Dublin Bus route 18

frances83

Hello,
I was wondering if there is anyone that regularly uses the 18 bus route and could tell me how reliable they find the service and what the journey time is from Crumlin to Sanymount.
On the dublin bus website the timetable shows it runs approx every 20 minutes and would be under an hour journey but I'd like to hear peoples everyday experience of taking this bus.

I work in Crumlin and am thinking of moving to Sandymount and would be relying on this bus to get to and from work every day, so the reliability of the service and journey time would be a big deciding factor on whether to move.

I am not driving at the moment but will in next 2 years.

Any feedback much appreciated!

end of the road

i didn't find it very reliable to be honest, could wait anything up to an hour sometimes, all though i was using it at the other end of its journey, it will probably be fine on your journey though, give it a try yourself and see, thats probably the best way to find out if it meets your needs.

Victor

Eastbound in the morning can be very slow from Rathmines to Leeson Street, but I'm not so sure about the other direction.

The 0810 from Sandymount is scheduled to get to Crumlin Hospital at 0842. However, I would try it a few times first - use the real time information on the Dublin bus website to check it a few days.

Depending on where you live in Sandymount, DART + any bus to Crumlin may be faster. Try www.a-b.ie and make sure the date, time and exact locations are in-putted.

frances83

Thank you for your replies!
The potentially long journey time is offputting for me as is the thoughts of waiting on two buses home from work. I might be better off waiting until I'm driving before I make the move so I'm not restricted by the bus routes. I will try out the bus route for myself and see how it goes. I'd rather be living beside work but don't feel safe in the area at night.

Victor

frances83 wrote: »

Thank you for your replies!
The potentially long journey time is offputting for me as is the thoughts of waiting on two buses home from work. I might be better off waiting until I'm driving before I make the move so I'm not restricted by the bus routes. I will try out the bus route for myself and see how it goes. I'd rather be living beside work but don't feel safe in the area at night.

Unless there is a particular reason for choosing Sandymount, perhaps consider living somewhere closer - Rathmines, Rathgar, Harold's Cross tend to be fairly quiet, good access to the city and an easy cycle from Crumlin.

Journey time, driving might not be much different from the bus, especially through Ballsbridge.

loyatemu

Victor wrote: »

use the real time information on the Dublin bus website to check it a few days.

Presumably DB and/or the NTA have this information in a database somewhere. Do they publish the average journey times for different routes (other the the entirely aspirational times listed on the DB timetables) and if not why not? Would be very useful for prospective passengers...

noelfirl

loyatemu wrote: »

Presumably DB and/or the NTA have this information in a database somewhere. Do they publish the average journey times for different routes (other the the entirely aspirational times listed on the DB timetables) and if not why not? Would be very useful for prospective passengers...

For the scheduled time at least, if you go to the National Journey Planner site (www.a-b.ie) and use the "Timetable book page" link you can pull down a complete table for every service with the times for each waypoint along a route.

Only problem, at least for Dublin Bus routes, is that they don't clearly say where Monday-Friday services end and weekend services begin, you have to do a bit of deduction.

E.g., here is the 18 timetable (not sure how long this link will stay up)
http://journeyplanner.transportforireland.ie/nta/TTB/EFA03__000040ef_TP.pdf

I don't believe there's any information in the public domain as to how the actual real times relate to the scheduled times on a day to day basis.

Victor

loyatemu wrote: »

Presumably DB and/or the NTA have this information in a database somewhere. Do they publish the average journey times for different routes (other the the entirely aspirational times listed on the DB timetables) and if not why not? Would be very useful for prospective passengers...

This is the timetable that the NTA journey planner www.a-b.ie uses. It's not perfect, but it has a lot more information than the Dublin Bus site.

This timetable is the benchmark for real times information, as a bus is leaving the departure point, but once the bus is moving, the actual real time information is more accurate as it uses the recent history of the route.

K.Flyer

The biggest problem for the 18 bus route is once it leaves the Drimnagh Road there is little to no bus lane for the bus to take advantage of.
It snakes its way through Crumlin Village, Kimmage, Harolds Cross, Rathmines, Ranelagh, Ballsbridge and into Sandymount.
During normal hours this route is a tiresome one, during peak traffic its a total nightmare and as mentioned earlier it can take more than an hour at minimum to complete this section.
Maybe consider moving elsewhere with a quicker bus journey and leave Sandymount until you are driving.

loyatemu

Victor wrote: »

This is the timetable that the NTA journey planner www.a-b.ie uses. It's not perfect, but it has a lot more information than the Dublin Bus site.

This timetable is the benchmark for real times information, as a bus is leaving the departure point, but once the bus is moving, the actual real time information is more accurate as it uses the recent history of the route.

they should open this dataset up to the public - a lot of interesting applications could be created from it (not by me I hasten to add )

e.g. if I'm planning to travel from stop A to stop B, I could find out what the average journey duration between those points is, what's the longest it has taken, how it varies from day to day.

Having gone to the trouble and expense of setting up the real-time system, they should be trying to get as much value out of the data as possible.

Victor

loyatemu wrote: »

they should open this dataset up to the public - a lot of interesting applications could be created from it (not by me I hasten to add )

http://www.dublinked.ie/ The timetable I attached above was downloaded from www.a-b.ie using the "Find a timetable" function.

e.g. if I'm planning to travel from stop A to stop B, I could find out what the average journey duration between those points is, what's the longest it has taken, how it varies from day to day.

Having gone to the trouble and expense of setting up the real-time system, they should be trying to get as much value out of the data as possible.

there was a tender out for timetable verification against actual journey times.

BenShermin

Depending on where you're living in Sandymount it might be better to walk to Ringsend Road and pick up a 56a or a 77a both of which will drop you off on the Crumlin road. Going against rush hour traffic in the morning should take no longer then 30mins.