10-15% cuts in city bus services

Mrs OBumble

IMHO, the Connacht Sentinel (50c, out on Tuesdays) is one of Galway's most under-rated papers.

They ran this article last week.I t's not on the website (that I could see), and wasn't picked up by any of the other newspapers. But the topic deserves a bit more publicity.



Click here to see it a bit larger.

'Tis actually a very clever press-release: the first bit focuses on the route changes that are planned (cross-city routes stopped, buses from the west to go Eyre Square, buses from the east go to behind the cathedral), and makes it sound like it's an improvement.

But the interesting bits come in the last 1/3 of the article, where they mention the 10-15% cuts, and the plan to change times on all routes.

It's not a done deal yet: Bus Éireann need approval from the National Transport Authority (NTA), and there are a few problems:

• The Salmon Weir bridge is already inadequate (to the point where the council is actively planning a 2nd bridge there)
• Driver safety: behind the cathedral is a nice place during the day, but not somewhere that I'd want to be hanging around at night
• Effectively it's increasing fares for people who use the cross-town services (eg Renmore to UCHG or Ballybane to Westside)

Can anyone see any other problems?

KevR

Surely they will have to introduce some sort of new pricing system where you can buy a ticket that allows you to transfer between buses without having to pay a second time for a cross-town journey?

Is doubling the price of bus fares for certain journeys part of the Smarter Travel plan which aims to reduce car use in the city by 50%??? :pac:

NUIG_FiannaFail

The bus service in Galway city is more than adequate. Most of the buses I see on the roads are empty. My uncle says we need more competition in the transport market and publicly owned companies are inefficient and the staff are overpaid.

Wompa1

NUIG_FiannaFail wrote: »

The bus service in Galway city is more than adequate. Most of the buses I see on the roads are empty. My uncle says we need more competition in the transport market and publicly owned companies are inefficient and the staff are overpaid.

Ha Ha Who in the blue hell is your uncle? You make me smile.

pleasant Co.

NUIG_FiannaFail wrote: »

The bus service in Galway city is more than adequate. Most of the buses I see on the roads are empty.

The Bus service is adequate but most buses you see are empty?

Wouldn't what you have said suggest that the bus service is not adequate as it is not being used to it maximum potential?

NUIG_FiannaFail

Mactard wrote: »

The Bus service is adequate but most buses you see are empty?

Wouldn't what you have said suggest that the bus service is not adequate as it is not being used to it maximum potential?

There's too many buses

pleasant Co.

NUIG_FiannaFail wrote: »

There's too many buses

Have you changed your stance? is the bus service now not adequate as there are "too many buses" ?

spender.j

NUIG_FiannaFail wrote: »

There's too many buses

I don't think the people who have to wait for an hour or more (due to busses not making designated stops due to traffic) would agree, the services at weekends, bank-holidays and late night are woefully inadequate and the service is too expensive! :mad:

NUIG_FiannaFail

spender.j wrote: »

I don't think the people who have to wait for an hour or more (due to busses not making designated stops due to traffic) would agree, the services at weekends, bank-holidays and late night are woefully inadequate and the service is too expensive! :mad:

Well they should buy a car then

spender.j

NUIG_FiannaFail wrote: »

Well they should buy a car then

Very progressive thinking, well done! that'll solve everyone's problems...

PopeBuckfastXVI

NUIG_FiannaFail wrote: »

Well they should buy a car then

Please keep your comments constructive, this is tantamount to trolling as it is throwing out a comment in an effort to generate a reaction, instead of to make any substantive contribution to the thread.

Also keep the off topic rubbish about how you think the country should or shouldn't be run in politics or after hours.

I've got my eye on you and will have no problem sending you out on a nice long ban to think about what kind of poster you want to be, do yourself a favour and don't give me a reason.

Consider yourself warned.

/moderation

irisheddie85

does this mean you will have to walk from eyre square to the cathedral if you want to get a bus from one side of the city to the other or will the routes all intersect in the city centre but just turn around in stead of continuing on like they do now

civis_liberalis

NUIG_FiannaFail wrote: »

Well they should buy a car then

I can tell that you'll go far in Fianna Fáil :rolleyes:

Buses are crap. More people would take them if the service was better.

Bus shelters are another things that needs to be addressed.

Would I be right in assuming that the cost of bus shelters is usually carried by advertising? Why then do we not have more of them?

I notice that one of the busiest stops in town, out at the end of the line at Parkmore, has no shelter.

TristanPeter

I was driving by the cathedral yesterday and I saw 5 or 6 new bus shelters. I was wondering what they were for. AFAIK Adshell, the company that erects the bus shelters pays for them and they get the right to advertise on them.

TristanPeter

I notice that one of the busiest stops in town, out at the end of the line at Parkmore, has no shelter.

It has no lay-by to pull into either. It parks up on the footpath while it's waiting at the stop.

dolphin city

NUIG_FiannaFail wrote: »

The bus service in Galway city is more than adequate. Most of the buses I see on the roads are empty. My uncle says we need more competition in the transport market and publicly owned companies are inefficient and the staff are overpaid.

another fianna FAILER with his head in the clouds.

