Public Transport at the RDS

bk

I'm very disappointed to see BuffyBot close the thread about the Web Summit! I think it is very relevant to the Commuting & Transport forum as public transport to such events is a major issue.

I've been to two events at the RDS in the last month and both times I was shocked to see that the next bus (route 4 and 7) were 25 and 30 minutes away!!

Both times there was a large crowd of people waiting at the bus stop for 30 minutes outside the RDS! Surely it is ridiculous that public transport is so poor outside a major venue and route like the RDS.

I realise it is off peak weekend time, but still, shouldn't a major venue like this have far superior public transport links?

Also both times the 4 and 7 were running within a minute of one another! Wasn't network direct supposed to mean staggered running between overlapping routes. If there was 15 minutes gap between the 4 and 7, then the wait wouldn't have been bad.

BTW over on the Web Summit, event people mention the support and money the IDA give to IT companies to attract them to Ireland. Having been involved in that myself, I agree completely that they are a great organisation and very important to attracting such companies to Ireland.

But IDA support and money on their own isn't enough. As we mature into a real "IT hub", these IT companies and their staff expect a lot more from our city.

That means high quality public transport, high quality pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, high quality broadband infrastructure, well built, safe apartments, etc.

And as we have seen over the past few weeks, we are seeing time and time again the government fail to deliver on all of these and I do honestly fear that IT companies in Ireland are starting to look at other cities that deliver better in these areas. It isn't terrible yet, but if the government don't wake the feck up, then it may very well get there.

Instead all they seem interested in doing is returning to their old ways of buying elections with tax breaks!

thomasj

bk wrote: »

I'm very disappointed to see BuffyBot close the thread about the Web Summit! I think it is very relevant to the Commuting & Transport forum as public transport to such events is a major issue.

I've been to two events at the RDS in the last month and both times I was shocked to see that the next bus (route 4 and 7) were 25 and 30 minutes away!!

Both times there was a large crowd of people waiting at the bus stop for 30 minutes outside the RDS! Surely it is ridiculous that public transport is so poor outside a major venue and route like the RDS.

I realise it is off peak weekend time, but still, shouldn't a major venue like this have far superior public transport links?

Also both times the 4 and 7 were running within a minute of one another! Wasn't network direct supposed to mean staggered running between overlapping routes. If there was 15 minutes gap between the 4 and 7, then the wait wouldn't have been bad.

BTW over on the Web Summit, event people mention the support and money the IDA give to IT companies to attract them to Ireland. Having been involved in that myself, I agree completely that they are a great organisation and very important to attracting such companies to Ireland.

But IDA support and money on their own isn't enough. As we mature into a real "IT hub", these IT companies and their staff expect a lot more from our city.

That means high quality public transport, high quality pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, high quality broadband infrastructure, well built, safe apartments, etc.

And as we have seen over the past few weeks, we are seeing time and time again the government fail to deliver on all of these and I do honestly fear that IT companies in Ireland are starting to look at other cities that deliver better in these areas. It isn't terrible yet, but if the government don't wake the feck up, then it may very well get there.

Instead all they seem interested in doing is returning to their old ways of buying elections with tax breaks!

Completely agree!

We will see 4 games from the euro 2016 finals played down the road from the RDS.

If we can't get the infrastructure in place for a smaller IT conference what chance have we got in this case.

It happens too often, every time there's a major international on the traffic in the city grinds to a halt.

ted1

The RDS dies not have events every day, so you can not expect Dublin Bus to schedule services in the basis that their is an event.
The events are for profit events organised by professional companies, these companies should look at providing additional coach services.

An event like the web summit charges over 1,000 euro for tickets and about 20,000+ to exhibitors for a small space, they should have bloody limos transporting guests.

The reality of the web summit move is that it was in the same city for 5 years and was attracting the same people who were paying thousands to attend, they simple needed a change of scenery. Who likes to spend thousands going to the same place each year.

The RDS is a few minutes walk from the City, the DART services it which has connections to many other bus and rail services

thomasj

ted1 wrote: »

The RDS dies not have events every day, so you can not expect Dublin Bus to schedule services in the basis that their is an event.
The events are for profit events organised by professional companies, these companies should look at providing additional coach services.

An event like the web summit charges over 1,000 euro for tickets and about 20,000+ to exhibitors for a small space, they should have bloody limos transporting guests.

