Dublin Bus Minimum Fares

foggy_lad

These exist on some routes like on the 66's and 67 to try to stop people on shorter journeys out to chapelizod etc from taking spaces on busses from longer distance travellers but do they need to overhaul the system?

Currently the minimum fare on the 66's and 67 is to Lucan but surely that should be Leixlip and Celbridge as Lucan is already well served by busses? Other routes could also have their minimum fares reviewed to actually provide a proper benefit or advantage to those travelling further?

CIE

foggy_lad wrote: »

These exist on some routes like on the 66's and 67 to try to stop people on shorter journeys out to chapelizod etc from taking spaces on busses from longer distance travellers but do they need to overhaul the system?

Currently the minimum fare on the 66's and 67 is to Lucan but surely that should be Leixlip and Celbridge as Lucan is already well served by busses? Other routes could also have their minimum fares reviewed to actually provide a proper benefit or advantage to those travelling further?

Lucan Village is not very well served by buses, unless of course it is the 66/A/B and 67 themselves providing this service; so then you'd be raising the fare for Lucan village if you move the minimum fare boundary to Leixlip and (I presume) Weston; if you were planning on increasing the frequency of the current route 25, then perhaps that would be a good idea. The parts of Lucan that the 25A and 25B serve are not served by the 66/A/B or 67.

And frankly, I don't see the sense of buses that travel further out being the local routes while the more "express" routings end their journeys at destinations closer to the city centre. Local-travelling passengers should have the option of transferring to a local-operating route while passengers from further out that are bound for the city centre have the faster journey in.

This minimum-fare matter also begs the question as to whether zone-based fares should be instituted instead of staying with stage-based fares. Either that or go with a flat fare, with one free transfer bus-to-bus or between bus and suburban rail.

LXFlyer

The minimum fares, while shown on the timetables, have not in practice been applied for quite some time. Given so many people use pre-paid passes, its application has become impossible to apply.

Given that the 66/a/b and 67 are now the main routes serving both Chapelizod and Lucan Village the application of the minimum fare on these routes would be rather daft.

The 66x and 67x have alleviated the pressure on those routes in the evening peak.

n97 mini

66/a/b and 67 should be running the N4 non-stop from Lucan village to quays.

Over an hour from Maynooth on the bus, and the train is far quicker. I feel sorry for the people of Celbridge who have to put up with such a painfully slow service (train from Hazelhatch is too far away for most people in Celbridge to use).

LXFlyer

n97 mini wrote: »

66/a/b and 67 should be running the N4 non-stop from Lucan village to quays.

Over an hour from Maynooth on the bus, and the train is far quicker. I feel sorry for the people of Celbridge who have to put up with such a painfully slow service (train from Hazelhatch is too far away for most people in Celbridge to use).

Off-peak it actually makes little difference which route is taken - I can attest to that having let an inbound 67 go past and taking a 25a behind, only to notice that the two arrived at Frank Sherwin Bridge together.

At peak times there are the 66x and 67x which bypass Chapelizod and most of the passengers use those routes.

Losty Dublin

n97 mini wrote: »

66/a/b and 67 should be running the N4 non-stop from Lucan village to quays.

Over an hour from Maynooth on the bus, and the train is far quicker. I feel sorry for the people of Celbridge who have to put up with such a painfully slow service (train from Hazelhatch is too far away for most people in Celbridge to use).

Hazelhatch/Celbridge station is about 2 KM from Celbridge main street; okay it's not a stone throw away but it's hardly too far away for them to use

n97 mini

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Hazelhatch/Celbridge station is about 2 KM from Celbridge main street; okay it's not a stone throw away but it's hardly too far away for them to use

Like me, I think if you ever tried to actually use Halzelhatch from Celbridge you'd change your opinion.

Most people don't live on Main St, they live unwalkably further away towards the N4 end of the town, and Heuston Station is well short of the city centre.

Hazelhatch is only handy for a park and ride, although requiring a car to use the train hardly meets the definition of handy, but most park and ride train commuters from Celbridge will use Louisa Bridge instead.

n97 mini

lxflyer wrote: »

Off-peak it actually makes little difference which route is taken - I can attest to that having let an inbound 67 go past and taking a 25a behind, only to notice that the two arrived at Frank Sherwin Bridge together.

I can tell you from leaving in this neck of the woods for over 20 years that the 66 from Maynooth to Dublin is only a last resort, and the peak or off peak it there is little practical difference between too long and too long.

lxflyer wrote: »

At peak times there are the 66x and 67x which bypass Chapelizod and most of the passengers use those routes.

Most passengers that want to travel at those exact times. Pretty much anyone else that can will get the train or just have to suck up journey time of up to 1.5 hours to cover 10 miles.

Losty Dublin

n97 mini wrote: »

Like me, I think if you ever tried to actually use Halzelhatch from Celbridge you'd change your opinion.

Most people don't live on Main St, they live unwalkably further away towards the N4 end of the town, and Heuston Station is well short of the city centre.

Hazelhatch is only handy for a park and ride, although requiring a car to use the train hardly meets the definition of handy, but most park and ride train commuters from Celbridge will use Louisa Bridge instead.

I'm not arguing with you about anything; I'm just saying that it isn't miles away from Celbridge town centre as you seemed to infer. Many people would use Leixlip as they may find it handy to reach with the HP flyover; it also has a more frequent service and it's handier for Dart and other parts of the city so if the shoe fits confey then wear it.

Shoe fits, Confey, gedddit?:D:p

LXFlyer

I hear your point about the overall journey times, but at the end of the day if you had the 66 and 67 running non-stop from Lucan Village to the Quays, then there would be no link from west of Lucan to Liffey Valley SC or Palmerstown, both of which do generate reasonable numbers of local traffic.

It would then require additional buses to cover the inner part of the route between Lucan and the city via Chapelizod, something DB do not have right now and are unlikely to have for the foreseeable future given that subsidies are being cut even further. As I said outside of the peak period there is little or no difference between going via Chapelizod and taking the bypass.

Riskymove

n97 mini wrote: »

Like me, I think if you ever tried to actually use Halzelhatch from Celbridge you'd change your opinion.

Most people don't live on Main St, they live unwalkably further away towards the N4 end of the town, and Heuston Station is well short of the city centre.

Hazelhatch is only handy for a park and ride, although requiring a car to use the train hardly meets the definition of handy, but most park and ride train commuters from Celbridge will use Louisa Bridge instead.

A shuttle bus is provided from celbridge to the station for a number of trains