Nitelink Fare Increase

Hart

Jumped on the midnight Nightlink last night and I was suprised to discover that the fare had gone up from €5.00 to €5.70. That a 14% increase!

Has fuel or drivers wages gone up that much recently? Dublin Bus kept that bloody quiet. Anybody else get caught by this?

Paulw

From the Dublin Bus website, it's still only €5 - http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/Fares--Tickets/Fare-Information/Fares/

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

slimjimmc

Paulw wrote: »

From the Dublin Bus website, it's still only €5 - http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/Fares--Tickets/Fare-Information/Fares/

Yet here it says €5 and (increased to?) €5.70 from 11th Jan 2013 - http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/Your-Journey1/Timetables/Nitelink-Services/.

ScouseMouse

The government are reducing the subsidies to dublin bus so instead of cheaper fares, travellers are now having to pay a bigger share of the fare.

Hence you see these increases coming through.

Corruptedmorals

There is a lovely corresponding decrease in frequency, quite a few routes down to 1 hour intervals- including some of the furthest ones- Leixlip, Celbridge/Maynooth, Blanchardstown, Lucan and Tallaght.:mad:

ScouseMouse

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

There is a lovely corresponding decrease in frequency, quite a few routes down to 1 hour intervals- including some of the furthest ones- Leixlip, Celbridge/Maynooth, Blanchardstown, Lucan and Tallaght.:mad:

I work at a bus terminus. The buses are empty, passengers not travelling and accordingly buses are not required as much.

Dublin Bus are facing into this while subsidies are being cut back.

What this means is: use it or lose it. Excess buses and drivers will get the chop. If a service is unviable it gets cut. End if story.

Management do it or Leo sacks them. The gravy train is over. Hand outs and bail outs are a thing of the past.

Pity these policies were not brought in before now. May have affected the banks and we wouldnt be in the mess we are in.

devnull

Subsidy per vehicle is actually up. Whilst subsidy has been cut back by a decent percentage, the fleet has been cut back by a bigger one so therefore the subsidy has been cut argument does not stack up.

For example, between the end of 2007 and 2012, Dublin Bus cut their fleet by 19.5%, but the subsidy was reduced by a smaller percentage in the same time-frame so this in real terms is an increase.

I do agree that the other factors have really effected Dublin Bus and the economic climate has not helped the company, that is certainly the case. However the argument that subsidy is much less has no factual basis.

By the way, not every travels terminus to terminus so judging a route by the loads towards the end of the route is not always the best. The routes I used to travel on would be empty for the first half a dozen stops almost and the same for the last, but would be very busy in-between.

LXFlyer

Get yourself a LEAP card.

With LEAP the fare remains at €5.

As I've posted before cash fares are being increased at a higher rate to encourage people to switch to LEAP.

thomasj

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

There is a lovely corresponding decrease in frequency, quite a few routes down to 1 hour intervals- including some of the furthest ones- Leixlip, Celbridge/Maynooth, Blanchardstown, Lucan and Tallaght.:mad:

2 routes keep the 3.30 departures - the 39N and the 67N. Everything else goes hourly or even in some cases every 2 hours.

Corruptedmorals

Ah I know the reasoning and I don't blame them. Just having a vent that it sucks is all.

TheRealPONeil

superscouse wrote: »

The government are reducing the subsidies to dublin bus so instead of cheaper fares, travellers are now having to pay a bigger share of the fare.

Hence you see these increases coming through.

The government have reduced the subsidies to local authorities in an effort to pay bond holders, therefore you have a "household charge" - and Phil Hogan thanks you for putting €113.35 million back into the funding of local services in Ireland !!

AlekSmart

lxflyer wrote: »

Get yourself a LEAP card.

With LEAP the fare remains at €5.

As I've posted before cash fares are being increased at a higher rate to encourage people to switch to LEAP.

BUT...and it's a VERY big BUT....you do not get to give out ****e about how disgraceful it all is etc etc....

I experience this every day as I reveal to people that they could be paying LESS than they were last year if they switched to Leapcard.....(€2.10 vs €2.15 and €2.45 vs €2.65)

Not havin any of it,thank you very much...I prefer to be the wounded soldier who's being financially raped by big-bad Dublin Bus/Government etc etc etc....

