BusConnects Dublin - Bus Network Changes Discussion

cgcsb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121836422#Comment_121836422

😂 that's a fictional time table, I'm saying how it actually is in the real world.

dublinman1990

I was reading from the TFI Journey Planner this morning; there are literally 5 S8's being bunched up together as of this minute going all the way down to Dún Laoghaire in this unusual cold wintery weather. Those particular departures must be going very slowly on their route from Kingswood Avenue. The roads around Newtownpark Avenue were very treacherous because of the snow this morning. The 7b and L25 were going very slow in traffic between 7:30 and 8am this morning which may have been due to gridlocks on the N11.

Are there any more signs of major distruption for the bus routes in your part of Dublin including the new BusConnects routes.

MOH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121836422#Comment_121836422

That's a lovely work of art. Nice bright yellow crayons colouring in the headings.

At one point last year I decided it must be bias on my part, that I was only remembering the bad journey. So I kept a record of 20 successive journeys standing on the N11 waiting for a bus. Over 50% of them resulted in an extended wait due to:

• scheduled bus going past empty without stopping because it had been pulled from service
• scheduled bus going past full without stopping, frequently because the previous bus had been pulled from service

Of course they all showed up on the "real time" system, which is as much a work of fiction as the timetables have been for decades.

trellheim

The last 5 times I've waited on a 46a they've been < 8 mins , sometimes 10

BusGuy

Saw an S6 going along Bird Avenue from Dundrum Road to UCD, if not a 145 to Ballywartim at Goatstown Road last summer.

Stephen Gawking

Hi all, i have been unable to find out through Dublin bus or elsewhere so i thought maybe someone here can shed some light; what is due to happen to route 150? I use it almost every day & have come to rely on it. I haven't a clue whats happening to it, is it being replaced? Withdrawn? Amalgamated? Asked one of the drivers recently & you'd think i asked him for his first born 😁

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121837933#Comment_121837933

Check the map, frequencies and phasing in the first post in this thread.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058321409/busconnects-dublin-likely-phasing-of-new-routes

lateconnection

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121837933#Comment_121837933

Route 150 will be replaced by the new route F2, which will run from the Spawell roundabout to Finglas via the City Centre. The Spawell roundabout is due to be converted to a junction under the Templeogue corridor works for Busconnects. So I'd say that the F2 will just adopt the present 150 terminus in Rossmore for turning around and laying over between runs. The F2 will also go into town via Harold's Cross, Kevin Street, Cuffe Street and  St Stephen's Green. Much more direct route than into town than the present 150 route through Crumlin Village and Dublin 8. The F2 will be a big improvement on frequency compared to the current 20 minutes frequency on the 150. The F2 will run every 10 minutes at peak hours and every 15 minutes off-peak. It's also quite likely that the F2 will be a 24/7 route. This means that Busconnects will provide a significant improvement in public transport in the Rossmore, Orwell and Rushbrook areas of Templeogue compare to what's there now.

john boye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121837933#Comment_121837933

Depends what area you get it from, technically there are multiple replacements for it.

john boye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121838119#Comment_121838119

I saw somewhere recently that the F1 will be the 24 hour route on the F-Spine. They might come up with a fudge to include parts of the F2/3 on some departures.

p_haugh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121837712#Comment_121837712

There was a bus blocking the road at the top of the hill by Mount Anville this morning, so I'd imagine the S6 was diverted via Bird Avenue as a result

Qrt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121838119#Comment_121838119

Very tangential but replacing the Spawell roundabout is just plain stupid. Oh well, the powers that be etc

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121838346#Comment_121838346

I would imagine that each leg on most of, if not all, of the Spines will be served on a 24 hour basis, but some maybe merged routes (like the C5 & C6) at night.

trellheim

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121839802#Comment_121839802

Once you get above a certain volume of traffic you have to switch to a junction, roundabouts dont cope any more. That roundabout is relatively recent and is a horror to get out onto and everyone I know has a crash story, seen or experienced about it. Buses will struggle there. You might think the Walkinstown roundabout is the worst but I dont hear about crashes on it. And I grew up in the area.

john boye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121841021#Comment_121841021

Was just about to say the same thing. It can be a complete mess even at off peak hours. At rush hour I've often seen the queue of traffic backed up down close to Willington Roundabout.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121838119#Comment_121838119

The F2 will definitely use the current route 150 terminus in Rossmore - that was communicated at some point.

The 150 will be replaced by three overlapping routes as below:

Rossmore to Templeville Road:

By route F2 which continues to city (via KCR and Harold’s X) and on to Finglas & Charlestown

Wellington Lane to Crumlin Village:

By route 82, which continues to city via Kimmage and Rathmines

Ashleaf Shopping Centre to City Centre:

By route 71

Kiteview

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121836522#Comment_121836522

The solution to “bunching” is to have buses pull in at a bus stop and wait “to even out gaps in the service”. It’s done as standard in many countries to avoid the “5 buses together than none for ages” issue that is prevalent with Dublin Bus.

