Dublin Bus and Irish Rail real time

Commotion Ocean

The Dublin Bus and Irish Rail real time displays seem like something from North Korea in the limited information that they give out.

I've often been at bus stops and seen the display showing 1 minute for several minutes at a time and sometimes jumping from 2 minutes to 4 and back to 1 and up and down all the time.

The bus is notoriously unreliable. When I was going to college, I used the bus. The bus often arrived late by a few minutes, but worse was when the bus arrived early and left early and the bus would be be just pulling away as you approached the stop, even when you were arriving at the stop five minutes in advance.

The same with IE displays. I rarely use public transport, but I was once waiting on the train back home from Howth Junction station. I live a few stops North of Malahide so I have to wait for the old diesel rattler.

Why can't they have "real position" in conjunction with the real time. That way people can get a more realistic idea of where the bus or train is and whether or not it is moving at a reasonable pace towards the stop.

For example: 41B : 08 minutes : 1245 meters

VG31

I'd really like to a real time live map. Since the buses are GPS equipped it can't be that difficult to implement.

I find the real time generally reliable. I can't understand though how the RTPI can be so off sometimes at my stop in the morning.
Last week I left my house when the bus was in 1 min (it takes me < 1 min to get to the stop), and I was waiting at the stop for over 5 mins! There's never any traffic before my stop so I can't figure out how that could happen. It's not an unusual occurrence either although over 5 mins is rare.

LastStop

You should contact Transport for Ireland with your suggestions. They may take them on board and see if it's viable. They may have never considered that people would be interested in a distance from stop feature.

Commotion Ocean

LastStop wrote: »

You should contact Transport for Ireland with your suggestions. They may take them on board and see if it's viable. They may have never considered that people would be interested in a distance from stop feature.

The idea could be met with fierce resistance from drivers though.

LastStop

dfeo wrote: »

The idea could be met with fierce resistance from drivers though.

The real time has nowt to do with dublin bus. TFI introduced it. Have a look at the display, their logo is on it not DB.

LXFlyer

LastStop wrote: »

The real time has nowt to do with dublin bus. TFI introduced it. Have a look at the display, their logo is on it not DB.

While the NTA are responsible for the on street displays the AVLC system that drives it was specified by Dublin Bus and is operated by Dublin Bus.

Dublin Bus schedulers prepare the stop by stop timetables that drive the system.

So not quite true to say DB have nothing to do with real time information.

The NTA would be responsible for how the information is disseminated to the public.

LXFlyer

dfeo wrote: »

The Dublin Bus and Irish Rail real time displays seem like something from North Korea in the limited information that they give out.

I've often been at bus stops and seen the display showing 1 minute for several minutes at a time and sometimes jumping from 2 minutes to 4 and back to 1 and up and down all the time.

The bus is notoriously unreliable. When I was going to college, I used the bus. The bus often arrived late by a few minutes, but worse was when the bus arrived early and left early and the bus would be be just pulling away as you approached the stop, even when you were arriving at the stop five minutes in advance.

The same with IE displays. I rarely use public transport, but I was once waiting on the train back home from Howth Junction station. I live a few stops North of Malahide so I have to wait for the old diesel rattler.

Why can't they have "real position" in conjunction with the real time. That way people can get a more realistic idea of where the bus or train is and whether or not it is moving at a reasonable pace towards the stop.

For example: 41B : 08 minutes : 1245 meters

A real time map similar to those available in London would I think be a good idea and probably better than giving distances. That would require too much space.

If buses get stuck for whatever reason, heavy traffic or a group boarding for example of course the RTPI is going to stick at the same times.

LastStop

lxflyer wrote: »

While the NTA are responsible for the on street displays the AVLC system that drives it was specified by Dublin Bus and is operated by Dublin bus

NTA TFI system owned and set up. Operated by DB. Just like all the new buses.

I heard that at the launch event of the real time dublin bus execs weren't treated very well got the attitude of. ..... what are you doing here this isn't your baby.

LXFlyer

LastStop wrote: »

NTA TFI system owned and set up. Operated by DB. Just like all the new buses.

I heard that at the launch event of the real time dublin bus execs weren't treated very well got the attitude of. ..... what are you doing here this isn't your baby.

Sorry but you are wrong on that. The AVLC system was set up by Dublin Bus before the NTA was created.

The control of the on-street displays was passed to Dublin City Council to facilitate multi-operator displays.

The NTA took over the dissemination of the RTPI system subsequently to the public through on street displays and the TFI website/app, but the actual system that provides the information is a DB system.

Each operator has their own system and indeed their own apps - none of those are NTA owned.

Carawaystick

lxflyer wrote: »

A real time map similar to those available in London would I think be a good idea and probably better than giving distances. That would require too much space.

If buses get stuck for whatever reason, heavy traffic or a group boarding for example of course the RTPI is going to stick at the same times.

I'm unsure what you mean by suggesting a map would take up less space than a distance?
it's 5 characters to show distances of 9999m or less and 10.5k for longer routes...

ED E

Its occurred to me that DB provide such limited data because it obscures just how poor their performance is.

howiya

Currently on a bus that that didn't appear on RTPI but is timetabled. Hard to know sometimes which to go by

LXFlyer

Carawaystick wrote: »

I'm unsure what you mean by suggesting a map would take up less space than a distance?
it's 5 characters to show distances of 9999m or less and 10.5k for longer routes...

There isn't enough space on the displays or the apps for distances. It would also just be too confusing.

I'm suggesting a separate webpage or an app page with a map.

magicbastarder

dfeo wrote: »

I've often been at bus stops and seen the display showing 1 minute for several minutes at a time and sometimes jumping from 2 minutes to 4 and back to 1 and up and down all the time.

are you near a terminus? others may be able to correct me, but if you are, i understand that the info displayed will be based on the next expected departure time - which may not correspond to actual departure time.
but further into a route, it will be based on actual buses on the road, and the issue here is that it may be typical for a bus to take 8 minutes to make it from camden street to college green on a typical day, but that conditions mean on certain days it can take 15 minutes, which pushes the accuracy out.

XPS_Zero

Dun Laoghaire has a well known defect:

The 45a goes down to 0 and drops off, people come down ramp and see 35 min to next bus and walk away or head for a dart. BUT the 45a will arrive 5 min almost exactly after it drops of the screen.

DB also has this odd quirk where "real time info not available " at random stops at random times.

Then there's a load of obvious bust spots that don't have one at all like the Wyateeville Road stop at the Cherrywood overpass heading back towards Bray, nearest stop to the Luas because some moron decided putting an 84/7/7b stop beside the Luas stop would make too much sense.

It could also use a shelter due to the high ground and heavy winds