeber it happening very much before then

Does anybody often play music, smoke or generally be disruptive? If so what does the driver do? Do you complain to the driver or otherwise to Dublin Bus? Can be rowdy at the weekends, nothing major. Occasional smokers upstairs whereby something to this effect is announced over the intercom 'Dublin Bus would like to remind you that smoking is prohibited'

Any other comments?
Dublin Bus, in my opinion, provide a very unreliable service. In all honestly my bus is very rarely on time and i get on at the terminus at both ends where it should be easier to know the right time at which your bus is arriving. It must be murder on customers getting on in between to predict times. There needs to be a competing bus service.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

devnull

Are bus stops in good condition?
Generally yes, especially the new modern ones but the old style poles can be very hit and miss with timetables removed or etched out.

Dublin Bus should replace all the old poles with the new style stops, and have place names and routes served on each one rather than some of the poles that have no info at all

Is the information at bus stops useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date?
The newer stops are better than the old ones, but the fare system is very confusing for someone who is new. Also the fact they only list times from terminus confuses people. The older pole and bus shelter style timetables are worse for this, at least the newer ones state it is the time that it leaves the terminus.

Also there is a network of accessible services map on the bus shelter stops that is 5 years out of date, and a lot of the routes have changed or do not exist, but on a fresh print mad only last week they are still using this out of date map.

At stops, do buses always stop close to the footpath or do they often leave a notable gap?
Normally a small gap, I never see them use the kessel kerbing.

At stops, do bus drivers ever ignore you and drive past even when you hailed the bus?
In several years of getting the 40D and 4/A twice a day every day this has never happened. Infact very often when a driver sees me coming he'll open a door if he's just closed them, no issues with this whatsoever even if the bus is very full and lots of people are waiting.

Unfortunately my experience on the 7/10/38/46A is rather different, if there are quite a gathering of people, despite lots of space being left on the bus, drivers will often drive past and leave the passengers to the next unlucky driver. This is more often in particular if you are less than 5 or 6 stops from the end of the route where drivers on these routes have often told me I should walk.

Is the bus route you use reliable? Does the bus turn up on time? Is the bus often late? Is the bus often early?
On my daily commute on the 40D, the bus has been late maybe twice in the past four years, and each time it was when there was an event in Croke Park, so not their fault.

Overall across the network there is room for improvement, particularly in the evenings where the service can be very poor at times, for instance ast week I waited at Dawson Street in the rain for 30 minutes for a bus to come just after 10pm, only for a 46A to come around, and then not bother to pick anyone up stating we should walk.

Does the bus sometimes not turn up at all?
Never happens on the 40D, but happens far too often on the 38/A and the 236 which are the most awful bus routes I've used in any country, it really is a total lottery if it will turn up or not.

Does your bus ticket always work with the card reader?
The new card readers are great, the old ones are crap.

At times where these is unclear delay are you told what happened or is happening?
On the 40D and the 4/a the drivers always inform the passengers what is happening, and when there is a diversion on the 40D they even have a specially designed display on the front of the bus to inform the passengers of this. which makes things much easier.

The delay that used to happen every morning on the 46A where an inspector would hold it at D'Olier Street for up to 10 minutes was rarely explained and when it was the inspector used to state it was because the bus did not have enough passengers on.

Is the information on buses useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date?
I have no problem with this, the displays are used very well on the 40D as stated above. A lot of other garages would do well for having the second line on the display to show "Diversion in Place" such as happens here.

Are the bus drivers polite and helpful?
This is a real mixed bag unfortunately. The majority of the guys I use on the 40D and the 4/A are excellent, always willing to help, and there is more of a sense of a community on these buses, that they generally want to help the public out and are happy to give any advice or give directions or instructions of how to get to places.

Unfortunately only last week I was on a 38 when the bus driver departed from terminus 10 minutes late as he was finishing his phone call, and proceeded to drive with one hand off the steering wheel for the whole journey and other hand on his mobile phone throughout. In addition on an 8 last week I saw Romanian people get on the bus at the first stop with valid passes and the driver would not allow them on, in his words "There is no room for YOU on this bus"

The drivers on the 7 and the 46A also are not that keen to help in my experience and have accused me of having a fake travel 90 pass before despite the fact it scanned on the smart card reader, luckily another driver was on the bus and validated it was real. Also I got on a 14A about a year ago and every time a free pass holder came on the driver started muttering "No more money for the bus company".

Are the buses mostly clean and comfortable?
The newest buses on the 40D are excellent and have great heating, great opening windows, great lighting and pretty quite and comfortable and on the 4A they are great also. Really can't complain. The buses (VGs) used on the 40D now are by far the best type Dublin Bus has ever had.

