IE to run shuttle bus Booterstown/Pearse.

n97 mini

Sudden realisation that telling people to get use Dublin Bus isn't good enough.

More info later on IE website.

smog

about time is all i will say .. how on earth people were supposed to find a bus from GCD to SP is beyond me, wouldn't happen in any other country

patrickbrophy18

smog wrote: »

about time is all i will say .. how on earth people were supposed to find a bus from GCD to SP is beyond me, wouldn't happen in any other country

To be fair, the very frequent 4 and 7 bus routes operate between these two stations as well as the semi frequent 45 and 47 buses. It's the people living along the coast between Killiney and Dun Laoghaire who are really screwed with a modest frequency 59 and an irregular 8 and 7D service.

foggy_lad

patrickbrophy18 wrote: »

To be fair, the very frequent 4 and 7 bus routes operate between these two stations as well as the semi frequent 45 and 47 buses. It's the people living along the coast between Killiney and Dun Laoghaire who are really screwed with a modest frequency 59 and an irregular 8 and 7D service.

To be fair to passengers of both Irish Rail and Dublin Bus, all the busses on the route which Irish Rail expected to pick up their mess are fairly full at peak times with bus passengers and there is very little room for extra train/dart passengers.

Within a few hours of their initial announcement of the line closure Irish Rail should have been organising busses to operate a shuttle service for their passengers. Instead they waited a week to see if maybe all those people would..........maybe stop going to work..............or maybe buy a car to use for a few weeks/months while Irish Rail work on the line.

Again they Dithered in providing a proper service and will no doubt lose a lot of regular customers.

Rashers72

I wonder how Barry Kenny will explain a complete u-turn in the space of a few hours on this one? He was quoted in the Metro as stating the normal DB service would suffice. I rang the DART office at lunchtime, and they stated their phones had not stopped since yesterday with people complaining about the lack of buses, mainly at peak time. They could not explain why Barry briefed the Metro with what he said, which in my opinion showed very poor internal communication within IE.

IE website just updated:
In addition, from 07.00hrs-10.00hrs and 15.00hrs-19.30hrs, Monday to Friday, a shuttle bus service will operate between Booterstown and Pearse Station for rail customers

BabyBirch

The 7 and 4 absolutely can't handle the extra passengers. I waited 50 minutes for a 7 in Monkstown yesterday morning and when it arrived it drove past my stop full. And that's only about half way along its route. I'll be trying the new shuttle bus service tomorrow I think!

n97 mini

If the 7 and 4 could handle all customer needs then the DART is surplus to requirements.

Victor

patrickbrophy18 wrote: »

It's the people living along the coast between Killiney and Dun Laoghaire who are really screwed with a modest frequency 59 and an irregular 8 and 7D service.

The DART is still running to those points. The problems are between Dún Laoghaire and the city centre, where train-bus-train is unwieldy, inefficient and overcrowded.

lil5

The 4 and 7 routes might appear frequent on the timetable, but the reality looks different.

With the additional capacity needs there were full buses already sailing past Ballsbridge stops in the afternoon (with the rain not helping either). Just as well it's mid-term break.

Let's hope the shuttle bus works and takes some pressure off the regular bus routes.

Peckham

I travel from city centre to Blackrock, and would appear that a significant proportion of people are travelling from city centre to either Ballsbridge or Blackrock. Rather than running a bus service that hops from station to station (and is an inefficient way to get from city centre to Blackrock, for example), why don’t Irish Rail run dedicated buses from a point in the city centre (say Pearse Station) direct (or with one or two stops) to popular destinations (Ballsbridge, Blackrock, Dun Laoghaire etc.)?

Victor

Peckham wrote: »

Rather than running a bus service that hops from station to station (and is an inefficient way to get from city centre to Blackrock, for example), why don’t Irish Rail run dedicated buses from a point in the city centre (say Pearse Station) direct (or with one or two stops) to popular destinations (Ballsbridge, Blackrock, Dun Laoghaire etc.)?