Somewhere along the line Leapcard missed a trick.....:rolleyes:

[Jackass]

€5.70, ffs.

It is only marginally cheaper than getting a taxi for me, which I can get anywhere in the city, any time, and less waiting and no (other) drunk muppets...

Is any public service capable of delivering good value, or our we destined to fund these over employed, loss making monopolies stupid management forever?

Cookie_Monster

The subsidy does not cover nitelinks, never has and people on this boards bang on and on and on about it, so pure pricing hiking for the sake of it.

LXFlyer

[Jackass] wrote: »

€5.70, ffs.

It is only marginally cheaper than getting a taxi for me, which I can get anywhere in the city, any time, and less waiting and no (other) drunk muppets...

Is any public service capable of delivering good value, or our we destined to fund these over employed, loss making monopolies stupid management forever?

Again, why "FFS"?

Get a LEAP card!!! Hey presto. No fare increase.

LXFlyer

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

The subsidy does not cover nitelinks, never has and people on this boards bang on and on and on about it, so pure pricing hiking for the sake of it.

The Nitelinks are part of the PSO contract with the NTA.

Cookie_Monster

lxflyer wrote: »

The Nitelinks are part of the PSO contract with the NTA.

so what of people saying for years its not then? when did that change?

JeffK88

Nightrider (126N) to Newbridge has gone up from 10euro to 11 euro.

Tazz T

Cheaper for me to share an overpriced taxi. Just goes to show how inefficient Dublin bus is.

foggy_lad

JeffK88 wrote: »

Nightrider (126N) to Newbridge has gone up from 10euro to 11 euro.

JJ Kavanaghs do Naas for €10 afaik last bus is at 12.55 from the Ulster bank on Georges Quay.

AlekSmart

Tazz T wrote: »

Cheaper for me to share an overpriced taxi. Just goes to show how inefficient Dublin bus is.

Indeed,given that both entities are price-regulated by the same National Transport Authority,I be looking in a different direction for the inefficiency...;)

There are many different measures of efficiency,but Dublin Bus,has met or exceeded industry norms in virtually all of the many Government ordered Studies,Reviews,Reports and assorted other consultancy led elements....

That said,I believe that Dublin Bus has failed to develop and improve NiteLink to cope with the Changing City.

As an example,we see the Taxi industry adopting technology such as Hail-O which will provide definite improvements for both Taxi Drivers and Customers alike.

Nitelink is a decade past its review date,and this latest "adjustment" is not exactly geared towards increasing it's customer appeal.

ScouseMouse

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

The subsidy does not cover nitelinks, never has and people on this boards bang on and on and on about it, so pure pricing hiking for the sake of it.

Does it not? So what does it actually cover?

py2006

They are still selling the cards in the newsagents on the corner for €5 but on the bus themselves for €5.70. I guess once they run out they will go up.

patrickbrophy18

I haven't gone into town anywhere near as often as I used to for nights out thanks to the previous set of cut backs. I'm pretty sure that there are a lot of like-minded people who have given up on town due to the hassle involved in getting back home. At the same time, the Department of Transport are becoming more stringent on people who drink and drive. Only in Ireland would this make sense.:eek:

Inevitably, this will make it less attractive to go to town for a night out which will more than likely have a negative impact on the amount of people going to nightclubs. It is this that will (indirectly) lead to more unemployment within the nightclub industry. Having said that, the only nightclub in the county of Dublin itself which provides its own bus service is The Wright Venue in Swords. Perhaps, nightclubs in town (e.g. Boomerangs, Q-Bar) and elsewhere (e.g. Club 92 Leopardstown, Eclectic Garden Bray) could do the same. This should (in theory), reverse the fall in revenue to the nightclub industry. Just a bit of food for thought!:D

schemingbohemia

patrickbrophy18 wrote: »

I haven't gone into town anywhere near as often as I used to for nights out thanks to the previous set of cut backs. I'm pretty sure that there are a lot of like-minded people who have given up on town due to the hassle involved in getting back home. At the same time, the Department of Transport are becoming more stringent on people who drink and drive. Only in Ireland would this make sense.:eek:

