Dublin Coach - Portlaoise to Airport

ceannair06

Anyone been on this at night lately ?

I have to get it from the airport a few times a month around midnight - and the last few weeks it's getting downright worrying.

Last weekend we stopped for 20 minutes for a load of people who got on the bus carrying pints right from the pub, and proceeded to start fights.

On Sunday coming back about 11.30 from Dublin Airport there were once again loud, lairy drunks causing trouble.

Do the company/drivers not care about safety ? They have to start refusing carriage for those incapable of good behaviour, surely ?

foggy_lad

People need to complain to the company and demand refunds if the journey was not as good as advertised. They operate on a shoestring so every passenger fare counts but they don't have staff on duty outside of office hours to deal with any issues.

BuffyBot

OP, unless you have irrefutable proof other than your own rather biased assessment (which even slyly masked doesn't dilute the intent), don't post crap like that again

LXFlyer

The original post has been edited - there was something else there and that is what the mod message was referring to.

monument

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Grandeeod

ceannair06 wrote: »

Anyone been on this at night lately ?

I have to get it from the airport a few times a month around midnight - and the last few weeks it's getting downright worrying.

Last weekend we stopped for 20 minutes for a load of people who got on the bus carrying pints right from the pub, and proceeded to start fights.

On Sunday coming back about 11.30 from Dublin Airport there were once again loud, lairy drunks causing trouble.

Do the company/drivers not care about safety ? They have to start refusing carriage for those incapable of good behaviour, surely ?

I've used this particular service across a variety of stops and times. Any Airport run has been fine, but I'd be doing that on a Tuesday or Thursday. You havent specified where along the route that these people joined the service but I don't doubt what you have said. The "local" fair is only €2 and considering it's a 24 hour service its an obvious facilitator for problems at the weekend. However, your negative report is the first I've heard.

FionnK86

Grandeeod wrote: »

I've used this particular service across a variety of stops and times. Any Airport run has been fine, but I'd be doing that on a Tuesday or Thursday. You havent specified where along the route that these people joined the service but I don't doubt what you have said. The "local" fair is only €2 and considering it's a 24 hour service its an obvious facilitator for problems at the weekend. However, your negative report is the first I've heard.

Trips between Naas and Monasterevin are only €1, not €2 Grandeeod. Unfortunately, though the driver reserves the right to refuse permission he cannot stop customers for getting on for looking 'rough'.:o

This happens on a lot of other services, and unfortunately the OP just happened to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time. I know Dublin Coach have CCTV on most of their coaches, and encourage customers with complaints to contact their head office.

It is Public Transport, and just like Trains, bus services are used by all members of the public, some that seem to think violence is a bit of craic.:mad: Unfortunately, it's society that needs to change and show these hooligans that violence is not acceptable.

Grandeeod

FionnK86 wrote: »

Trips between Naas and Monasterevin are only €1, not €2 Grandeeod.

I thought that was only a special offer during June/July/August. Normally €2.

It is Public Transport, and just like Trains, bus services are used by all members of the public, some that seem to think violence is a bit of craic.Unfortunately, it's society that needs to change and show these hooligans that violence is not acceptable.

When I said it was a "facilitator", I should have expanded on my point. Im not blaming the service. Im simply saying that a decent service like it, facilitates the obvious scum who wish to inflict their brand of craic on others.

Vic_08

Grandeeod wrote: »

I thought that was only a special offer during June/July/August. Normally €2.

They are obviously trying to push out the competition with that fare, no other justification for it.

The €2 fare was to undercut Bus Eireann, the only logic to charging €1 is to run KCoach off the road. Unlike Dublin Coach and BE they don't have a more lucrative part of the route to generate revenue from.

Grandeeod wrote: »

When I said it was a "facilitator", I should have expanded on my point. Im not blaming the service. Im simply saying that a decent service like it, facilitates the obvious scum who wish to inflict their brand of craic on others.

Any service that runs at the times when pissed people fall out of pubs will be a problem for anti-social behaviour. It was inevitable that over time the availability of this 24hour link would attract trouble.

The only way to deal with that is for all the drivers to be very hardline at night; no alcohol on board, no disruptive behaviour, no entry to drunks that are in any way agressive, one warning only and stop bus call Gardai for any subsequent bad behaviour.

Not a pleasant situation for the DC drivers to be in, unlike Dublin Bus they do not have any protection in their cab and they carry money. From experience I can say stopping trouble from boarding and being strict with people from the off is usually better than letting them think they can do what they want on the bus.

Having double deckers on the route makes controlling it even more challenging as the scum will naturally go up top down the back where they are hard to monitor. Probably not applicable to the coaches they use and certainly not the public image they want to portray but a number of UK operators that run night buses with deckers have installed doors on the stairway so that the top deck can be locked out of use on potentially troublesome services.

foggy_lad

The Dublin Coach bus stop on D'Olier street is moving from 17th November to Burgh Quay for pick ups and Bachelors Walk for dropping off passengers.

FionnK86

foggy_lad wrote: »

The Dublin Coach bus stop on D'Olier street is moving from 17th November to Burgh Quay for pick ups and Bachelors Walk for dropping off passengers.

Seems Dublin Bus are getting their way and the D'Olier Street stop is being moved.The stop was getting busier and busier with the improved M7 service frequency and addition of the M9 service.That stop was moved last summer from Westmoreland to D'Olier and now out to Burgh Quay :mad: Absolutely ridiculous for the customers, and probably no fault of the company having to move.

LXFlyer

FionnK86 wrote: »

Seems Dublin Bus are getting their way and the D'Olier Street stop is being moved.The stop was getting busier and busier with the improved M7 service frequency and addition of the M9 service.That stop was moved last summer from Westmoreland to D'Olier and now out to Burgh Quay :mad: Absolutely ridiculous for the customers, and probably no fault of the company having to move.

D'Olier Street and Westmoreland Street are not proper locations for coaches to sit for long periods of time and load up.

The two stops in those locations are accidents waiting to happen, as they were never designed for long distance coaches. They also cause major difficulties for the long existing city bus operations with buses often having to stop in the middle of the street to load passengers.

Dublin Bus has given up its termini on Burgh Quay to facilitate Dublin Coach. It is a much safer location for long distance coaches as it is in a bay and not beside city bus stops.

How is Burgh Quay "ridiculous" for customers? It's two minutes walk from O'Connell Bridge. Is that too much to ask for people to walk?

Add to that the coaches will no longer have to sit in traffic negotiating D'Olier St, College St and Westmoreland St, but will operate directly from their new stop onto Aston Quay. That should mean more reliable journey times.

If somewhere similar could be found for the Aircoach Cork services away from Westmoreland St then I think we would be making some progress, although ultimately I would like to see all these coach services operating from a dedicated bus station in the city centre with proper waiting facilities, rather than on-street.