The reality of the web summit move is that it was in the same city for 5 years and was attracting the same people who were paying thousands to attend, they simple needed a change of scenery. Who likes to spend thousands going to the same place each year.

The RDS is a few minutes walk from the City, the DART services it which has connections to many other bus and rail services

That's true, but there should be adequate bus and rail services in place in which there isn't.

Look at Sunday, in which many conferences take place, one routes runs every hour another every 15-30 minutes and the dart is hardly frequent either at the weekend.

ted1

thomasj wrote: »

Completely agree!

We will see 4 games from the euro 2016 finals played down the road from the RDS.

If we can't get the infrastructure in place for a smaller IT conference what chance have we got in this case.

It happens too often, every time there's a major international on the traffic in the city grinds to a halt.

It's a 15 minute walk from Grafton Street, people going to the matches won't try to arrive in cars. It'll be grand.

bk

ted1 wrote: »

The RDS dies not have events every day, so you can not expect Dublin Bus to schedule services in the basis that their is an event.
The events are for profit events organised by professional companies, these companies should look at providing additional coach services.

The RDS has events pretty much every single weekend.

http://www.rds.ie/events

Ideal Homes, Early Learning Fair, Antiques Fair, Over 50's fair, Pregnancy fair, Beauty Professionals Fair. All Events on in the last month when I passed.

All these events have thousands of people visiting every weekend.

And that is a terrible attitude to have. Just because an event is a commercial one, doesn't absolve Dublin Bus, DCC and the Irish government from delivering the infrastructure to support such events!!!!

Such events bring a great deal of value to a city, big increase in hotel bookings, money spent at restaurants, Dublin airport, etc.

So it is a small price to ask for the city and government to deliver good public transport to support that. Pretty much every other city I've been to major IT events has fantastic public transport and organisation paid for the city.

Dublin and the Irish government are being very naive to think otherwise.

ted1 wrote: »

The RDS is a few minutes walk from the City, the DART services it which has connections to many other bus and rail services

Seeing the wait for the bus being so long, I headed over to get the DART instead, it was still a 20 minute wait, not good enough again.

And the DART doesn't really bring you into the heart of the city either. But of course the Irish government just cancelled Dart Underground this week, the project that would have fixed this and vastly improved Dublin infrastructure, so that they instead could give tax cuts and buy another election like the good old days!

Do we ever learn!

bk

ted1 wrote: »

It's a 15 minute walk from Grafton Street, people going to the matches won't try to arrive in cars. It'll be grand.

There you go, the perfect example of the terrible Irish attitude!!

Don't try to put in place high quality public transport, instead just make them walk, sure they will be grand!! :mad:

thomasj

ted1 wrote: »

It's a 15 minute walk from Grafton Street, people going to the matches won't try to arrive in cars. It'll be grand.

But we should not be giving them a reason to arrive in cars in the place.

We could ban cars in the area but we would need to ensure there is adequate public transport. A big improvement needed over what is there currently.

ted1

bk wrote: »

There you go, the perfect example of the terrible Irish attitude!!

Don't try to put in place high quality public transport, instead just make them walk, sure they will be grand!! :mad:

So your answer is to put in permanent expensive infrastructure for a stadium that gets used about 25 times a year for 90 minutes?
I work on shelbourne road and the 500 other people who work with me all manage to get in from all over the country, so the current setup isn't to bad

markpb

ted1 wrote: »

I work on shelbourne road and the 500 other people who work with me all manage to get in from all over the country, so the current setup isn't to bad

Unless your office is filled with people who fly into Dublin or arrive from places outside the GDA, don't know their way round Dublin, are staying in hotels across the city and only go there at weekends, how is your experience relevant?

devnull

bk wrote: »

The RDS has events pretty much every single weekend.

http://www.rds.ie/events

Ideal Homes, Early Learning Fair, Antiques Fair, Over 50's fair, Pregnancy fair, Beauty Professionals Fair. All Events on in the last month when I passed.

All these events have thousands of people visiting every weekend.

And that is a terrible attitude to have. Just because an event is a commercial one, doesn't absolve Dublin Bus, DCC and the Irish government from delivering the infrastructure to support such events!!!!

Such events bring a great deal of value to a city, big increase in hotel bookings, money spent at restaurants, Dublin airport, etc.

