NTA - Dublin/Mullingar - Some Integrated Thinking

LXFlyer

Interesting changes happening to Bus Eireann's Dublin/Mullingar services - the timetables are being changed to integrate with Iarnród Éireann's service pattern.

Some good joined up thinking from the NTA.

http://www.buseireann.ie/news_timetable.php?id=1345&month=Aug

Route 115, Dublin – Kilcock - Enfield – Mullingar, new timetable effective Sunday, 25 August 2013

As part of an ongoing review of public transport services in the Greater Dublin Area undertaken by the National Transport Authority, Bus Eireann will introduced a revised Route 115/115A, Dublin – Kilcock – Enfield - Mullingar with effect from Sunday, 25 August 2013.

This revised bus timetable is designed to integrate with rail services along the Mullingar – Dublin Corridor. Combined with the rail timetable, it will provide six peak hour weekday departures from Mullingar to Dublin (3 Rail & 3 Bus) and an hourly service off peak (2 hourly Bus & 2 hourly rail).

Enhancements to the bus timetable will also include:

• Improved clock face frequency timetable
• Later bus departures from Dublin to Mullingar
• Increased level of bus services to Kilcock, Enfield and Summerhill
• Increased level of bus services at weekends.
• In addition to the above the following service changes will also occur

Route 115 will no longer operate between Longford and Mullingar

Route 118, Dublin – Ballivor – Mullingar will be cancelled and will be replaced by Route 115A which will now operate via the N4 and Kilcock instead of via the N3 and Dunboyne

Irish Rail Timetable: Longford - Mullingar - Dublin



Friday, 16th August, 2013

dowlingm

Baby steps but to be welcomed. Will we hear IE and BE publicise it on an ongoing basis though, or urge their employees to draw it to customer attention? Or will be all a case of NTA interfering and they'll cooperate to the minimum extent possible?

shy-tall-knight

Not good news for bus commuters from Mullingar. The old 7;05 was always quick and efficient, usually at O'Connell Bridge by 8:30. The new 7:10 service will include Longwood, Kilcock and Maynooth which the old 7:05 didn't go through so anyone in for 9am will probably have to take an earlier bus now.
It's all very well having integrated timetabling between bus and rail but for everyday commuters who make use of either taxsaver or bus eireann 10 journey tickets these changes are a step in the wrong direction for anyone travelling to/from mullingar.

cullenswood

Is the bus that arrives from Mullingar to Busarus at 23.15 supposed to turn around straight away and leave to go back? Or will they be different buses?

LXFlyer

It is impossible to know that without seeing the internal working timetables.

GTE

I wonder, it only seems integrated if tickets are honoured on both services and pricing is standardised. I was a regular user of early morning 115s and it looks like a bit of a loss.

n97 mini

Leixlip removed from the 115 timetable :mad:

LXFlyer

n97 mini wrote: »

Leixlip removed from the 115 timetable :mad:

Did you use it on a regular basis?

dowlingm

shy-tall-knight wrote: »

Not good news for bus commuters from Mullingar. The old 7;05 was always quick and efficient, usually at O'Connell Bridge by 8:30. The new 7:10 service will include Longwood, Kilcock and Maynooth which the old 7:05 didn't go through so anyone in for 9am will probably have to take an earlier bus now.
It's all very well having integrated timetabling between bus and rail but for everyday commuters who make use of either taxsaver or bus eireann 10 journey tickets these changes are a step in the wrong direction for anyone travelling to/from mullingar.

Yeah but the answer to this is integrated ticketing AND timetabling for commuters not duplication of services.

On Toronto's outer suburban service (GO Transit) buses run to the railhead at peak and into town off it. Fares don't change. One timetable for both modes.

The great failing of CIE is that this wasn't being done already, given the same organisation owns both operators.

LXFlyer

shy-tall-knight wrote: »

Not good news for bus commuters from Mullingar. The old 7;05 was always quick and efficient, usually at O'Connell Bridge by 8:30. The new 7:10 service will include Longwood, Kilcock and Maynooth which the old 7:05 didn't go through so anyone in for 9am will probably have to take an earlier bus now.
It's all very well having integrated timetabling between bus and rail but for everyday commuters who make use of either taxsaver or bus eireann 10 journey tickets these changes are a step in the wrong direction for anyone travelling to/from mullingar.

As LEAP is rolled out to Bus Eireann then this becomes less of an issue.

n97 mini

lxflyer wrote: »

Did you use it on a regular basis?

Yes, despite it being an awkward timetable for Leixlip, dropping and picking up only depending on direction.

I don't like how BE have implied this is an improvement without mentioning that they have removed Leixlip (and Intel etc) from the route.

cullenswood

Got the new service that starts in Kilcock on Saturday evening. Myself and two others got on in Kilcock. That was it, no more pickups (allowed). 3 people to the city centre, at a fiver each....not sure the sense in it.

LXFlyer

cullenswood wrote: »

Got the new service that starts in Kilcock on Saturday evening. Myself and two others got on in Kilcock. That was it, no more pickups (allowed). 3 people to the city centre, at a fiver each....not sure the sense in it.

Given that is at 1930 on a Saturday evening would you expect it to be full?

I would imagine that the outbound journey had a much higher loading.

The trip you took is effectively a positioning journey to get the bus and driver back to Dublin.

cullenswood

lxflyer wrote: »

Given that is at 1930 on a Saturday evening would you expect it to be full?

How did you know it was that service??! Anyway, didn't expect it to be full, thought they'd need more than three to keep it going though.

