Salthill bus service is brutal.

Stevolende

Mr_A wrote: »

Friday in Galway are a disaster for getting around. The 409 service is generally very good, but on a Friday the buses get stuck in traffic and it's more unreliable.

Anyone have any idea why Fridays are so especially bad?

I just assumed it was everybody getting out of town for the weekend and also got worse on long weekends.
It seems to get worse earlier on a Friday I think at least partially because the schools get out earlier.
I know it is possible to be stuck on Doughiska rd waiting for a 409 for up to an hour between something like 3.30 and 5.30 on a friday. I still haven't worked out exactly when it starts & ends but those seem to be pretty rough estimates of the outsides. BUt it also seems taht buses just don't turn up at other times too.
I think at times buses have bypassed Doughiska and gone past Roscam. I think the school times 2nd bus has sometimes just gone from Roscam to town. Though it was couple of years back when I noticed that and they may have revised the idea since.
I think running a 2nd double decker between 5.30 and 6.30 would heavily improve things.
I've certainly been stuck at the bus stop between 6 and some odd time a bit after 6.30 with at least a bus full of people gathering. & wondered what happened to the Quarter past buses, seems to happen around 5.15 too.

But the 409 is supposed to be the best route in town I've been told, still not the most reliable though.
The new €250,000 buses seemed to be groaning soon after they were introduced.

the untitled user

Mr_A wrote: »

Anyone have any idea why Fridays are so especially bad?

My guess would be shift workers leaving early from the likes of Boston and Medtronic clogging up the bridges earlier than would be normal during the earlier part of the week.

Mrs OBumble

the untitled user wrote: »

My guess would be shift workers leaving early from the likes of Boston and Medtronic clogging up the bridges earlier than would be normal during the earlier part of the week.

Not so dramatic from Boston, they stagger their shifts all week as far as I can see. But Medtronic certainly used to have a major end of shift around 1pm on Friday. And I think I've heard some of the other factories out there have an early finish on Friday.

the untitled user

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Not so dramatic from Boston, they stagger their shifts all week as far as I can see. But Medtronic certainly used to have a major end of shift around 1pm on Friday. And I think I've heard some of the other factories out there have an early finish on Friday.

Used to work across the road from Boston, staggered shifts might be but there's still an exodus from the place from 1pm onwards that's putting an awful lot of traffic on the roads. Used to really disrupt the lunch time walk on a Friday :mad:

Whereisgalway

Was waiting for the 08.15 to Galway clinic at the station this morning. Crowd of people waiting, some other employee kept saying it'll be hear in a minute, bus showed up at 8.50, this is no way to operate a service, bus eireann are a joke

cgcsb

No point blaming Bus Éireann. A private bus company is not going to operate buses that sprout jet powered wings and fly over all the traffic. More bus lanes+ banning cars is the only way to do it, and Bus Éireann doesn't have the power to do those things.

Fitz*

cgcsb wrote: »

No point blaming Bus Éireann. A private bus company is not going to operate buses that sprout jet powered wings and fly over all the traffic. More bus lanes+ banning cars is the only way to do it, and Bus Éireann doesn't have the power to do those things.

They do have the ability to provide extra buses at a different time in peak times to help alleviate the problem though.

eg: the 405 - at around 5.30 time, they can start one bus route from the Ballybane side (where a lot of people work in HP, Boston Scientific etc) going towards the city, instead of waiting for the route to finish there.

Whereisgalway

cgcsb wrote: »

No point blaming Bus Éireann. A private bus company is not going to operate buses that sprout jet powered wings and fly over all the traffic. More bus lanes+ banning cars is the only way to do it, and Bus Éireann doesn't have the power to do those things.

A private company would have a accurate time table

Mrs OBumble

FitzShane wrote: »

They do have the ability to provide extra buses at a different time in peak times to help alleviate the problem though.

eg: the 405 - at around 5.30 time, they can start one bus route from the Ballybane side (where a lot of people work in HP, Boston Scientific etc) going towards the city, instead of waiting for the route to finish there.

Except that any bus which "starts" there still has to get there through the traffic before it starts.

Also, they don't have unlimited numbers of buses and drivers.

bodhrandude

cgcsb wrote: »

No point blaming Bus Éireann. A private bus company is not going to operate buses that sprout jet powered wings and fly over all the traffic. More bus lanes+ banning cars is the only way to do it, and Bus Éireann doesn't have the power to do those things.