So it is a small price to ask for the city and government to deliver good public transport to support that. Pretty much every other city I've been to major IT events has fantastic public transport and organisation paid for the city.

Dublin and the Irish government are being very naive to think otherwise.



Seeing the wait for the bus being so long, I headed over to get the DART instead, it was still a 20 minute wait, not good enough again.

And the DART doesn't really bring you into the heart of the city either. But of course the Irish government just cancelled Dart Underground this week, the project that would have fixed this and vastly improved Dublin infrastructure, so that they instead could give tax cuts and buy another election like the good old days!

Do we ever learn!

Cutting the 4 timetable back a few years ago didn't help, but Tara Street clearly is in the heart of the city.

thomasj

devnull wrote: »

Cutting the 4 timetable back a few years ago didn't help, but Tara Street clearly is in the heart of the city.

The 37/38/38A/39/70 have their terminus 5 minutes down the road. Moving the terminus down to the 4 seasons might help.

Likewise with the 25/25A/25B/26/66/67

ted1

markpb wrote: »

Unless your office is filled with people who fly into Dublin or arrive from places outside the GDA, don't know their way round Dublin, are staying in hotels across the city and only go there at weekends, how is your experience relevant?

Hotels conceriges know the city, and most people can use the Internet .

My experience is very relevant because it's about getting public transport to the RDS which is across the road from my office so I know how people get in and if it works

ted1

thomasj wrote: »

The 37/38/38A/39/70 have their terminus 5 minutes down the road. Moving the terminus down to the 4 seasons might help.

Likewise with the 25/25A/25B/26/66/67

The intercontinental is on the corner , you can't move it to much closer.

bk

ted1 wrote: »

So your answer is to put in permanent expensive infrastructure for a stadium that gets used about 25 times a year for 90 minutes?
I work on shelbourne road and the 500 other people who work with me all manage to get in from all over the country, so the current setup isn't to bad

Well simply staggering the 4 and 7 so there are every 15 minutes, rather then both arrive every 30 minutes would be a great start and cost almost nothing!

thomasj

ted1 wrote: »

So your answer is to put in permanent expensive infrastructure for a stadium that gets used about 25 times a year for 90 minutes?
I work on shelbourne road and the 500 other people who work with me all manage to get in from all over the country, so the current setup isn't to bad

The 4 and 7 is not adequate enough for everyday use let alone when events are on.

strandroad

bk wrote: »

Well simply staggering the 4 and 7 so there are every 15 minutes, rather then both arrive every 30 minutes would be a great start and cost almost nothing!

I have no idea why they run them together, it's been like this for years, one of the reasons I don't use buses anymore!

Dart frequency increase is on the cards and should help some.

devnull

thomasj wrote: »

The 4 and 7 is not adequate enough for everyday use let alone when events are on.

As someone who used to get the 4 on a regular basis for years, the moment they cut the timetable in Network Direct, the service became atrocious, especially as it was the same time as the removal of the bendy buses.

It was a capacity cut and a frequency cut all at the same time and that drove many people who were working in Grand Canal Plaza, Barrow Street and the surrounding area to go back to their cars

alcaline

bk wrote: »

I do honestly fear that IT companies in Ireland are starting to look at other cities that deliver better in these areas. It isn't terrible yet, but if the government don't wake the feck up, then it may very well get there.

Don't be fooling yourself, these companies are here for one reason only, and thats low Tax rates, they will pull out of Ireland in a heartbeat if they could pay a cheaper rate elsewhere in Europe.

markpb

alcaline wrote: »

Don't be fooling yourself, these companies are here for one reason only, and thats low Tax rates, they will pull out of Ireland in a heartbeat if they could pay a cheaper rate elsewhere in Europe.

People come out with this one all the time and, while it's definitely a strong factor, it doesn't explain why those companies employ so many people in Ireland. Is it possible that maybe life isn't so black and white?