Making about 5 stops between the city centre and Booterstown won't add that much time. Providing services that only serve a handful of stops means the frequency would need to be reduced. Realise that they have plenty of DARTs to serve Sydney Parade-Greystones - they need to concentrate on the secion without DARTs and a few stops either side. Sure, if you have two buses a the same time, one could operate semi-express/express, but that wouldn't work at less busy times.

Jehuty42

I just got off a southbound Dart at Pearse(my destination). At Tara St the driver announced the shuttle bus from Pearse, even though at this time(11 o clock), that bus isn't running any more.

eigrod

I got it from Booterstown this morning at approx 8.10am. Didn't reach Nassau St until approx. 9am. It was really really slow going through Ballsbridge and down Shelbourne Road. It should really avoid Shelbourne Road as there are no bus lanes there. Would be quicker if it went straight through Ballsbridge, up Northumberland Road and on to Mount St. as there are bus lanes that route.

Think I'll hop on a 7 at Booterstown until the DARTs are back as it was quicker yesterday.

RichieD

eigrod wrote: »

I got it from Booterstown this morning at approx 8.10am. Didn't reach Nassau St until approx. 9am. It was really really slow going through Ballsbridge and down Shelbourne Road. It should really avoid Shelbourne Road as there are no bus lanes there. Would be quicker if it went straight through Ballsbridge, up Northumberland Road and on to Mount St. as there are bus lanes that route.

Think I'll hop on a 7 at Booterstown until the DARTs are back as it was quicker yesterday.

Yeah im wondering why they dont just take these extra buses and put them on the 4/7/8/45 routes.

The buses stop within 5 minutes walk of every one of the dart stations that are closed.

schemingbohemia

patrickbrophy18 wrote: »

To be fair, the very frequent 4 and 7 bus routes operate between these two stations as well as the semi frequent 45 and 47 buses. It's the people living along the coast between Killiney and Dun Laoghaire who are really screwed with a modest frequency 59 and an irregular 8 and 7D service.

I couldn't get on the 4 or 7 or 46a or 145 never mind the 7d the only bus (on Leeson st) that serves Dalkey! Took me an hour to get onto a bus having given up on Leeson Street, I walked down to Mount Street and eventually got on a 7 there. It arrived in DL just before a 59 to Dalkey so once I got on a bus my journey time was ok.

Irish Rail's response to this has been a disgrace, how they thought an already over-stretched DB could cope with a few thousand additional passengers is beyond me. The amount of people I saw left behind at stops on Wednesday morning was shocking, particularly at Booterstown and Sydney Parade.

There were definitely more cars on Wednesday due to people not trusting the public transport system, bad day for PT.

spareman

What they should have done.... Pearse Street to Sydney parade via ballsbridge then back to pearse via sandymount village, a circlular route.

You could have filled 3 buses with the amount of people waiting on O Connell bridge at 18.00 the other day, absolute disaster, The 7s are are breaking point, Drivers in the firing line are stressed bigtime.

LXFlyer

Again I suspect that the impact of the State cutbacks are beginning to bite here.

Putting on the shuttle is costing IE extra money as they are having to pay DB for the costs of hiring the buses and drivers. Hence it is only during the morning and evening peak I suspect.

DB can only operate the services specified in the timetable approved by the NTA. They cannot add unscheduled extra services to regular routes, not that they could do anything dramatic in any event as there are very few spare drivers and buses - I suspect that the shuttle is using vehicles that might have been down for non-urgent maintenance checks.

The impact of the bridge damage is very costly as IE are still paying all of their staff as normal and now have to pay for the extra shuttle as well out of money that is disappearing very fast as the State reduces the PSO support even further.

Needless to say this is no comfort to the people trying to travel around the city, nor does it mean it right that people are having this much trouble travelling around.