Alessandra

NUIG_FiannaFail wrote: »

There's too many buses

There are not enough buses in Galway as far as I can see. When I was at
college in NUIG I would usually have to wait 30mins for a bus between my house and campus. The buses that did run were not punctual, often overcrowded and always overpriced.

The bus routes are poorly planned and there are so many places that are very awkward to reach by bus.

The transport infrastructure in Galway is a joke. To cut the buses will surely leave many people stranded. I think the elderly will be particularly at risk.

PopeBuckfastXVI

Ladies & Gentlemen,

Please do not feed the trolls.

/moderation

gaeilgegrinds1

Most of the buses I see are empty. I think it's an awful waste though, so much cheaper to bus it in and out of town than pay charges in car-parks.

NUIG_FiannaFail

At the end of the day the solution is to open the bus industry to competition similar to the taxi industry. The free market will then work it's magic and get rid of any inefficiency.

Viper_JB

Not that I needed another reason not to get the bus....but there ya go, make it unaffordable to own a car, then cut the crap out of any alternative - that's the green economy for ya.

charlie_says

I would be in an untenable situation without the buses, the red city ones that is.

More would be great. Public transport isn't good here in Galway generally in this posters opinion.

Mrs OBumble

irisheddie85 wrote: »

does this mean you will have to walk from eyre square to the cathedral if you want to get a bus from one side of the city to the other or will the routes all intersect in the city centre but just turn around in stead of continuing on like they do now

As far as I can tell (from articles in the Sentinel mainly), the plan is for buses to go

• from the east, through Eyre Square and on to the cathedral, turn around there and head back east, OR
• from the west, past the cathedral and on to Eyre Square, then turn around an head back west.

We don't know details yet: I think it would be very silly to try to make route 7 (up Headford Rd) or 1/8 (Salthill / Mervue) do this. But they could be planning radical changes to them, too.

It could do bad things to the reliability of route 3 & 9 too: in peak time, a bus could spend 20-30 mins getting from Eyre Square to the Cathedral and back.

One bit that really annoyed me is the statement about seeing route 9 as a model route, and saying they're going to try to replicate its success while cutting services. The biggest factor in it's success is the high-frequency: if one bus is late the next one's not that far behind.

@KevR: in mid-June, BE introduced a day-pass, 3.50 for unlimited rides. No media coverage. Nothing on their website or facebook. Just signs in a few (not all) buses, and at two city bus-stops. I've used it a couple of times, and the drivers understood what I wanted, so I guess they got trained. Possibly BE hoped to introduce it all as one package (no more cross-town, but only a small fare increase), but went ahead with this bit even without route changes.

And I just cannot see how they can eve consider putting more buses on the existing Salmon Weir bridge.

irisheddie85

JustMary wrote: »

As far as I can tell (from articles in the Sentinel mainly), the plan is for buses to go

• from the east, through Eyre Square and on to the cathedral, turn around there and head back east, OR
• from the west, past the cathedral and on to Eyre Square, then turn around an head back west.

That is the stupidest plan ive ever heard
'lets make every bus in the city drive over a narrow bridge where 2 buses cant meet' or make them come back through the city through nuns island/abbeygate street.
The buses that already use these routes have a hard enough time due to the narrow streets how is this actually going to work

soundbyte

JustMary wrote: »

As far as I can tell (from articles in the Sentinel mainly), the plan is for buses to go

• from the east, through Eyre Square and on to the cathedral, turn around there and head back east, OR
• from the west, past the cathedral and on to Eyre Square, then turn around an head back west.

.

My reading of it was eastern routes terminate at Eyre Square, western routes at the Cathedral. Can't find anything online, but that was defo the way I read it.

cranky bollix

NUIG_FiannaFail wrote: »

Well they should buy a car then

troll

just saw the moderators post

shaggykev

I wonder if they west buses just circled the cathedral and come back would they then just combine the 4-5 bus like they do after hours and on sundays. Or better still surely there would be a better and faster way to get around that route and service more people

the 4 is a disgrace. Some of the bus times on it are the stuff of fiction

I've seen lord lucan more times than ive seen the 5:40

There is one bus at 8:20 and none again until 9:10(if its shows- great for getting to work then)

then again 5:25-5;40(never shows) and then none until 6:45

DURING PEAK HOURS

hence walking is the only reliable mode of transport in this city

snubbleste

Buses get stuck in traffic.
Cycling is the other better reliable form of transport along with the helicopter and the trusty jetpack

RolandIRL

snubbleste wrote: »

Buses get stuck in traffic.
Cycling is the other better reliable form of transport along with the helicopter and the trusty jetpack

yes but if only the council would erect more helicopter pads. there never seems to be one free in the city :mad:



:P

Mrs OBumble

snubbleste wrote: »

Buses get stuck in traffic.
Cycling is the other better reliable form of transport along with the helicopter and the trusty jetpack

I'm rather fond of my broomstick, and it's very easy to park too