In any case, I'm at a loss as to why this whole incident has been overwhelmed with bile. Maybe Paddys motives aren't entirely pure and maybe he is doing a PR exercise but it shouldn't stop us taking a long hard look at his criticisms and at the experience that attendees of his and other events. It's never a bad thing to see what can be done to make Ireland more attractive to people coming here. Instead all we see are people saying that he's greedy, stupid or wrong or that a half hourly bus service or 3tph train service (which is not nearby and not signposted) should be perfectly acceptable to our visitors.

strandroad

markpb wrote: »

In any case, I'm at a loss as to why this whole incident has been overwhelmed with bile. Maybe Paddys motives aren't entirely pure and maybe he is doing a PR exercise but it shouldn't stop us taking a long hard look at his criticisms and at the experience that attendees of his and other events. It's never a bad thing to see what can be done to make Ireland more attractive to people coming here. Instead all we see are people saying that he's greedy, stupid or wrong or that a half hourly bus service or 3tph train service (which is not nearby and not signposted) should be perfectly acceptable to our visitors.

In fairness it's probably because his criticisms were generally off the mark and not constructive. In terms of transport he was not talking about the infrastructure (which we would probably all agree with in this forum), he just wanted free dedicated buses and free traffic/transport plans... all of this is readily available, just not as a gift.

As I said in the other thread, if his rant by association shames the government into reprioritising DU, MN etc I'll be overjoyed. But it's not what he wanted.

irishguy

ted1 wrote: »

The RDS dies not have events every day, so you can not expect Dublin Bus to schedule services in the basis that their is an event.

Why cant you expect this from Dublin Bus? They change the time table for public events in lots of countries. I have even seen the Luas do this very well at the 3 Arena. I am sure if you privatize Dublin Bus it would be done

LeinsterDub

ted1 wrote: »

It's a 15 minute walk from Grafton Street, people going to the matches won't try to arrive in cars. It'll be grand.

Google says 45 minutes

foggy_lad

There is a dart station 7minutes walk from either the main hall or simmonscourt and the 4, 7 ,8, 18 Dublin bus services as well as the Aircoach 702 service.

Why would the place need any more transport options for events that are usually only busy at weekends?

LeinsterDub

foggy_lad wrote: »

There is a dart station 7minutes walk from either the main hall or simmonscourt and the 4, 7 ,8, 18 Dublin bus services as well as the Aircoach 702 service.

Why would the place need any more transport options for events that are usually only busy at weekends?

If they increased the bus services when there were events it would help greatly . The amount of times I've had to wait 30 minutes for a 4 to get to a Leinster or Ireland game on a Sunday

thomasj

foggy_lad wrote: »

There is a dart station 7minutes walk from either the main hall or simmonscourt and the 4, 7 ,8, 18 Dublin bus services as well as the Aircoach 702 service.

Why would the place need any more transport options for events that are usually only busy at weekends?

The 8 only runs a couple of times during the week and doesn't run at weekends, the 18 doesn't serve the city. The 4 isn't the most frequent as has been stated here nor is the 7 and neither is the DART . you cant even board an aircoach away from the airport.

Looks like a great variety of services but when you examine them its not that great.

There are usually events on there all week. The area is always packed during the week.

P_1

Eh you do realise that the DART is about a 5 minute stroll from the RDS?? Why all the fuss over two bus routes of a Sunday?

LeinsterDub

P_1 wrote: »

Eh you do realise that the DART is about a 5 minute stroll from the RDS?? Why all the fuss over two bus routes of a Sunday?

Great I'll wait an hour for the 17a to come, then guts of an hour for it to get to Clontarf. Then 15 minutes for it to come or maybe get the 9 to O'Connell st walk to tara. Wait for the dart on Sunday service and then walk to the ground. Or you know db could run a Saturday service when people are looking to get to the rds?

P_1

LeinsterDub wrote: »

Great I'll wait an hour for the 17 to come, then guts of an hour for it to get to Clontarf. Then 15 minutes for it to come or maybe get the 9 to O'Connell st walk to tara. Wait for the dart on Sunday service and then walk to the ground. Or you know db could run a Saturday service when people are looking to get to the rds?

Why would you be getting a bus that goes from Rialto to Blackrock to get to Clontarf if your end destination is the RDS?

There's no sense in moaning over something you can't change, just plan around it, it'll be a far more productive use of your time

LeinsterDub

P_1 wrote: »

Why would you be getting a bus that goes from Rialto to Blackrock to get to Clontarf if your end destination is the RDS?

There's no sense in moaning over something you can't change, just plan around it, it'll be a far more productive use of your time

17a sorry. Not moaning , discussing it.

foggy_lad

LeinsterDub wrote: »

Great I'll wait an hour for the 17a to come, then guts of an hour for it to get to Clontarf. Then 15 minutes for it to come or maybe get the 9 to O'Connell st walk to tara. Wait for the dart on Sunday service and then walk to the ground. Or you know db could run a Saturday service when people are looking to get to the rds?