The buses (AVs) on the 38 could do with a clean around the edges of the windows as they are frequently very grotty.

How often can you remember buses taking the wrong route or skipping part of a route?
This happens often on the 236 and occasionally on the 38C, the 236 has took so many different variations and short cuts throughout the years it will be hard to remember them all! The 238 is a rock solid service however.

Does anybody often play music, smoke or generally be disruptive? If so what does the driver do? Do you complain to the driver or otherwise to Dublin Bus?
Drivers will often use the automated announcement about smoking. Disruption is often ignored, but in several cases Garda have been called and waiting for passengers where they get off, or the bus has drove into the Garda station itself, which is priceless!

Any other comments:
There are some very customer focused people in Dublin Bus who have the right ideas and are a credit to their company, I worry however that the majority of the senior people in the company, do not have the same outlook and are detached from what the customer base actually wants.

Parts of the service are excellent, with some routes being exceptionally good, however other parts of it are quite simply awful, and have been for years and seem untouchable despite their obvious flaws, generally I believe due to the areas they serve.

Chuchoter

In terms of 239, 25 and 66/67/66b etc
At bus stops

Are bus stops in good condition?
Bus stop is a bus stop is a bus stop

Is the information at bus stops useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date?
No, I would hate to be a tourist in Dublin. You wouldn't have a hope of figuring out where your going
At stops, do buses always stop close to the footpath or do they often leave a notable gap?
Usually pretty close
At stops, do bus drivers ever ignore you and drive past even when you hailed the bus?
Often (239) :mad:

Reliability

Is the bus route you use reliable? Does the bus turn up on time? Is the bus often late? Is the bus often early?
The route I use most is very small (239), and it can either be 20 minutes early, an hour late. The 25 and 66/67/66b are great though, always exactly on time

Does the bus sometimes not turn up at all?
Frequently enough(239)
Does your bus ticket always work with the card reader?
no

Communication on buses

At times where these is unclear delay are you told what happened or is happening?
no

Is the information on buses useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date?
What information?

Are the bus drivers polite and helpful?
They'd be a lot more helpful if they waited for the person running at full tilt towards the bus

Others

Are the buses mostly clean and comfortable?
Yes

How often can you remember buses taking the wrong route or skipping part of a route?
Once or twice (239)
Does anybody often play music, smoke or generally be disruptive? If so what does the driver do? Do you complain to the driver or otherwise to Dublin Bus?
Frequently enough. Drivers do nothing, no point. Skangers don't care about what the driver or anyone else says

Other comments
Dublin bus has too many duplicate routes leaving other areas basically unserved, the new revamp has done nothing to fix this. Also too many routes have funny timetables where there could be a two hour interval between the buses, ie 25 on a sunday, theres a bus at 5 and then none again until 20 to 9, which is mad.

dazberry

At bus stops

Are bus stops in good condition?
It's not the condition that gets me it's the design.
A number of bus stops I use have bins beside the stop, and when the bus stops right at the stop, you have to navigate between the bin and stop pole to get on or off the bus - it's awkward and unnecessary. One shelter I get off at is inverted, so the bus always has to stop after the stop/shelter. One shelter I often use has adverts at each end which makes it impossible to see the oncoming bus if you sit down.

At stops, do buses always stop close to the footpath or do they often leave a notable gap?
Not always, sometimes it depends what has decided to park in the bus stop, other times it's obvious the driver doesn't want to get stuck trying to pull out again.

At stops, do bus drivers ever ignore you and drive past even when you hailed the bus?
Only when the bus is full. I see it happening a lot in the city centre at certain stops where buses clump together. I tend not to use these stops.

Reliability

Is the bus route you use reliable? Does the bus turn up on time? Is the bus often late? Is the bus often early?
You wouldn't set you watch by one, but you can generally guess at peek times roughly what time buses will arrive.

Does the bus sometimes not turn up at all?
Would have experienced gaps a few times that would suggest this, but difficult to tell as also could be just traffic related. I always thought that if buses had an extra number in the window somewhere to indicate the "bus of the day" (per route) you would better be able to figure out what bus you're actually getting when mid-route against the terminus based timetable.

Does your bus ticket always work with the card reader?
The new tickets yes, but the readers take a few minutes to initialise and often the driver just waves people on.

Communication on buses

At times where these is unclear delay are you told what happened or is happening?
Yes

Is the information on buses useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date?
??

Are the bus drivers polite and helpful?
Yes

Others

Are the buses mostly clean and comfortable?
Relatively, much better than the days you'd be sick from the smell of diesel bellowing in from the engine. None of the buses I use have those moulded seats upstairs (except for a row at the back) - they look uncomfortable.

