Buses running late: your route your say.

meanmachine3

theres alot of posts in different threads about buses running late so i'd thought i'd set up a thread where you can have your say on your route. . plus as driver i'd like to get an idea as whole on bad things really are. by all means please include how long your journey takes if you feel up to it.the only thing i ask is theres no driver bashing.

patrickbrophy18

meanmachine3 wrote: »

the only thing i ask is theres no driver bashing.

Dually noted!:D

However, anytime I rely on a bus in my neck of the woods, it always arrives more or less when I expect it to.

Having said that, when I was commuting out to Damastown a couple of years back, the arrival of the 38 and 38A routes was highly erratic. There were times when I was waiting 30 minutes for the bus to show up.:mad:

lil5

I'd be commuting on the 7 corridor for quite a few years now. Inbound early morning, outbound early afternoon.

On weekdays the early morning inbound buses (up to 7:30) are generally reliable, even though there's the odd dropped service.

Quite frequently throughout the day though two buses are already running in tandem as early as the Killiney shopping centre on their inbound route (running early/runnging late?).

Waiting times of 30-40 minutes on the inbound trip during a weekday are not uncomment. This can also happen at any time during the day.

The 111 used to support the route, but isn't a big help anymore with it's restricted service. Some people might benefit from the 45A route overlap, but for inbound journeys past Dun Laoghaire it's no help.


The afternoon outbound journey is a different matter.

Departure times seem to be mostly guidelines (even better to observe now with the RTPI) and due to traffic (O'Connell St/Bridge) the running time from the terminus to Trinity can vary widely and has a big impact on the overall travel time. One of the 'benefits' of the introduction to the cross-town idea.

The hourly 7 bus to Cherrywood (except 16:45?) regularily disappears from the RTPI as it's starting late and the system seems to assume that it hasn't shown up and drops it.

It's not unusual to have service gaps of 30-40 minutes in the 15:30 to 17:30 time bracket as buses bunch up because of a variety of reasons (running early, running late, traffic). The RTPI is a help to a degree, but a 7-Loughlinstown bus disappearing from the display is an almost daily experience.

The trouble isn't so much the timetabled 15 min interval (3 buses at 10 min interval at 17:10, 17:20, 17:30 in the afternoon) which if DB could adhere to would probably be a sufficient service.

But the running early, running late, running incomplete journeys and not-running of services seem to affect the 7 route very frequently and can result in a sub-standard service on the afternoon outbound journey on some days.

I'd be surprised if from the 11 timetabled weekday services between 15:30 and 17:45 (2 to Cherrywood 15:45 and 17:45 / 9 to Loughlinstown) there is more than 9 services actually running complete journeys from terminus to terminus on most days. I'd also be surprised if more than half would be leaving on-time.

The reduction of the 4 route hasn't helped the performance of the 7 route, but if it weren't for the 4 the 7 route would be even worse.

It would also be an improvement if the 7 route would drop the Blackrock village detour during rush hour.

foggy_lad

If this is not limited to Dublin Bus then the new Carlow timetable on the 004 route has a couple of issues to be tweaked.

Busses coming from Waterford are now never on time in Carlow and are usually 10-15 minutes late getting into Carlow.

But going the other direction busses from Busaras to waterford even though they usually leave Busaras late now still arrive in carlow up to 20 minutes early but still arrive late in Thomastown, Mullinavat, Ballyhale Waterford etc.

meanmachine3

foggy_lad wrote: »

If this is not limited to Dublin Bus then the new Carlow timetable on the 004 route has a couple of issues to be tweaked.

na foggy it's open to every service in the country. might have some good reading in them.

highlydebased

308 (Limerick-UL)

Only plus side is the provision of a coach instead of a bus in the morning so everyone gets a seat.

Highly unreliable about 2 in the afternoon. I've often waited at UL from 2.15 when the 2.15 and 2.30 fail to show up and the 2.45 shows at about 2.55 and half the people waiting have to be left behind. Everyday without fail. At least 1 bus per hour from experience does not run in my experience- I've complained many times but told it's due to "driver sickness"- surely the rostered driver for the same bus everyday can't be sick everyday? What a coincidence.

rainbow kirby

145 in the evening (heading towards Heuston): Even if the bus arrives to the stop on Aston Quay on time according to the display, the controller guy gets on and has a 5 minute chat to the driver nearly every time.