Why is there no bus from Carlow to the RDS for all the south east culchies? You can't expect a bus from every corner of the city to serve every place of interest.

LeinsterDub

foggy_lad wrote: »

Why is there no bus from Carlow to the RDS for all the south east culchies? You can't expect a bus from every corner of the city to serve every place of interest.

I have a bus to the rds it's the 4. I'm not asking for a special bus route all I was suggesting was that maybe on Sunday when you've 20k or 50 k people wanting to get to the rds area maybe db could run a Saturday service for the few hours either side of the game. This doesn't seem unreasonable to me but maybe it is

alcaline

irishguy wrote: »

Why cant you expect this from Dublin Bus? They change the time table for public events in lots of countries. I have even seen the Luas do this very well at the 3 Arena. I am sure if you privatize Dublin Bus it would be done

Blaming the wrong people, Dublin Bus have no control over the timetable or level of service. Even if it was privatised they still would have no say in timetable or service level.

foggy_lad

LeinsterDub wrote: »

I have a bus to the rds it's the 4. I'm not asking for a special bus route all I was suggesting was that maybe on Sunday when you've 20k or 50 k people wanting to get to the rds area maybe db could run a Saturday service for the few hours either side of the game. This doesn't seem unreasonable to me but maybe it is

To do this would cost too much and would never be recouped by the fares or by the added service to the public on PSO services.

But can't people who plan so well to go to these events keep their planning hat on an extra few minutes to plot out how they will get there and get home? It only requires they take note of the frequency of each bus and the distance to the dart so they get the fastest journey home.

We can't have buses and trains at our beck and call 24/7/365

Sam Russell

LeinsterDub wrote: »

I have a bus to the rds it's the 4. I'm not asking for a special bus route all I was suggesting was that maybe on Sunday when you've 20k or 50 k people wanting to get to the rds area maybe db could run a Saturday service for the few hours either side of the game. This doesn't seem unreasonable to me but maybe it is

According to Google, it takes 24 mins to get from the RDS to St Stephens Green using the 4, 7, 8, or 39A, 46A, or the 145. The latter three from Donneybrook.

It takes 8 min to walk to Donnybrook from the RDS. It takes 8 min to walk to the Dart at Sandymount, and 12 mins to walk to Lansdown RD Dart.

That is 6 bus routes and two Dart stations. Few places are so well served.

There is a problem with the 4 and 7 bus service. On a weekday, they run every 15 minutes each, but usually in convoy. It should be every 7.5 minutes for either, but they regularly run in pairs and often can run three or four together for some reason.

LXFlyer

Before rushing to judgements, I think it important to make a number of points.

Firstly, the NTA specify service frequencies on every route, it's not up to Dublin Bus.

Secondly, when major events are on at Lansdowne Road and the RDS (such as international matches and the Horse Show), extra buses are added to the schedule between the city centre and Ballsbridge to help cope with the loadings, and DARTs are generally extended to 8 cars.

Thirdly, there are a number of alternative options for getting to/from the RDS:

1) 4 or 7 directly
2) DART to Sandymount (7 minutes walk away)
3) 38, 38a, 39, or 70 to Waterloo Road (10-12 minutes walk away)
4) 39a, 46a or 145 to Donnybrook (10 minutes walk away)

Personally I would generally use the latter option due to the higher frequencies.

At weekends the core frequency on the 7 is every 15 minutes on Saturdays and every 20 minutes on Sundays, while the 4 is every 30 minutes on Saturday and every 60 minutes on Sunday.

While I can't see the 7 changing from that, there probably is a case for increasing the 4 to every 20 minutes on Saturdays and every 30 minutes on Sundays.

Integrating the 4 and 7 timetables is not straightforward given that the routes are different lengths, and have different starting/finishing points, but that's not to say that at the very least some effort could be made to do this in principle. I certainly think that an effort should be made to integrate them. But it just takes one issue along either route to delay a bus (be it traffic or a passenger issue) and that integration can go out the window. The 7 unfortunately does suffer from traffic congestion along the route which can result in gaps in service levels and bunching. Hopefully the proposed changes to the network in the Dun Laoghaire area will result in improved reliability along the route.

