What's so complicated?

XPS_Zero

Pardon my ignorance. This is a genuine and serious question. I'm honestly confused.

On Sunday last, signal upgrades between Dun Laoghaire and Connoly were being done (apparently to prep for the 10 min DARTS the unions are inexplicably opposed to, doing their usual job of commiting PR suicide for the publics image of unions). They'd been planned for some time....so why was no basic logistical planning done to deal with the inevitable passenger flow problems?

With a major GAA match on and several other events there appeared to be no extra busses and a regular Sunday schedule. I waited one hour for a 145, three of them, by nessisity, passing me full. There appeared to be no extra 46as put on either.
When I did get on one, one person passed out from the heat, we were literally nose to nose.

What incompetent is in charge of planning for situations like this? NTA? I would have thought there was, somewhere , a bunch of people (this being Ireland, paid disgusting wages with a board head paid more than the US president) who's job it is to look at a calendar scratch their monkey brains and go "duh duh the peeple won't be able to get DARTs between DL and Connoly this Sunday but with xyz on people will still need to travel between the two, let's ask Dublin Bus to run a weekday schedule that day as well as feeder busses connecting the two stations...duh duh".

Why is this so hard? Will they not pay the overtime? Should there not, given this happens some day each year, be a contingency fund for just that set aside each year? Hell charge Xpresso fare for that day to help pay for it. Why is basic planning so bloody hard??

LXFlyer

To correct one point - the works had nothing to do with the 10 minute DART - that could happen with the old signalling.

This was the commissioning of a new track layout and signalling to complete the current phase of the city centre resignalling project which will facilitate Kildare line trains operating to Grand Canal Dock.

As for the timing - there's never a good time to do engineering works - there's always something happening. Unfortunately they have to be done sometime.

There were supposed to be extra buses operating - sounds like they couldn't get drivers to work them. You're depending upon drivers volunteering to operate them.

goingnowhere

Certainly was a Mountjoy-Dun Laoghaire 7 service running in addition to the normal schedule

This was originally planned for the August Bank Holiday Sunday

XPS_Zero

nobody really answered my question as to who's in charge of this.

I'm not complaining about maintenance, I want all of the T 21 plan done which would mean a lot of disruption it's the lack of planning I have an issue with.

LXFlyer

Irish Rail would have contracted Dublin Bus to add extra capacity and accept their tickets.

Dublin Bus would rely on the goodwill of drivers to work extra services - it would be overtime.

At present they seem to be having issues with providing their normal services and are suffering staff shortages as it is.

Carawaystick

So I presume Irish rail would have paid DB to run these extra services?
and the services didn't run.

Surely the solution is to postpone the works if alternate transport is unable to be procured?
Or offer pay whatever it takes to get the alternate transport service to operate.

LXFlyer

Well we don't know how many extra buses were supposed to operate and when - without that level of information we can't make that statement.

All we know is that the bus routes were suffering from capacity issues.

Kyleboy

Drivers would jump at the chance of ot on a Sunday, not sure if they are allowed to run extra services with out permission??

Carawaystick

lxflyer wrote: »

Well we don't know how many extra buses were supposed to operate and when - without that level of information we can't make that statement.

All we know is that the bus routes were suffering from capacity issues.

The information about service disruptions and plans to deal with travellers should be public.

up13

Very simple answer,
1,all extra Buses must be approved by the NTA, DB can't do a thing with out the NTA's go ahead.
2, its the summer,sweating like a priest in a barney suit in a bus, who the hell wants to do over time? Especially when over 50% goes to the Tax man?

ProudDUB

I feel your pain OP. I live in Sutton. I haven't been affected by Dart line closures recently, but it's not uncommon for the Connolly to Howth/Malahide Darts to be out of commission, due to work on the lines. It usually happens on bank holiday weekends. Does the 31 bus from Howth, run more frequently & efficiently, when the Dart isn't running? It does in its hole. The Sunday service is the same piss poor crap, that it always is, with no bus for over an hour and then 3 of them arrive all at once. :mad: