Certain bus drivers who are always late/slow

Trampas

I notice on my BE route a certain driver is always late/slow no matter what day or time it is, he is always late. e.g. yesterday he was 20 mins late for a 40 min drive. He was overtaken by a bus which started 15 mins behind him and his bus wasn't full at all.

10 mins late again today and you wonder at times does he know that he can use a bus lane.

Sometimes other drivers can be 5 mins late but that is usually on Monday's or 1st day of the month.

Do anyone else have drivers like that.

Jehuty42

There is one train driver who is often on later evening Maynooth trains whom I dread to get. He is completely overly cautious and slows right down before entering stations- by the time the front of the train reaches the start of the platform we're at 5 mph and then it can take almost a minute to crawl to the end. He never opens up the throttle to build up speed between stations because of that. Routinely 5-10 minutes late. He looks young enough to be new, so I guess that explains it.

I sympathise with the human factors involved here, but the variation in journeys times you can get in these cases makes public transport a lot more difficult than it needs to be.

foggy_lad

There are one or two drivers on the 120/121 route Edenderry/Tullamore who are always late. They seem to just dawdle along as if afraid to burn some fuel.

kingshankly

Jehuty42 wrote: »

There is one train driver who is often on later evening Maynooth trains whom I dread to get. He is completely overly cautious and slows right down before entering stations- by the time the front of the train reaches the start of the platform we're at 5 mph and then it can take almost a minute to crawl to the end. He never opens up the throttle to build up speed between stations because of that. Routinely 5-10 minutes late. He looks young enough to be new, so I guess that explains it.

I sympathise with the human factors involved here, but the variation in journeys times you can get in these cases makes public transport a lot more difficult than it needs to be.

you have got to realize rail head conditions are treacherous at the moment so it could be the drivers first time driving thru leaf fall season.
at no time should punctuality compromise safety

Trampas

foggy_lad wrote: »

There are one or two drivers on the 120/121 route Edenderry/Tullamore who are always late. They seem to just dawdle along as if afraid to burn some fuel.

I think we are talking about the same drivers

Jehuty42

kingshankly wrote: »

you have got to realize rail head conditions are treacherous at the moment so it could be the drivers first time driving thru leaf fall season.
at no time should punctuality compromise safety

Oh, I know that, hence why I said I sympathise with the guy. Sure, he had to do an emergency stop last week because of scum on the line, and he had the deadman's pedal fail on him another time. I understand why he's being so cautious. But what confuses me is that he is the only driver being so cautious. Everyone else is barrelling along as normal and on time, and as a commuter this random chance of being delayed is kind of annoying.

foggy_lad

Trampas wrote: »

I think we are talking about the same drivers

Some busses will get into Dublin on the hour as per the timetable while other off peak busses are upwards of 20 minutes late, I got a bus out to prosperous one Monday evening at 6pm and it was faster than the return journey a couple of days later at 9pm.

Like a lot of things where CIE are involved the service whether bus or train can not be relied upon for even the most basic of plans or connections.

the groutch

there used to be a guy on the 145 route who never seemed to go above 30 kph, I was so close to having it out with him, but you don't want to risk getting thrown off.

mikemac

Did any of these buses have the "drivers friend"?

When the drivers are chatting they go slower

foggy_lad

The drivers are often chatting away to someone(particularly young females) for part or all of the journey but i find this rarely affects the speed.

Jaysoose

38B in the mornings is consistenly lte by ten minutes all this week, driver toodling along like he has all the time in the world.

meanmachine3

Jaysoose wrote: »

38B in the mornings is consistenly lte by ten minutes all this week, driver toodling along like he has all the time in the world.

yawn.

lucozader

for years the drivers were frequently late on my route.

they would stay chatting for 20 minutes at conyngham road bus garage with a bus load of people etc...

i have found that my route is much better in recent years

Jaysoose

meanmachine3 wrote: »

yawn.

The post is not half as boring as yourself

n97 mini

Jaysoose wrote: »

The post is not half as boring as yourself

He's a DB bus driver, don't mind him. You get used to them after a while.

Fluorescence

There are certain bus drivers for Dublinbus who, without fail, always stop and have a good 5-10 minute chat with the other driver changing over (which for some reason always occurs mid-route :mad:). Most other drivers are quick about it, a quick hello and then we're off again, but there's a handful who always take the piss with it. It's very irritating.

ax586

n97 mini wrote: »

Jaysoose wrote: »

The post is not half as boring as yourself

He's a DB bus driver, don't mind him. You get used to them after a while.

n97 mini

Can I ask u a question are u out to get at bus drivers or something

n97 mini

Being honest, no. There are certain things about DB I don't like, e.g. unionised labour with an employer that won't stand up to them at my (taxpayers') expense, quite a few work practises, and the shítty attitudes of some drivers.

