103 - Total disgrace

BasedHobbes

First time posting in a while, forgot my old username. :rolleyes:

Just as a matter of interest, is anyone else completely sick with the extortionate prices we have to pay to get the bus into town? I usually get the 103 in from the texaco garage in Ashbourne to the city centre; its a mind boggling €6 80 return! I have friends in Dunboyne who pay less then a euro (students) to get into town. I've emailed the county council hoping to get Dublin bus out to Ash, or even to get a reduction in price for us, but I'm not sure what good that is.

Anyone else sick of this? Even more importantly, anyone got any idea how to fix it?

haydar

Thats ridicolous

gipi

Why would you mail the Co Council about bus services? It's Dublin Bus you need to talk to!

Slippin Jimmy

I doubt DB will run a service out to ashbourne as it is serviced by a few Bus Eireann buses. At the end of the day they are still run by cie in the back ground. If they run a service out to ashbourne or for example extend a service to ashbourne then they will have to pay the drivers a bonus of some kind as it is adding more driving to their current route or so on. Then you would pay €1 or €2 into town and the company would still be down €4.80 in revenue. Simple answer is that this will not happen.

Access

Ha! i had to read your comment to figure out what this was about - i thought you disliked number in general! :D:D

That is bad form charging that much though.

if its any consolation i hate the number 104, the number 99, the 6, the 7 and the 8.

Not the bus route... just the number!

And i believe the number 23 is evil and working for the darkside!

Vego

I dont think they should charge for the bus ....its nuts ...

maringo

A total ripoff but then Bus Eireann is overpriced on all their routes. Quite some time ago when the service was really bad I pointed out to Dublin Bus that Dublin Bus ran to Maynooth (Co. Kildare), Wicklow, Balbriggan etc., and why not Ashbourne. I was told that the reason was that trams never ran to Ashbourne. The phrase "the lunatics have taken over the asylum" comes to mind! :eek:
Don't know if things will improve when the long promised "smart card" is implemented.

haydar

Trams never went to Dunboyne!

maringo

I was a bit confused too till the penny dropped that Dublin Bus routes were modelled on the tram routes!
The fortunate people in Maynooth and parts of wicklow seem to have had a tram service in the old days - The mid boggles............

maringo

When I was told about the trams by a Dublin Bus employee out of curiosity I checked out if this could be true.

Parts of Wicklow and Kildare feature in the 1930s list of tramlines so I assume that when trams were withdrawn they were replaced by Dublin Bus with buses. Now beam me up!!!!! Its only 2011 for Gods sake - maybe things will change by 3011.......

http://garaiste.yuku.com/topic/5174/t/DUBLIN-S-BUS-TRAM-ROUTES-APRIL-1937.html#.TfyEYeYQk34


I do know that some time ago residents of Ashbourne made representations to Dublin Bus about a service but they obviously got nowhere.

MajorMax

Access wrote: »

Ha! i had to read your comment to figure out what this was about - i thought you disliked number in general! :D:D

That is bad form charging that much though.

if its any consolation i hate the number 104, the number 99, the 6, the 7 and the 8.

Not the bus route... just the number!

And i believe the number 23 is evil and working for the darkside!

How can you hate the number 8, it looks like a snowman and 99 reminds me of ice cream.

JayeL

I highlighted this a few years ago, got an article in the Meath Chronicle (no-one in Ash reads it though). I wrote to Mary Wallace, who wrote to CIE. CIE say the Ashbourne fare is cheap compared to other BÉ fares in Leinster but refused to compare it to Dublin Bus.

I stuck posters up around town, stickers on bus stops, John King (local Labour candidate) advertised a meeting to discuss the bus service. And y'know what? Turns out apparently no-one in Ashbourne cares!

I have tons of research on this but I think the bottom line is yes, the service is expensive and it's outrageous how Ashbourne doesn't get DB 20km from town yet Newcastle, Co Wicklow - twice as far out - does, at least BÉ is a short journey.

Because one thing's for sure, when I was writing to all and sundry about this in 2007, we could afford it. With DB's new consolidated routes, you can be damn sure Ashbourne would only be getting extensions of the 40 service to Finglas. So rather than the straight 40 minute run in and home that we have now, it'd probably trawl through Finglas East, West and South as well as Glasnevin. If you need proof, just hop on the only DB service to Ashbourne, the 88N Nitelink. Took me an hour to get home; it used to be 25 minutes!

So before I'd ask for DB to come to Ashbourne, I'd sooner ask that once the Leap smartcard comes in, we keep BÉ but get put in the same travel zone as Balbriggan, Kilcock and Greystones. It'd be fairer, our tickets would work on other services AND we keep our great travel time. I work with people from Templeogue and Tallaght and my journey is much shorter.

I wish BÉ and the council would look at putting in more stops and maybe *shock* running buses through the estates rather than this 4 stops along the main road they've had since I grew up here!

Access

MajorMax wrote: »

How can you hate the number 8, it looks like a snowman and 99 reminds me of ice cream.

Had a bad experience when i was five years old with a 99.... i remember is was a hot summers day and it melted before i could eat it... was running down my arm and all!

As for 8... i remember it was a hot summers day and my snowman melted... it was running down my arm and all!!

YipYipU

"When they start chargin for the bus? Man we used to ride that **** to school every mornin for free"

MajorMax

Access wrote: »

Had a bad experience when i was five years old with a 99.... i remember is was a hot summers day and it melted before i could eat it... was running down my arm and all!

As for 8... i remember it was a hot summers day and my snowman melted... it was running down my arm and all!!

In that case you should hate the number 0 because it looks like a hot summer sun

Access

MajorMax wrote: »

In that case you should hate the number 0 because it looks like a hot summer sun

no, its like a polo mint and they are coooooooooooolllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

KERSPLAT!

Prices set to rise...

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056306679

ibarelycare

Yeah the bus prices are ridiculous. I live in Dunshaughlin and if I want to go for a night out in town, I've to pay €6 in and then €8 for the Night Rider home (you can't use a normal return ticket on that service). So that's €14 return! Crazy!

decob

will be interesting to see if and when thornton hall opens, will a db service open up to it, and beyond..

maringo

See new footpaths, public lighting and sewage pipes gone in along the N2 at the prison exit - whats the betting Dublin Bus won't have a probem servicing the prison at Thornton Hall? Can't expect people to walk all the way from the Coolquay stop to the prison now can you!:D

Faddymackshyte

JayeL wrote: »

I wish BÉ and the council would look at putting in more stops and maybe *shock* running buses through the estates rather than this 4 stops along the main road they've had since I grew up here!

I live in Ratoath and one of the most annoying things about the buses going through Ashbourne is how many stops there are along the way, it's ludacris! As far as I can remember, going from the 9 Mile Stone all the way to the roundabout at the Marriot, there are roughly 7 stops (correct me if I'm wrong): Just after the 9 Miler, at the school, just before Aldi, at Tesco, at the Credit Union, some people then ask to be let off before Tadg Riordans and then opposite the Marriott aswell.

Ashbourne really doesn't need any more stops, it could do with cutting down on some. Dunshaughlin has 1 stop and that's it!
The prices of the tickets are ridiculously bad €8.40 return from Dunshaughlin and €7.70 from Ratoath. I wouldn't really complain about the price if the service was okay, but the service to Ratoath is very questionable. Half of the buses aren't going through Dunshaughlin now, which BE are going to kick themselves for!!! They actually need a serious kick up the backside anyway, monopolising routes and charging what they like!!! Really infuriating.

KERSPLAT!

Whats questionable about it apart from the price? Before moving from Ratoath I got the bus 8-10 a week and I've very rarely had problems with them, height of it is late buses 4-5 mins, atmost, for me anyway and around Christmas the DUB-RATH bus in the evening are usually a little late nothing major

Faddymackshyte

I've lived in Ratoath my entire life and the service just seems to be getting worse and worse. The amount of times I've tried to get the 8.20 bus and it won't show up at all, meaning a trek over to Ashbourne or Dunshaughlin, it shows up 25 minutes later or it leaves a few minutes before 20 past! It's a really bad service. And it's not as if you only have to wait 15 for the next one, you have to wait 40 minutes for the next one which happens to go through Blanch.

KERSPLAT!

Ive lived here all my life apart from the last month and like I said no problems, maybe its certain times, I used to get the 7.15 or 7.30 in and 17.30 or 18.00/18.15 home and never any trouble, anyway now Im in Donegal there are sweet F all buses