What are you talking about, 35 minutes extra is a bloody joke, is there a ombudsman complaints area for Bus Eireann. I think people should just complain, if enough do it BE will have to do something.

Eogclouder

bodhrandude wrote: »

What are you talking about, 35 minutes extra is a bloody joke, is there a ombudsman complaints area for Bus Eireann. I think people should just complain, if enough do it BE will have to do something.

As other posters in this thread have pointed out, what exactly are they supposed to do?

The problem is traffic, not the amount of busses or drivers.

TerrorFirmer

Just to add to the mix.

http://galwaybayfm.ie/city-traffic-reaches-crisis-point-following-major-increases/

Whereisgalway

Eogclouder wrote: »

As other posters in this thread have pointed out, what exactly are they supposed to do?

The problem is traffic, not the amount of busses or drivers.

1. They could run in real time, they have the technology and it's not difficult. At the very least customers would be informed

2. alter their time table so they accurately reflect. It can't be hard to figure could when rush hour traffic and delays. Small bit of forward plannin, Go bus n city link do this

3. Have helpful staff in the station, the majority of em I've talked to are simple rude and unhelpful

4 send buses over the Quinn bridge. Begin operating new route This ones common bleeding sense

Took me 3 mins to think of these

thesandeman

Whereisgalway wrote: »

1. They could run in real time, they have the technology and it's not difficult. At the very least customers would be informed

2. alter their time table so they accurately reflect. It can't be hard to figure could when rush hour traffic and delays. Small bit of forward plannin, Go bus n city link do this

3. Have helpful staff in the station, the majority of em I've talked to are simple rude and unhelpful

4 send buses over the Quinn bridge. Begin operating new route This ones common bleeding sense

Took me 3 mins to think of these

1: You are correct.
2: GoBus and Citylink can make up time once they are out of city limits. Bus Eireann do the same on their intercity routes. It only takes GB and CL a shorter time to reach GMIT because they don't have to stop six times en route to pick up/drop off.
3: I think the staff are fine. It's just that they are Galweiganised (new word) and that's how we communicate. Same happens in Bristol, Barcelona, New York, wherever.
4: In theory you are correct but the bridge is blocked at peak times. As somebody said earlier the Red Bus didn't take up that route for that very reason. I presume it's up to the NRA to sort that out.

It took me thirty seconds to think up those answers and about ten minutes to type them 'cos I got interrupted.

wp_rathead

kinda off topic - but has the City Direct 413 bus been disbanded? when planning a route to Salthill on Google Maps it suggests using it but there is no mention of 413 Route on the City Direct website? *x-files music*

Mrs OBumble

wp_rathead wrote: »

kinda off topic - but has the City Direct 413 bus been disbanded? when planning a route to Salthill on Google Maps it suggests using it but there is no mention of 413 Route on the City Direct website? *x-files music*

Ya, it quietly disappeared off their website a few years back. No announcement about it, though, and it's possible the NTA still think it's running and so it's still on Google.

baldshin

Yes the traffic is awful and causes delays which CIE can't help. The problem is the timetables though. For example, the 409 bus is scheduled every 15 minutes. However, there's no way in hell it can stick to that frequency at peak times, so why not adjust the timetable to reflect that? Overestimate the time it will take to get in and out of time. That way at least people know what time they need to be at the stop instead of showing up at the current time and waiting ages!

The real time trackers at the bus stops are never right either, it seems as though they're just calibrated with the timetable and not the buses themselves.

Another thing that bugs me on the 409 is when you see multiple buses behind each other. It's not rare to see 2, or even 3 of them one after another on the Doughiska Road, meaning that there's gonna be a 45 minute wait for a bus after those 3 have left. Why don't they have the common sense when leaving town/Parkmore to not all leave at the same time if one or two of them have been delayed. That way they can get back on track with the timetable.

cgcsb

Whereisgalway wrote: »

A private company would have a accurate time table

No they wouldn't you can timetable away but with no buslanes, who knows what time you will get through the traffic.

cgcsb

bodhrandude wrote: »

What are you talking about, 35 minutes extra is a bloody joke, is there a ombudsman complaints area for Bus Eireann. I think people should just complain, if enough do it BE will have to do something.

I'm talking about the fact that the traffic situation in Galway is beyond the control of Bus Éireann.

Squeeonline

cgcsb wrote: »

I'm talking about the fact that the traffic situation in Galway is beyond the control of Bus Éireann.

Wading in here...