But other than that I enjoy the witty comments of the DB staff who are on here frequently, sometimes all day every day.

cocoshovel

The Dublin - Waterford bus is ALWAYS late no matter what where I live. A minimum of 15 minutes and up to 30 is not uncommon. Why can't they just fix their damn time tables to be more accurate if this happens every single time. Its ridiculous, and I know its probably because I live towards the end of the route but still:mad:.
The Athlone - Waterford bus is always on time within 5 minutes of the schedule.

Jaysoose

n97 mini wrote: »

He's a DB bus driver, don't mind him. You get used to them after a while.

Im aware of his work on here, usually passive agressive tone sometimes outright defensive...its not my fault its the management etc..

Sure we are only customers our opinion is not valid and we are making up all our complaints to paint the drivers in a bad light.

foggy_lad

cocoshovel wrote: »

The Dublin - Waterford bus is ALWAYS late no matter what where I live. A minimum of 15 minutes and up to 30 is not uncommon. Why can't they just fix their damn time tables to be more accurate if this happens every single time. Its ridiculous, and I know its probably because I live towards the end of the route but still:mad:.
The Athlone - Waterford bus is always on time within 5 minutes of the schedule.

Waterford to cork is also usually pretty good for time unless it hits traffic in cork:(

Mycroft H

foggy_lad wrote: »

There are one or two drivers on the 120/121 route Edenderry/Tullamore who are always late. They seem to just dawdle along as if afraid to burn some fuel.

couple of drivers who would take an age on that route.

Then it would contrast with one fellow who drove like he was late all the time, getting to intermediate stops about 15 minutes ahead and skipping coill dubh to boot. You were about 30 early getting home with him

meanmachine3

Jaysoose wrote: »

38B in the mornings is consistenly lte by ten minutes all this week, driver toodling along like he has all the time in the world.

all joking aside and to be fair to you jay. there is one particular driver that will not do 1 k.p.h. over the speed limit. they rigorously stick to the speed limits. and to be fair we should all be doing it. i'm one of the few exceptions that puts the boot down to get all you lovely fare paying customers to where ever your going. on open roads when we do have the boot down, average bus does 67 k.p.h.. there have been times like this when i felt like i could run faster ,it felt like the bus was going that slow

Jaysoose

meanmachine3 wrote: »

all joking aside and to be fair to you jay. there is one particular driver that will not do 1 k.p.h. over the speed limit. they rigorously stick to the speed limits. and to be fair we should all be doing it. i'm one of the few exceptions that puts the boot down to get all you lovely fare paying customers to where ever your going. on open roads when we do have the boot down, average bus does 67 k.p.h.. there have been times like this when i felt like i could run faster ,it felt like the bus was going that slow

Surely the schedules are calculated on the speed limits though? there has to be another reason why the buses are continually running late...

meanmachine3

Jaysoose wrote: »

Surely the schedules are calculated on the speed limits though? there has to be another reason why the buses are continually running late...

unfortunately not jay. speed limits are not taken into account what so ever. with regards to buses running late. slowly but surely commuting and transport is being taken up with threads in some way shape or form with buses running late.just open the C&T forumn. i know i've had my differences with you and alot of others but in general it's affecting almost every route in the city and i can assure you it's not down to the drivers on a go slow. over the last couple of days i drove within the speed limits on my route and every single time i was late. really says it all.

LXFlyer

Jaysoose wrote: »

Surely the schedules are calculated on the speed limits though? there has to be another reason why the buses are continually running late...

Well all double deck buses in the DB fleet are fitted with speed limiters for a start so should not be breaking the maximum speed limits - nor should any driver be breaking the applicable speed limits in any area. That frankly is totally unprofessional - irrespective of the fact that the schedule is poorly designed.

The problem has been that the running times (i.e. the times allowed by the scheduler to get from one terminus to the other) have been too tight on some of the revised services.

That was what was wrong with the 46a, 145, 38/a/b, 39/a in the first phase. By and large those issues were addressed with the revised timetables that came out (albeit far too long after the first timetables were implemented) earlier this year.

The same problem now seems to be surfacing on the 13, 27 and 77a.

At certain times (certainly not all) the 11 and 14 have experienced issues since the colleges have gone back.

What needs to be done (and reasonably quickly) is to:
1) See when and where the problems are occurring in the schedule
2) Implement revised timetables

That may sound easy, but it does involve a fair bit of work in designing new rosters/timetables, and then getting agreement with both drivers and the NTA to them.

LaFlammeRouge

My morning bus driver (BÉ) is always in a rush. When I board he has the ticket already printed. As soon as I pay him he is off. When I walk up to get off, he opens the door. Then he brakes. If you don't keep a hold of the rails, you'll fly out the door. He's a total headcase.

chooochooo

LaFlammeRouge wrote: »

My morning bus driver (BÉ) is always in a rush. When I board he has the ticket already printed. As soon as I pay him he is off. When I walk up to get off, he opens the door. Then he brakes. If you don't keep a hold of the rails, you'll fly out the door. He's a total headcase.

He smells you coming