The trip you took is effectively a positioning journey to get the bus and driver back to Dublin.

Any idea where they "position" from? Would they not be better off starting from Kinnegad or Enfield to allow them pick up more?

LXFlyer

cullenswood wrote: »

How did you know it was that service??! Anyway, didn't expect it to be full, thought they'd need more than three to keep it going though.



Any idea where they "position" from? Would they not be better off starting from Kinnegad or Enfield to allow them pick up more?

It's not that difficult. I looked at the timetable. There is only one bus that starts from Kilcock on a Saturday evening to Dublin.

The bus operates an 1835 service from Dublin to Kilcock beforehand that would undoubtedly be busier bringing people home. The return trip that you took is as I said effectively a positioning trip.

Remember that for every inbound trip there has to be a corresponding outbound trip. Much of the time one will be much busier than the other.

LXFlyer

shy-tall-knight wrote: »

Not good news for bus commuters from Mullingar. The old 7;05 was always quick and efficient, usually at O'Connell Bridge by 8:30. The new 7:10 service will include Longwood, Kilcock and Maynooth which the old 7:05 didn't go through so anyone in for 9am will probably have to take an earlier bus now.
It's all very well having integrated timetabling between bus and rail but for everyday commuters who make use of either taxsaver or bus eireann 10 journey tickets these changes are a step in the wrong direction for anyone travelling to/from mullingar.

Some good news from the NTA Fares Determination Report:

The Authority has decided to introduce an integrated Bus Éireann / Iarnród Éireann ticket on a pilot basis in 2014. These tickets can be introduced where there is both a Bus Éireann service and an Iarnród Éireann service serving the same locations.

The integrated tickets will be rolled out on the Dublin / Kilcock, Dublin / Enfield and Dublin / Mullingar routes in 2014 with a view to extending the number of locations subject to its successful operation on these routes.

These integrated tickets will offer the traveling public additional choice of services on the same route. It will allow the ticket holder for example to travel by train in the morning and return by bus in the evening on the same ticket. Currently there are 3 bus services and 4 train services between Mullingar and Dublin in the morning peak and a similar number between Dublin and Mullingar during the evening peak. Using an integrated ticket this will double
the number of services available, offering greater flexibility to the commuter.

Tickets will be available as annual Taxsaver. The 2014 ticket prices are set out in the table below.

2014 Annual Taxsaver tickets

Iarnród Éireann only
Dublin/Mullingar €3,150.00
Dublin/Enfield €2,100.00
Dublin/Kilcock €1,570.00

Bus Éireann only
Dublin/Mullingar €3,102.00
Dublin /Enfield €2,538.00
Dublin/Kilcock €1,692.00

Integrated Bus Éireann / Iarnród Éireann tickets
Dublin/Mullingar €3,307.50
Dublin/Enfield €2,664.90
Dublin/Kilcock €1,776.60

Devilman40k

lxflyer wrote: »

Some good news from the NTA Fares Determination Report:

Great initiative ! Just one (minor) thing...why does it cost more than the IR/BE only tickets? I can understand Bus/Luas ticket costing more as they are separate companies with different pricing structures, but IR/BE are the same company??

As I said minor thing.

dowlingm

I suspect it has something to do with revenue splitting. Additionally by having an expanded choice of services presumably the thinking is that the ticket is more valuable by reducing door to door journey times, allowing a traveller to pick the next service of either mode rather than the next service for their particular mode.

EDIT: I'd like to see something like this on Cork-Midleton bus/rail integration.

LXFlyer

dowlingm wrote: »

I suspect it has something to do with revenue splitting. Additionally by having an expanded choice of services presumably the thinking is that the ticket is more valuable by reducing door to door journey times, allowing a traveller to pick the next service of either mode rather than the next service for their particular mode.

EDIT: I'd like to see something like this on Cork-Midleton bus/rail integration.

I suspect that we're going to see more of this - this was just the first corridor chosen.

room_149

shy-tall-knight wrote: »

Not good news for bus commuters from Mullingar. The old 7;05 was always quick and efficient, usually at O'Connell Bridge by 8:30. The new 7:10 service will include Longwood, Kilcock and Maynooth which the old 7:05 didn't go through so anyone in for 9am will probably have to take an earlier bus now.
It's all very well having integrated timetabling between bus and rail but for everyday commuters who make use of either taxsaver or bus eireann 10 journey tickets these changes are a step in the wrong direction for anyone travelling to/from mullingar.

Mullingar commuters are being shafted by the new route- 2 hours to the city centre??!!
It's only 49 miles!!!!!
Unfair to people there when you consider that the likes of Portloaise (similar population/slightly further from Dublin) can retain its express service (1hr 20mins) to 'town'
They (the good people of Portlaoise) also have the option of a faster train serivce (50 mins as opposed to Mullingars 1hr/ 1.30hr to Connolly) the non Express service (1.30mins?) the Cork bus service & some private operators
Must have some Kick-Ass TDs down there

dowlingm

room_149 wrote: »

They (the good people of Portlaoise) also have the option of a faster train serivce (50 mins as opposed to Mullingars 1hr/ 1.30hr to Connolly) the non Express service (1.30mins?) the Cork bus service & some private operators
Must have some Kick-Ass TDs down there

The Kildare corridor being up to 100mph speeds does help there, in fairness.

room_149

dowlingm wrote: »

The Kildare corridor being up to 100mph speeds does help there, in fairness.

It's a fantastic service- the only drawback is that it terminates at Hueston rather than the city centre.