I'm not sure that it is entirely out of their control. This ted talk https://www.ted.com/talks/jonas_eliasson_how_to_solve_traffic_jams?language=en showed that a small reduction in the number of cars drastically decreased the "traffic".

If BE ran a decent service (or if private companies could compete) that people could rely on, it might reduce the traffic significantly.

cgcsb

Squeeonline wrote: »

Wading in here...

I'm not sure that it is entirely out of their control. This ted talk https://www.ted.com/talks/jonas_eliasson_how_to_solve_traffic_jams?language=en showed that a small reduction in the number of cars drastically decreased the "traffic".

If BE ran a decent service (or if private companies could compete) that people could rely on, it might reduce the traffic significantly.

That's kind of self defeating, they can't run a decent service without sufficient road space and people won't use it because it's not a decent service. You have to break the link somewhere to end that cycle. Put simply there needs to be more bus lanes and car bans. Dublin City Council is leading the way on this, soon it'll be virtually impossible to drive through Dublin City Centre with most of the space handed over to buses, luas, pedestrians and cyclists.

ben.schlomo

baldshin wrote: »

Yes the traffic is awful and causes delays which CIE can't help. The problem is the timetables though. For example, the 409 bus is scheduled every 15 minutes. However, there's no way in hell it can stick to that frequency at peak times, so why not adjust the timetable to reflect that? Overestimate the time it will take to get in and out of time. That way at least people know what time they need to be at the stop instead of showing up at the current time and waiting ages!

The real time trackers at the bus stops are never right either, it seems as though they're just calibrated with the timetable and not the buses themselves.

Another thing that bugs me on the 409 is when you see multiple buses behind each other. It's not rare to see 2, or even 3 of them one after another on the Doughiska Road, meaning that there's gonna be a 45 minute wait for a bus after those 3 have left. Why don't they have the common sense when leaving town/Parkmore to not all leave at the same time if one or two of them have been delayed. That way they can get back on track with the timetable.

Broad generalisation is broad.

the untitled user

My understanding is that a large part of CIE's problems stem from the rigidity of staff contracts. In my own experience, most of the time you see severe delays or missed buses on the Galway routes it's because somebody is due their break, but whoever was to replace them got delayed.

This has always been a problem, but I don't think CIE can't really modify staffing arrangements to suit timetables as they would wish, at least under the current employment arrangements.

The other component is probably just incompetence on the administrative side of things. Many staff don't even know of the extistence of certain routes (e.g. Knocknacarra to HP/Boston which has no official timetable afaik) so expecting any kind of 'problem solving' capability when faced with a difficult time table schedule is probably beyond most people's competence in the office.

ciano1

The 405 is a joke these days, 3rd time in the past 2 weeks the 1:40 just didn't show up. Traffic wasnt even particularly bad today!

Straight Talker

Im a frequent user of the 405 and 403 routes and i find the buses to be fairly reliable.My only issue is the odd rude driver.

Mrs OBumble

My sense is that 403 is the only route where the real-time displays and data in the app are based on where buses are. (Based on lots of observation of the 405, a bit of 409 and 401, even less of 402 - and none on 404, 407, 410).

Others all seem to be based on timetable extrapolations only, and these are not adjusted to take account of likely traffic volumes at the time.

Thargor

I know its never a popular post on the Galway board but do you really need a bus to get in from Salthill? A bike will get you into town in half the time for free.

Stevolende

403 was the first service I saw a 'No real time Information' message on, on the stop near the Ballybane library. At the tiime I thought th esystem was broken or something, hadn't thought that what the message conveyed was actually positive.

I thought the system was initially being talked about as having some kind of location transmitter in the actual bus, is that what a GPS actually equates to? Device sends signal to satellite and receives additional location information back as to where its destination lies in relation to it? Which should mean that other devices can pick up location information signal?
Which relies on some upkeep to make sure signal device and receivers are calibrated properly. Heard something on QI recently saying that without maintenance a standard GPS system gets way off true over passing time.

Still wondering how a bus that cost a quarter of a million can be sounding like it's groaning within a few months.
& thinking about injecting funds into the system the last big funding bought was it 6 new buses, or 8 and didn't appear to have much change afterwards out of €1.5million

what_traffic

See following article published today on the Connacht Tribune.
http://connachttribune.ie/bus-eireann-put-through-its-paces-by-city-councillors/

Whereisgalway

what_traffic wrote: »

See following article published today on the Connacht Tribune.
http://connachttribune.ie/bus-eireann-put-through-its-paces-by-city-councillors/

Counsellors Making sound bites