Inevitably, this will make it less attractive to go to town for a night out which will more than likely have a negative impact on the amount of people going to nightclubs. It is this that will (indirectly) lead to more unemployment within the nightclub industry. Having said that, the only nightclub in the county of Dublin itself which provides its own bus service is The Wright Venue in Swords. Perhaps, nightclubs in town (e.g. Boomerangs, Q-Bar) and elsewhere (e.g. Club 92 Leopardstown, Eclectic Garden Bray) could do the same. This should (in theory), reverse the fall in revenue to the nightclub industry. Just a bit of food for thought!:D

There are nitelinks to dalkey at midnight, 2 & 4 am so there is a service home for you, don't see how you can blame cutbacks for your lack of socialising in the city centre.

Annual bus passes work on the nitelink too another factor for people considering getting one.

patrickbrophy18

schemingbohemia wrote: »

There are nitelinks to dalkey at midnight, 2 & 4 am so there is a service home for you, don't see how you can blame cutbacks for your lack of socialising in the city centre.

I'm aware of this. However, the 46N used to serve Dalkey every 30 minutes with decent loadings per journey past Dun Laoghaire. Midnight is a bit premature to be getting home from a night out considering the fact most clubs stay open until 2:30 or 3:00. In other words, a lot of clubbers are only starting their nights out at midnight. Moreover, 2 and 4 AM are not exactly convenient given that the patronage would have to cut their night short to make the earlier departure while waiting the guts of an hour for the later departure.

While I am aware that many fast food joints are open for this hour, I often find them incredibly seedy with the frequent fights which break out in their vicinity. It isn't exactly a safe way to kill time while waiting for the last bus other than freezing my socks off outside. Overall, this makes for an extremely depressing end of the night. So, to cut a long story short, I don't feel like socialising in town if this is how daunting the end of the night will be.

schemingbohemia wrote: »

Annual bus passes work on the nitelink too another factor for people considering getting one.

This only holds true if one makes enough bus journey's to justify buying an annual bus pass. For example, if someone is working full-time all year around and their only means of getting to work is by bus then, it would make sense.

n97 mini

66N service now hourly. As a regular user this always had decent loadings so I'm puzzled why it's being cut.

mydiscworld

n97 mini wrote: »

66N service now hourly. As a regular user this always had decent loadings so I'm puzzled why it's being cut.

Same with 46N

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056860815

schemingbohemia

patrickbrophy18 wrote: »

I'm aware of this. However, the 46N used to serve Dalkey every 30 minutes with decent loadings per journey past Dun Laoghaire. Midnight is a bit premature to be getting home from a night out considering the fact most clubs stay open until 2:30 or 3:00. In other words, a lot of clubbers are only starting their nights out at midnight. Moreover, 2 and 4 AM are not exactly convenient given that the patronage would have to cut their night short to make the earlier departure while waiting the guts of an hour for the later departure.

While I am aware that many fast food joints are open for this hour, I often find them incredibly seedy with the frequent fights which break out in their vicinity. It isn't exactly a safe way to kill time while waiting for the last bus other than freezing my socks off outside. Overall, this makes for an extremely depressing end of the night. So, to cut a long story short, I don't feel like socialising in town if this is how daunting the end of the night will be.



This only holds true if one makes enough bus journey's to justify buying an annual bus pass. For example, if someone is working full-time all year around and their only means of getting to work is by bus then, it would make sense.

Well I don't know when the last time you used the 7N was or 46N, but I tend to either get the midnight or 2am service to Dalkey and neither has had huge numbers on board, generally between 10-20, I've only taken the 4am once and that was late November and that was fairly full, so much so that I had to go upstairs where the locked smokers were, not much fun.

My point about the annual pass was just to raise awareness of the fact that it works on Nitelink and the Airport bus, if people were uncertain about the value of it, for them, it might just swing it for them if they knew they were getting the added value of those services that they might use occasionally.

LoonyLovegood

The part that annoys me about the revised timetables is that there's several that weren't revised, but DB said nothing about those. I was in a state of shock thinking my beloved 70N was gone, and that'd be the end of my nights out. Took me asking via facebook before they'd give me an answer.