There really is a strong need for “check-points” locations on each route with drivers being penalised if they go through those check-points too early. I have been on several late evening buses where, with light traffic, the driver was making no effort to even remotely adhere to the speed limits and was violently braking / accelerating on the route as though they were out for a joyride in a car and not driving a large and heavy bus.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121841326#Comment_121841326

It sounds like you haven't been on a bus for a while though?

You do realise that every individual departure now has a timetable that lists their times at every stop along the bus route. The bus companies are measured for punctuality at every stop along the route, and penalised by the NTA if buses are more than 1 minute early or more than six minutes late (unless there are force majeure circumstances).

Dublin Bus have certain stops on each route agreed with unions as stops where they can wait for up to 2 minutes if they’re running ahead of time.

The days of drivers driving at breakneck speed especially on last journeys have gone as a result.

BusGuy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121841326#Comment_121841326

The same thing happened with the 75, and 175 back then.

Kiteview

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121841434#Comment_121841434

The incidents of driving at breakneck speed occurred within the last 12 months (possibly within the last 18 months). I am certain of the rough time as they occurred on a Sunday evening after returning by train and I was using the buses to complete the “last leg” of the journeys.

As for the individualised timetables for each bus stop on a route, if you are referring to each bus stop, no such timetable appears at most bus stops (as a printed timetable). Rather many bus stops still show the timetable of when the bus is due to depart the first stop on the route and the user is left to guesstimate when it will turn up at their stop. Yes, the TFI app does go into more detail but the content in that is frequently inaccurate. I have caught buses up to five minutes after the TFI app told me the bus had already left the stop and had the experience of checking the departure times for stops in the city centre and being told by the TFI app that buses were running to schedule when cross city centre traffic had been completely halted due to the recent riots.

As such, it is hard to see how anyone can claim there is an individualised timetable for each stop when it’s not available at the stop and the supposed “real time” information is inaccurate (eg the “disappearing” buses issue) - and that’s ignoring the dangerous breakneck speed driving issue.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121841809#Comment_121841809

FFS I am not making this stuff up.

Again, every single departure has a timetable for every stop. That’s what drives the information on RTPI signs and apps. They take the GPS live bus location and apply the schedule to that to determine how long the bus should take to get to each stop, based on normal traffic conditions.

Here is the 15b for example - click on show all stops near the top and you’ll see the schedule for every single stop.

https://bustimes.org/services/15b-merrion-square-stocking-avenue-2

The NTA are only displaying the individual stop departure timetables at bus stops for routes that have been “BusConnected”. The rest still have the terminus times.

Most people use the apps - Transit app is good as you can physically see where the individual buses are on a map, as is www.bustimes.org .There were problems with RTPI reliability which have now been ironed out, which were giving wrong information about bus locations and predictive times.

There will still be “ghost buses” though if the controllers don’t mark buses as cancelled or curtailed.

Any driver going at breakneck speed and not adhering to the schedule now would incur the wrath of the controller as it would flag up on the AVLC - it just doesn’t happen anymore as it will cause the NTA to penalise the bus company under the PSO contract.

Daith

Actually, I do remember bus drivers speeding to get to a change of driver position on Parnell St. At one point a driver arrived so early he told us it would be a 10 mins wait.

That hasn't happened in some time now.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121841902#Comment_121841902

Absolutely it used to happen, but the box in the cab and the AVLC control system means that abuse of the schedule isn’t really possible any more.

mikeybhoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121841902#Comment_121841902

Can't understand why a driver would be in such a rush to get to a handover point only to have to wait for the relief driver anyway.

Only place I've experienced this is outside Bray Station on the 84 which I think the handover time is built into the timetable. Not sure if it's still the case as I haven't used the 84 in years.

BusGuy

BusConnects is like a cake. Every bus route that is removed, a piece of a cake is removed. Before BC happened every route in Dublin was a big cake, but every once/twice a month, it gets smaller, and a new one is baked, but eventually, that one will also be eaten, and vice versa. (if we even exist to like 2100)

stephenjmcd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121843552#Comment_121843552

What on earth are you rattling on about

cgcsb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121843552#Comment_121843552

Are you high?

TranslatorPS

I'd swear it's only the last page that I made a comment about "enthusiast-fuelled future-wise irrelevant nostalgia" not adding anything to the discussion, but apparently some people don't understand it, so in shorter terms: who asked?

LXFlyer

There is an "ignore" feature, which is helpful at times like this.

loyatemu

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