To simply expect extra buses to be found for every event at the RDS is probably stretching things, as it would require additional drivers to volunteer to work them, consequent overtime and this unfortunately does have cost implications. That's not something that can change overnight, particularly given that DB is not awash with spare drivers.

Bottom line is someone would have to pay for this ad hoc extra capacity between the city and Ballsbridge - it's certainly not needed most of the time.

DART frequencies should (I expect) improve to consistent clockface 15 minute service on Saturdays and consistent 20 minutes on Sundays (eliminating annoying gaps in service) next year which will be an improvement.

Thinkingaboutit

bk wrote: »

The RDS has events pretty much every single weekend.

http://www.rds.ie/events

Ideal Homes, Early Learning Fair, Antiques Fair, Over 50's fair, Pregnancy fair, Beauty Professionals Fair. All Events on in the last month when I passed.

All these events have thousands of people visiting every weekend.

And that is a terrible attitude to have. Just because an event is a commercial one, doesn't absolve Dublin Bus, DCC and the Irish government from delivering the infrastructure to support such events!!!!

Such events bring a great deal of value to a city, big increase in hotel bookings, money spent at restaurants, Dublin airport, etc.

So it is a small price to ask for the city and government to deliver good public transport to support that. Pretty much every other city I've been to major IT events has fantastic public transport and organisation paid for the city.

Dublin and the Irish government are being very naive to think otherwise.



Seeing the wait for the bus being so long, I headed over to get the DART instead, it was still a 20 minute wait, not good enough again.

And the DART doesn't really bring you into the heart of the city either. But of course the Irish government just cancelled Dart Underground this week, the project that would have fixed this and vastly improved Dublin infrastructure, so that they instead could give tax cuts and buy another election like the good old days!

Do we ever learn!

Yes the RDS deserves far better public transport. If the 150 now winds its way around the Coombe, presumably to benefit some politician's loyal old voters, this big venue should be get more buses and routes to meet a genuine need.

dfx-

The 4 and 7 are huge routes in the city, they could do with VTs that are rumoured to move off the N11. Of course the hourly services are further affected by the lowest capacity 'new' buses. They can currently carry 30 people less per bus than when the bendy buses were there.

To shunt people onto other huge routes (such as the 39s and 46A/145) with an added walk makes no sense. The over 50s show was on last weekend, try advising less mobile people that might attend to take the extra walk...

'Boosting' the 4/7 to 30 minute services is madness. This is a major corridor of the city.

LXFlyer

dfx- wrote: »

The 4 and 7 are huge routes in the city, they could do with VTs that are rumoured to move off the N11. Of course the hourly services are further affected by the lowest capacity 'new' buses. They can currently carry 30 people less per bus than when the bendy buses were there.

To shunt people onto other huge routes (such as the 39s and 46A/145) with an added walk makes no sense. The over 50s show was on last weekend, try advising less mobile people that might attend to take the extra walk...

'Boosting' the 4/7 to 30 minute services is madness. This is a major corridor of the city.

I didn't say boost the "4/7 to every 30 minutes" - I said increase the 4 to every 30 minutes from every 60 minutes on Sunday and retain the 7 at every 20 minutes, and (importantly) make an effort to integrate the two timetables - they are currently scheduled independently of one another.

Doing all of that would improve the service. The core demand would not justify a higher level of service on that corridor.

As for Donnybrook - we could all pick one event when that option is not suitable, but there are plenty of events for which it's a perfectly practical option.

LXFlyer

Thinkingaboutit wrote: »

Yes the RDS deserves far better public transport. If the 150 now winds its way around the Coombe, presumably to benefit some politician's loyal old voters, this big venue should be get more buses and routes to meet a genuine need.

The 150 takes the current route because the 121 was cancelled, and there was overcapacity on the Crumlin Road between the 27, 56a, 77a and 151.


Something still has to serve the Kildare Road, Clogher Road and the Tenters and being honest, the 150 would be the more likely option from that selection.

Hilly Bill

thomasj wrote: »

That's true, but there should be adequate bus and rail services in place in which there isn't.

Look at Sunday, in which many conferences take place, one routes runs every hour another every 15-30 minutes and the dart is hardly frequent either at the weekend.

If you are going to spend that much on a ticket i doubt you will be waiting on a bus or a train. Taxi outside, job done.

