Freezing Dublin buses

Boulevardier

I am a regular user of morning rush hour buses from Rathmines to An lar.

Most of the buses I get on nowadays have no heating, and this does not seem to change no matter how cold the weather is.

The 140 in particular is an icebox. In contrast, the 65 seems to carry its cohort of sheepshaggers from Blessington in a bit more warmth and comfort. The 83 is sometimes OK as well.

Surely to God DB could see their way to heating the buses when the weather gets really cold?

LXFlyer

Have you considered asking the driver to turn the heating on? ;-)

All buses are fitted with heating as standard.

However, the 140 will have just left the terminus, where the engine has to be switched off. This is to avoid annoying local residents at bus termini with engine noise. Hence they will only have had the heater on for a short while before you board. All other routes will have been in transit for some time with the heating on.

Boulevardier

OK, not a bad idea, but I cannot help wondering if they have been told by their bosses to go easy on providing heat for passengers.

The_Wrecker

Many VT's have no saloon heatings. The AX type bus engine isnt getting hot enough to provide heat during the cold spell.

The poor folk who spend 8hrs a day onboard are speaking up, its time the farepayer does the same.

The_Wrecker

Boulevardier wrote: »

OK, not a bad idea, but I cannot help wondering if they have been told by their bosses to go easy on providing heat for passengers.

Its FREE and works off the engine coolant.

stop

The_Wrecker wrote: »

Many VT's have no saloon heatings. The AX type bus engine isnt getting hot enough to provide heat during the cold spell.

Doesn't the AX blow cold air in situations like that? Can the heating not be turned off until the engine heats up?

AlekSmart

stop wrote: »

Doesn't the AX blow cold air in situations like that? Can the heating not be turned off until the engine heats up?

On a side note,Myself and a colleague spent a day last week in London.

Over a 12 hour day,in which we made full use of the One Day Oyster Bus Pass cap,we experienced only a single Bus with full acceptable levels of heat.

That included several trips on several of the new LT type (Borismaster).

I might add that the temperature was at times -5 deg with wind-chill.

Returning to the Dublin Scene,It is widely appreciated by Busdrivers that a significant number of the AX fleet engines simply do not reach normal operating temperature,which in turn means that the saloon heating generally does not even fire-up,as the system is thermostatically controlled.

The Alexander system is significantly complex,with several components tucked away in locations difficult to reach for fault finding or even regular maintenance.

Quite often,a failure of one component will entail the system not performing.

I would heartily concur with passengers who complain about this,as I believe that no great modal shift will occur from awarm dry private car to any form of wet,freezing cold bus,no matter how frequent and accessible it is.

Drivers are constantly submitting defect reports on this topic,but I suspect that the work-load involved simply ensures that only a small percentage of these are attended to expediciously.

devnull

I like the system on the VG's (is the same one on the GT's as well?) where it pumps the air from the ceiling, it gives a much better heating.

Cookie_Monster

just borrow some heat from the overly hot DARTs

The_Wrecker

devnull wrote: »

I like the system on the VG's (is the same one on the GT's as well?) where it pumps the air from the ceiling, it gives a much better heating.

Which also demists the windows!

The_Wrecker

stop wrote: »

Doesn't the AX blow cold air in situations like that? Can the heating not be turned off until the engine heats up?

Its on a thermostat and should not work at all ~ BUT some older switches had a cold blower setting for summer. This is weird BUT on some buses selecting the old cold blower function (old switches) produced heat!?! The newer switches had hot were cold once was...

The driver would turn on the switch after 20mins of driving, it could be 2hrs before he walks about the fridge and realises nothing is happening.

Incase you wondering about the driver (who) he uses the demisters to keep his cheeks warm. If it gets too bad, ie numb fingers ~ its off the road.

monument

Boulevardier wrote: »

I am a regular user of morning rush hour buses from Rathmines to An lar.

Most of the buses I get on nowadays have no heating, and this does not seem to change no matter how cold the weather is.

The 140 in particular is an icebox. In contrast, the 65 seems to carry its cohort of sheepshaggers from Blessington in a bit more warmth and comfort. The 83 is sometimes OK as well.

Surely to God DB could see their way to heating the buses when the weather gets really cold?

Calling people sheepsharggers isn't on.

gbob

The Road Traffic Act states there should be "adequate heating and ventilation". First check with the driver it's turned on and has had time to warm up, as said already if it's just left the stand or terminus chances are it's still gonna be cold. If it turns out to be faulty or less than sufficient then please write a strongly worded letter of complaint referencing the fleet number. If passengers don't complain they'll never be fixed.

Cookie_Monster

surely you'll be wearing a coat and hat and whatever for walking around on the street and waiting at the bus stop anyway, simply don't take them off. Warmer simply due tot he lack of wind chill. I don't ever recall being too cold on a bus and usually had to open the windows regardless of the weather.

Boulevardier

The term sheepshaggers was meant as a light-hearted dig. It is used all the time about Wicklow people and Welsh people as well, and they generally do not take offence.

AlekSmart

gbob wrote: »

The Road Traffic Act states there should be "adequate heating and ventilation". First check with the driver it's turned on and has had time to warm up, as said already if it's just left the stand or terminus chances are it's still gonna be cold. If it turns out to be faulty or less than sufficient then please write a strongly worded letter of complaint referencing the fleet number. If passengers don't complain they'll never be fixed.

