Dublin Bus - "Not in service"

Bits_n_Bobs

I occasionally use the 84 bus route to get into work and generally find it to be very good, if not all that frequent. This morning a bus passed at exactly the time indicated on the Dublin Bus app with a 'Not in service' notice on it and then....nothing. I hung about for a further 25 minutes (badly late for work at that stage...) and again at exactly the scheduled time another bus zooms past with a 'Not in service' notice - and then nothing. I eventually managed to hop a taxi and get into work very late...

Anyways the suspicious person that I admittedly am, I'm wondering are the buses doing the bus route (and presumably being logged by CIE's GPS tracker), but not bothering to stop for actual passengers? It's the fact that it was two in a row at exactly the time scheduled that makes me a bit (lot) paranoid....

Conway635

You are very probably correct. The 84 in particular has been notorious for this in the past.

I had the same experience with a 14 on RTPI passing as "OOS" and I called into central control and got an admission that the driver had been asked to run OOS, and an apology.

On another occasion I was on a 7 inbound, which from Blackrock onwards was not being hailed by anyone waiting at the stops along the Rock Road. When we came up behind a van at traffic lights, I was able to see from the reflection that we were displaying OOS . . . on a cold and wet night, and with the next bus 15 minutes behind.

I will defend many, many things that DB do. There are some fine employees who really care.

But there are also those who couldn't care less.

C635

devnull

Used to happen many years ago for me when I took the 38 as well outbound from the city center, the route was notorious for that back in 2006 or so, although we did not have RTPI in those days, this was going on certainly and was very frustrating.

It was easy to tell, since the same drivers were driving the same buses every day, and the days that certain services did not appear to run, you'd always see the same driver and bus that drove in service earlier in the week drive past out of service, and there would be a gap in the timetable.

In defence of Dublin Bus, I haven't seen it happen so much in recent years, but it does still happen.

Bits_n_Bobs

Maybe I'm not being too paranoid after all then

I have to admit I was fuming at the time - I hate being bloody late for work. I sent a mail into CIE and just received a reply from someone in their customer comment desk - which is rather gratifying and has eased the mad rage a smidge:)

Victor

Bits_n_Bobs wrote: »

Anyways the suspicious person that I admittedly am, I'm wondering are the buses doing the bus route (and presumably being logged by CIE's GPS tracker), but not bothering to stop for actual passengers? It's the fact that it was two in a row at exactly the time scheduled that makes me a bit (lot) paranoid....

While not regularly examined, I imagine the software also tracks when the bus is 'Out of service'. Certainly it tracks when a fare is taken.

PS CIÉ don't operate buses.

Cookie_Monster

PS CIÉ don't operate buses.

Only in the same way apple dont make iphones.
They are still the parent company

AlekSmart

Conway635 wrote: »

You are very probably correct. The 84 in particular has been notorious for this in the past.

I had the same experience with a 14 on RTPI passing as "OOS" and I called into central control and got an admission that the driver had been asked to run OOS, and an apology.

On another occasion I was on a 7 inbound, which from Blackrock onwards was not being hailed by anyone waiting at the stops along the Rock Road. When we came up behind a van at traffic lights, I was able to see from the reflection that we were displaying OOS . . . on a cold and wet night, and with the next bus 15 minutes behind.

I will defend many, many things that DB do. There are some fine employees who really care.

But there are also those who couldn't care less.

C635

There is,most likely,at least two issues contributing to this scenario.

B's n B's two OOS 84's were most likely NOT the bus scheduled,and could well have been from a different route altogether.

There is an ongoing and significant problem with On-Street RTPI units displaying curtailed journeys.

Essentially,as an example,if a 46A has to be curtailed to City Centre,the Controller will input a curtailment into the system,this will usually be reflected by a Curtailed Journey signal on the Bus Unit.

However,it appears that these Curtailments are NOT appearing on the On-Street RTPI screens which continue to display the journey as a Full Route IE: Phoenix Park.

This can also occur with the BAC App,although in my own experience,the App tends to show such curtailments far more accurately.

This IS a known issue,it has been/is under active discussion between BAC/DCC for some time now,yet it continues to occur.

One "Fix" appears to involve the Controller removing the displayed Journey altogether,which is IMO,an even worse situation which can inconvienence even more passengers.

There is also the possibility,that in a busy peak environment,a Controller may overlook the deletion/curtailment altogether producing similar results,although in my experience the latter occurrence is rare.

Finally,following recent "upgrades" to the Wayfarer system,a significant number of units lost the Ticket Machine/Destination Scroll interface,so that when the Driver reset the Ticket Machine at a terminus,the Destination does NOT automatically reset,but instead defaults to "Entering Service".