Hilly Bill

LeinsterDub wrote: »

If they increased the bus services when there were events it would help greatly . The amount of times I've had to wait 30 minutes for a 4 to get to a Leinster or Ireland game on a Sunday

Easier to suss out the bus times before hand and time it that you get to the bus stop without the 30 min wait.

Hilly Bill

LeinsterDub wrote: »

I have a bus to the rds it's the 4. I'm not asking for a special bus route all I was suggesting was that maybe on Sunday when you've 20k or 50 k people wanting to get to the rds area maybe db could run a Saturday service for the few hours either side of the game. This doesn't seem unreasonable to me but maybe it is

How have they managed to get to the rds up to now?

devnull

lxflyer wrote: »

DART frequencies should (I expect) improve to consistent clockface 15 minute service on Saturdays and consistent 20 minutes on Sundays (eliminating annoying gaps in service) next year which will be an improvement.

Hopefully there is a better balance between the Howth and Malahide split to avoid the ridiculous situation that happens every night in evening peak where you have two Howth trains in quick succession with a a large number of people getting a Howth train and changing at Howth Junction when both trains then becomes fairly empty because the majority of the passengers on it want to go to Malahide, but cannot be sure of being able to get on that DART which often leaves people behind.

Also it would be nice to close up that 90 minute gap in Malahide Darts that exist on a Saturday morning as well.

Thinkingaboutit

lxflyer wrote: »

The 150 takes the current route because the 121 was cancelled, and there was overcapacity on the Crumlin Road between the 27, 56a, 77a and 151.


Something still has to serve the Kildare Road, Clogher Road and the Tenters and being honest, the 150 would be the more likely option from that selection.

Maybe, but the old route was great, and it was annoying for me at least.

markpb

Hilly Bill wrote: »

If you are going to spend that much on a ticket i doubt you will be waiting on a bus or a train. Taxi outside, job done.

I paid nothing to go to an exhibition in the Reds a few weeks ago. I paid several hundred to go to a conference in Paris last month and got the metro from CDG to Point Neuf.

Not everyone fits into your black and white world where the passenger is always wrong.

LeinsterDub

Hilly Bill wrote: »

How have they managed to get to the rds up to now?

They waited for the bus/DART . No one has suggested the RDS is unserviced by public transport. But this thread is about Public Transport at the RDS so I offered up an opinion or were I thought that service could be improved .

LXFlyer

devnull wrote: »

Hopefully there is a better balance between the Howth and Malahide split to avoid the ridiculous situation that happens every night in evening peak where you have two Howth trains in quick succession with a a large number of people getting a Howth train and changing at Howth Junction when both trains then becomes fairly empty because the majority of the passengers on it want to go to Malahide, but cannot be sure of being able to get on that DART which often leaves people behind.

Also it would be nice to close up that 90 minute gap in Malahide Darts that exist on a Saturday morning as well.

One would imagine that all of those annoying gaps will go, given that they are starting from a blank canvas, but really the discussion about Howth/Malahide is for another thread.

Felt for the regular users on the routes during college exam times. I'd be waiting half an hour or more and get maybe the 4th bus along (rest were filled before leaving the RDS) and even then that would be full within a couple of stops. Would leave a long gap right before peak time for the people waiting along the route.

devnull

Deleted User wrote: »

Felt for the regular users on the routes during college exam times. I'd be waiting half an hour or more and get maybe the 4th bus along (rest were filled before leaving the RDS) and even then that would be full within a couple of stops. Would leave a long gap right before peak time for the people waiting along the route.

That was a regular occurrence for people in the city centre wanting to go to Ballsbridge etc in morning peak and reverse in the evening after the bendy buses were removed and the frequency cut. It still happened even when the bendy buses were there, but happened far more after their removal with drivers on the 7 in particuarly driving a 75% full bus, seeing about 80 people waiting at College Green and driving past, thankfully the 4 drivers took on as many as they legally could.

Many people just stopped using the bus after that, several of my colleagues and I did the same. I haven't used Dublin Bus for a regular commute since.

Hilly Bill

markpb wrote: »

I paid nothing to go to an exhibition in the Reds a few weeks ago. I paid several hundred to go to a conference in Paris last month and got the metro from CDG to Point Neuf.

Not everyone fits into your black and white world where the passenger is always wrong.[/QUOT

Black and white? Passenger is always wrong? What are you on about?