Bus no. 27

Fuinseog · 18-12-2011 12:18pm #1

On occasion I have reason to use public transport and I notice that the 27 does not seem to appear at the times advertised. If it is supposed to come twice an hour, it may only appear once and its not the time of year for hanging around outdoors for an hour.
is this normal with Dublin Bus and if so what do people do about it?

chin_grin · 18-12-2011 1:21pm

That's shockin' Joe.

Being a victim of our public transport system I know what you mean. There's very little you can do than write a strongly worded letter to dublinbus.

It'll do absolutely f*ck all, but give you the satisfaction of venting to them.

If there's a four digit number on the stop you can check when the next one will be by entering it in the first box on the site. http://www.dublinbus.ie/

FloatingVoter · 18-12-2011 1:50pm

The 27 is notorious for being a phantom bus. I have reason to use the Cork St - Dame St route regularly and I reckon it only shows up 50% of the time. Its probably a bug in the RTPI or "out of service" drivers. 25 minutes waiting for one yesterday ( it was always between 4 and 6 mins away before vanishing) and a 77A turned up instead.

Fuinseog · 18-12-2011 2:46pm

FloatingVoter wrote: »

The 27 is notorious for being a phantom bus. I have reason to use the Cork St - Dame St route regularly and I reckon it only shows up 50% of the time. Its probably a bug in the RTPI or "out of service" drivers. 25 minutes waiting for one yesterday ( it was always between 4 and 6 mins away before vanishing) and a 77A turned up instead.

True , it is something of a wonder. at stops with electric notifications its arrival will be announced but it either never comes or the number vanishes from the screen.
I think some of the problems with it are because of the new route introduced in summer.
its the only bus where I am living and I waited for nearly an hour last night. The odd thing is that I was near the terminus and in the time I spent waiting four 27s went towards the terminus, but were never seen again.

I would not to want to be the bus driver, though its not their fault they have to have to face angry customers. a month ago I got in a 27 on the quays. the driver took my fare but got out and walked away. apparently he was due his break. an inspector arrived but it was 40 mins before he could supply another driver.

Fuinseog · 18-12-2011 2:50pm

chin_grin wrote: »

That's shockin' Joe.

Being a victim of our public transport system I know what you mean. There's very little you can do than write a strongly worded letter to dublinbus.

It'll do absolutely f*ck all, but give you the satisfaction of venting to them.

If there's a four digit number on the stop you can check when the next one will be by entering it in the first box on the site. http://www.dublinbus.ie/

I used to have to use the 27 for work, but there was no way I could hold down a job having to rely on that.
It seems Dublin Bus wants to encourage people to cycle or take a taxi, though the latter would cost more than 20 euro to get into town.
maybe I will write in to them or even talk to Joe. if enough people highlight the issue something has to be done.

FloatingVoter · 18-12-2011 6:31pm

I see the RTPI going the way of the e-voting machines in the near future. Good riddance. An hour ago the 77a was "due" (on Dame St. AIB) except it wasn't - turned out to be the 747.

Cool Mo D · 19-12-2011 12:12am

The RTPI is working fine - the problem with the buses is that they don't have enough time in the timetable to complete their route, so they run out of service for a section of their route, or are cancelled to make up their time. RTPI just makes it really obvious when this happens with buses disappearing off displays. What needs to happen is more realistic timetables get drawn up by dublin bus.

Bobby42 · 19-12-2011 12:27am

Another problem with the 27 is it stopping on Eden Quay for about 15 minutes as they change drivers. Then sometimes the bus will finish at Eden Quay instead of Edenmore which is really annoying.

LXFlyer · 19-12-2011 11:05am

Cool Mo D wrote: »

The RTPI is working fine - the problem with the buses is that they don't have enough time in the timetable to complete their route, so they run out of service for a section of their route, or are cancelled to make up their time. RTPI just makes it really obvious when this happens with buses disappearing off displays. What needs to happen is more realistic timetables get drawn up by dublin bus.

+1

Unfortunately that is a rather time consuming business as drawing up rosters/schedules is quite complicated.

markpb · 19-12-2011 11:29am

FloatingVoter wrote: »

I see the RTPI going the way of the e-voting machines in the near future. Good riddance. An hour ago the 77a was "due" (on Dame St. AIB) except it wasn't - turned out to be the 747.

There's nothing wrong with RPTI - it's a valuable service that was badly needed. The only problem with RPTI is (teething problems aside), it highlights the problems with the underlying bus service. You can't blame RPTI if it says a bus is timetabled to leave but never does. You can't blame RPTI if a bus is due to arrive but it's so fantastically late that the controller tells the driver to go OOS and stop picking people up (a bus service not picking passengers up....).

All RPTI does it show the data being sent to it by Dublin Bus. If you have a problem, poke Dublin Bus. Ask them them why your 77A didn't run.

FloatingVoter · 19-12-2011 5:39pm

The underlying problem here is that the bus service never ran on time. The RTPI is just a computer program based on their existing timetables - which were and are a work of fiction.

Cool Mo D · 19-12-2011 6:10pm

FloatingVoter wrote: »

The underlying problem here is that the bus service never ran on time. The RTPI is just a computer program based on their existing timetables - which were and are a work of fiction.

It's not based on timetables, it's based on GPS in the buses. Timetable information is only displayed before the bus starts it's journey.

markpb · 19-12-2011 6:11pm

Cool Mo D wrote: »

It's not based on timetables, it's based on GPS in the buses. Timetable information is only displayed before the bus starts it's journey.

And for the first few minutes after scheduled departure even if the bus hasn't departed.

FloatingVoter · 19-12-2011 8:08pm

I know the theory, its just what globe the positioning system is monitoring thats in question.

lenovoguy · 19-12-2011 8:53pm

I agree that the RTPI system is badly needed, and in conjunction with the new Leap card, it brings Dublin Bus maybe not into this decade but at least into this century. However, any and all "teething" problems should be resolved at this point. The system is into its 11th month of deployment and we're still experiencing this nonsense. I think other posters hit the nail on the head as it shows up just how sub-par the service actually is. We are not actually the first country in the world with this type of system, even though the constant service outages and inaccurate information would lead you to believe it's experimental technology. Having experienced using French, Spanish, Austrian and Dutch bus services, there are examples where it works pretty much flawlessly. Then again, could you ever expect an organisation as inefficient and unaccountable as Dublin Bus to implement anything properly? I actually feel embarrassed when I think of tourists having to deal with them ("what do you mean, exact change? Can you not give change?")

I'm actually amazed it got greenlit at all considering that up till its implementation, DB could cover their tracks due to the lack of empirical data to measure the service's performance, whereas now, it's plain for all to see when a bus' ETA stays at 8 minutes FOR 8 minutes as frequently happens to me, or they just disappear off the display altogether.

Bus no. 27

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