As the In-Cab Controller Display,is behind and above the Drivers right shoulder it is therefore out of view during normal operation,with reflections off other traffic usually being the first time the Driver notices,unless some boarding passenger actually mentions it (I remain bamboozled at the numbers of people who will board a Bus showing No Number and Entering Service and say NOTHING )

The unhealthy and even less desirable practice of "Blanking it out and Dropping Off" has thankfully lessened considerably in recent times.

This practice,whilst on the surface allowing those on board a late running service to be facilitated,actually contributed to the disappearance of some routes which were afflicted by it,as it maintained an appearance of normal service on paper,whilst on-the-street,no such thing was being provided.

The actual control response (a Lá London) should be to instruct the driver to stop and transfer passengers to another service before heading away empty to get back on time for the next journey.

The London scenario involves each route having a number of short-workings,all on the Destination Display,and simply to operate with the curtailed destination showing..once that is reached,the very simple "THIS SERVICE TERMINATES HERE,ALL-CHANGE" announcement will be heard and the Bus will swing around without as much as a how's yer father....but,its function of maintaining frequency over the greatest length of a route tends to be successfully achieved.

However with many London Bus Routes operating at 5-7 Min headways,such procedures are somewhat less contentious,the 15 Min gap which C635 speaks of makes it a BAC High-Frequency route...:rolleyes:

(BTW,I've witnessed some serious umbrella-waving in Paris also,due to the SERVICE-PARTIEL Destination Display not being noted by boarding passengers..)

Cookie_Monster

AlekSmart wrote: »

Finally,following recent "upgrades" to the Wayfarer system,a significant number of units lost the Ticket Machine/Destination Scroll interface,so that when the Driver reset the Ticket Machine at a terminus,the Destination does NOT automatically reset,but instead defaults to "Entering Service".
As the In-Cab Controller Display,is behind and above the Drivers right shoulder it is therefore out of view during normal operation,with reflections off other traffic usually being the first time the Driver notices,unless some boarding passenger actually mentions it (I remain bamboozled at the numbers of people who will board a Bus showing No Number and Entering Service and say NOTHING )

Is there not a requirement to check this once the new service is entered whilst still stationary at the terminal? Would seem like common sense tbh

joegriffinjnr

Bring back the manual scrolls.

AlekSmart

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Is there not a requirement to check this once the new service is entered whilst still stationary at the terminal? Would seem like common sense tbh

Sure there are requirements to check such items....however occasionally I omit to check my fly,and am only made aware of its gaping by,a) the breeze, b) sniggering passers by or c) a pitying concerned citizen.

My point being,that if Most vehicles Destinations set with the Ticket Machine,and that is the actual designed operation of the system,then actually looking back,outwards,upwards and over one's shoulder simply does not come naturally.

I have long felt that the In Cab Controller should have been always in the Drivers line-of-sight,however Bus Cab Design is the preserve of Design Engineers,few of whom would be regular drivers of their own products.

bmaxi

joegriffinjnr wrote: »

Bring back the manual scrolls.

The problem with manual scrolls was, did you believe the one on the front, the back or the side or was the 78 really going to Upper Ballyfermot via Leim an Bhradain:) Sometimes they required a gallon of WD40, something apparently unknown to the garage mechanics, and a lump hammer to operate.

_Kaiser_

Interesting post by Alek above - I see a lot of these "Entering service" buses up around Sandyford/Balally SC lately whereas in the past I've never seen a bus with this on the display.

thomasj

Exact opposite with the last 39 tonight.

It ran approx 10 minutes late but there was no mention of the bus whatsoever on the on street boards or on the rtpi apps. You could be forgiven for thinking you had missed it!

It seems to be happening a bit too often with the last 39!

dfx-

joegriffinjnr wrote: »

Bring back the manual scrolls.

Ah yes, for the 77 that went 'via Kingswood' or the 56A that went "via Tymon North":pac:

coylemj

It was pointed out by a wag once that the buses in Dublin were polylingual since a bus showing 'Phoenix Park via An Lar' as it's destination was employing four different languages: Phoenix (Greek) Park (English) via (Latin) An Lar (Irish)

john boye

dfx- wrote: »

Ah yes, for the 77 that went 'via Kingswood' or the 56A that went "via Tymon North":pac:

My favourite was a 49 one evening going to Willington via Rathmines

I had a similar one last night, a 31A passed me by at Busaras even though I hailed it. Wasn't full either. He just wasn't arsed to stop.