Good suggestion gbob,however be aware that there are large Legal Practices which have flourished greatly by the simple expedient of arguing the definition of "adequate"....:)

Rolls Royce Motors,of antiquity,whenever pressed on the power output of their engines would always reply that it was "adequate"

monument

Boulevardier wrote: »

The term sheepshaggers was meant as a light-hearted dig. It is used all the time about Wicklow people and Welsh people as well, and they generally do not take offence.

Some have taken offence and there's really no need for it -- now please let us move on. Back on topic please. Do not reply to this post.

Lando Griffin

Boulevardier wrote: »

The term sheepshaggers was meant as a light-hearted dig. It is used all the time about Wicklow people and Welsh people as well, and they generally do not take offence.

First offends a county then in defence offends a nation.
Classy.

Mrs OBumble

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

surely you'll be wearing a coat and hat and whatever for walking around on the street and waiting at the bus stop anyway, simply don't take them off. Warmer simply due tot he lack of wind chill. I don't ever recall being too cold on a bus and usually had to open the windows regardless of the weather.

Exactly.

I hate being in an overly stuffy bus: constant temperature changes are actually worse than a low-ish temperature, IMHO.

But I do have sympathy for the drivers, and there should be heating for them.

gbob

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Exactly.

I hate being in an overly stuffy bus: constant temperature changes are actually worse than a low-ish temperature, IMHO.

But I do have sympathy for the drivers, and there should be heating for them.

And I'd rather have too warm than too cold.. and your sympathy is appreciated :-)

dfx-

Boulevardier wrote: »

The 140 in particular is an icebox. In contrast, the 65 seems to carry its cohort of sheepshaggers from Blessington in a bit more warmth and comfort. The 83 is sometimes OK as well.

Surely to God DB could see their way to heating the buses when the weather gets really cold?

The 140 is very regimented in its allocation - AXs, AX496-AX516. AXs are cold..

Unfortunately, AXs seem to attach to a route in a pack, so if you get them, you're likely stuck with them, the 11, 13, 140, 7 (before the GTs), 33 (before the GTs), Bray/DL routes. It looks like AX626-AX637 are moving onto the 16 in Summerhill now...

Atlantic Dawn

gbob wrote: »

And I'd rather have too warm than too cold.. and your sympathy is appreciated :-)

The problem is you can put your optional jacket on if your cold, if the bus is 25 degrees plus I can't strip down to shorts and t-shirt to maintain comfort. You arrive at the bus stop ready for the outside world, you should perhaps reduce the temperature of your home heating if you can't sustain the temperature on your bus journey.

SilverLiningOK

If anything buses are far too warm. Heating doesn't need to be that high if people are wearing appropriate winter clothing. As they say in Scandinavia there's no bad weather just bad clothing.

LXFlyer

You are never going to please everyone with this unfortunately. What is too warm for one person is too cold for another and vice versa.

HydeRoad

I had the interesting if somewhat dubious pleasure of driving an empty Dublin Bus AV all the way from Dublin to Scotland and back last year, in freezing and icy conditions. It appears I was the only mug in the country willing to undertake to do so!

64kph the whole way, from Dublin to Larne, and then from Cairnryan to Falkirk, and back the next day. There was plenty of snow lying frozen across Scotland, and I had an icy gale blowing in across my feet, until I couldn't feel them any more, and the cold ceased to matter.

At one stage I stopped for a break, and rambled upstairs. Lo and behold, the upper saloon was lovely and toasty warm, while downstairs it was like Northern Siberia.

Spare a thought for the poor bus driver. If you are cold as a passenger on the bus, it is almost certain that the driver is even colder. Modern buses with tiny, seven litre sewing machine engines, simply cannot generate the kind of heat necessary to properly heat a large bus in very cold conditions. A large piece of board blocking airflow to the radiator may help somewhat, but not by much.

devnull

The small heater underneath the seats over the wheel arch does indeed not keep vehicles warm enough in the winter but that is more to do with the design of the heating system on the ALX400 vehicles.

As explained earlier, the Gemini's such as the VG's have a much better system downstairs in that it blows heat the whole length of the bus from many vents in the ceiling

Conway635

HydeRoad wrote: »

I had the interesting if somewhat dubious pleasure of driving an empty Dublin Bus AV all the way from Dublin to Scotland and back last year, in freezing and icy conditions. It appears I was the only mug in the country willing to undertake to do so!

64kph the whole way, from Dublin to Larne, and then from Cairnryan to Falkirk, and back the next day. .

Don't tell me . . . you were the advance guard for a possible extension of the 33?

HydeRoad

Conway635 wrote: »

Don't tell me . . . you were the advance guard for a possible extension of the 33?

Yes, new route 33, eight departures a day, from Falkirk to Bath Avenue, with every second trip operating via Haddington Road, and one journey extended to Gilford Road on Wednesdays.

ardmacha

Surely in this day and age there should be thermometer recording temperatures and there should be some sort of objective as to what the temperature should be, with action taken if there is a problem, "getting the driver to turn on the heat" should not be the point.

Cookie_Monster

ardmacha wrote: »

Surely in this day and age there should be thermometer recording temperatures and there should be some sort of objective as to what the temperature should be, with action taken if there is a problem, "getting the driver to turn on the heat" should not be the point.

:pac:
they can barely get buses to run to timetables, additional targets?!?