How often can you remember buses taking the wrong route or skipping part of a route?
Seldom, maybe 3 or 4 times in the last 10 years.

Does anybody often play music, smoke or generally be disruptive? If so what does the driver do? Do you complain to the driver or otherwise to Dublin Bus?
Music (often - and it's always crap), smoking (very seldom these days and generally scumbags or junkies - used to be far worse).

Any other comments?
Given the merging / straightening of routes it may not be all that applicable anymore, but for areas served by multiple routes it would be nice to be able to merge city centre terminus timetables, e.g. 51b, 51c, 68, 69 (on the web) so you could look at a unified timetable instead of having to look at 4 etc.

D.

Cool Mo D

monument wrote: »

This is one for bus users of any type. As the thread title says: What do you think of Dublin Bus?...

At bus stops

Are bus stops in good condition? Yes

Is the information at bus stops useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date? It's useful, but incomplete. Timetables are not always there, route maps are usually absent, and there is a real lack of bus shelters in the city. Guideline times from terminals are not usually that accurate

At stops, do buses always stop close to the footpath or do they often leave a notable gap? [
B]Often quite a big gap, especially in the city centre on busy streets. Bus bays are usually badly designed - not long enough for buses to pull right up to the kerb easily[/B]

At stops, do bus drivers ever ignore you and drive past even when you hailed the bus? Rarely, but it has happened. Usually when a bus is full

Reliability

Is the bus route you use reliable? Does the bus turn up on time? Is the bus often late? Is the bus often early?
I get a few buses at different times, so there is a few different stories. Leaving the city in the morning, the 46a and 145 are very reliable and frequent,never waiting more then 5 minutes. However getting buses from Donnybrook in the evening, all the buses bunch up. It seems usual to have a 15-20 minute wait followed by a convoy of 3-5 buses. The 11 is a bit of a mess - it is timetabled to depart every 15 minutes at peak, but variations of the route leave from 3 different places, and generally meet up along the route, resulting in 2-3 buses together ever 30-40 minutes. I also get the 42 sometimes, which I find generally pretty reliable, except at peak times.

Does the bus sometimes not turn up at all? It happens

Does your bus ticket always work with the card reader? Yes

Communication on buses

At times where these is unclear delay are you told what happened or is happening? Sometimes

Is the information on buses useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date? There is very little information on the buses themselves

Are the bus drivers polite and helpful? Usually

Others

Are the buses mostly clean and comfortable? Yes

How often can you remember buses taking the wrong route or skipping part of a route? Have seen it but it's very, very, very rare.

Does anybody often play music, smoke or generally be disruptive? If so what does the driver do? Do you complain to the driver or otherwise to Dublin Bus? Sometimes, I just let it be

Any other comments?
Hurry up integrated ticketing, and better integration of bus, DART and Luas routes!

starviewadams

At bus stops

Are bus stops in good condition?

At home yes but in town,timetable is grafitied over and not easy to read,not safe after dark either,too many junkies and drunks in too quiet an area

Is the information at bus stops useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date?

At home yes,in town no

At stops, do buses always stop close to the footpath or do they often leave a notable gap?

Generally close to the path
At stops, do bus drivers ever ignore you and drive past even when you hailed the bus?

Never,ever happenned,even during the snow earlier in the year

Reliability

Is the bus route you use reliable? Does the bus turn up on time? Is the bus often late? Is the bus often early?

I dont know to be honest,I usually just arrive at the stop and hope one turns up,usually waiting 15-20 mins

Does the bus sometimes not turn up at all?

No

Does your bus ticket always work with the card reader?

Never use tickets

Communication on buses

At times where these is unclear delay are you told what happened or is happening?

During the snow the drivers were always helpful and let me know as much as they knew what was going on,only unclear delay I've experienced

Is the information on buses useful, easy to read, reliable and up-to-date?

Info on buses?just ads on the buses I get!

Are the bus drivers polite and helpful?

Yes,never had a bad experience with a DB driver,have even been driven to my frontdoor if I'm last on the nitelink!

Others

Are the buses mostly clean and comfortable?

Mainly,but the odd time they smell of urine/vommit/ though

How often can you remember buses taking the wrong route or skipping part of a route?

Never(other then nitelink)

Does anybody often play music, smoke or generally be disruptive? If so what does the driver do? Do you complain to the driver or otherwise to Dublin Bus?

Frequently do all of the above happens on my route,little point in complaining to the driver,what can he do?The only time I've ever complained to the driver was when a drunk was bothering a terrified teenage girl upstairs in front of me,the driver stopped and called the Garda and the fella was taken off a few stops later