BusConnects Dublin - Bus Network Changes Discussion

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123108261#Comment_123108261

It’s not part of the Dublin City Bus Network - the route is Naas to Blanchardstown.

It’s on a separate contract with JJ Kavanagh and separate ticketing equipment that wouldn't be set up to handle Dublin tickets.

The same applies to journeys on route 197 between Ashbourne and Swords, and Local Link routes.

Things might change when the second half of last year’s fares determination is implemented (hopefully in April) as that involves reforms to the set up of regional services.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123106137#Comment_123106137

The LEAP card issue has apparently been resolved overnight, and monthly/annual passes are now being recognised on the new routes operated by Dublin Bus (a friend tested it this morning).

TonyK45

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123102681#Comment_123102681

Big problem with journalists - lack of proper research. Journalist in Ireland, seem genuinely hopless at geography; and basic arithmatic. One report in the independent today (28/01/25) tells us that it is 5 years since Feb 21! Many journalist - not from Dublin haven't a clue where anywere in Dublin is - and refer constantly to the whole county, as the City - the City is only the portion that it administered by the City Council. They also seem to have a directional disability, and are never quite sure which is east - west or north - south. So I suppose, there is after all; a place for people who get a 'F' in their Leaving Cert!

thomasj

Lol speaking of Geography..…

https://x.com/Galway62/status/1884227095699808318?t=1NCJf4JfJtEFO3NNHeIqOw&s=19

stephenjmcd

Bunching seems to be a particular problem on the E1 with the running times having a large dwell time northbound at foxrock and southbound on Ballymun road.

The odd service running late but it's causing gaps then with alot of services running up and down the N11 ahead of time.

Bunches of E1s in 2s and 3s when the parnell square workings are added in seems to be frequent

coylemj

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123109391#Comment_123109391

Not just northbound at Foxrock. TFI is currently saying that three southbound E1s will be passing Foxrock Church in 15, 18 and 18 minutes time!

dublinman1990

Another L26 went past my house an hour ago as Not in Service while it was running late from Blackrock. I think it's sequence number is 11544 on Bustimes.org. The bus had all of the full lights on inside the bus. It displayed Not in Service on the outside of it. I'd also seen 3 L25's going into Dun Laoghaire going past the house right before the L26 arrived late. And then to add even more confusion; another L26 from Blackrock arrived on time 15 minutes later. The sequence number on that bus was 11626.

I can't believe how badly Go-Ahead are running this route after only 3 days in operation. It is really pathetic.

However; Dublin Bus are using a mix of PA's & SG's on the L25 today.

They normally have those bus allocations on that route during the weekends. I think the last time they had those buses on that route during the weekdays was during the Christmas/New Year holidays.

stephenjmcd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123109434#Comment_123109434

Yup and I'm on one of them.

One is the 16:00 from Parnell square

There's a 15:08 from Northwood among the 3 that's about 15 mins late as it is.

It's the running times both ways contributing to bunching in both directions. The dwell time at the 2 locations i mentioned isn't being followed so you've services just running early mixed in with the usual traffic conditions etc

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123109391#Comment_123109391

As mentioned before, there is no integration between the E1 and E2 due to the running time errors in the schedules - bunching is inevitable until the schedules are corrected.

The Parnell Square starters southbound are simply capacity boosters for the schools and peak hour increases in passenger numbers along the N11 and they aren’t integrated with the other services at all.

p_haugh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123108306#Comment_123108306

Ironically enough, the 197 is shown on the Busconnects big picture map, so it seems the intent is to roll it into the city network eventually? The 139 isn't shown on the map, however.

stephenjmcd

Changes to the 19 from next Tuesday.

Additional services to and from Wadelai & Merrion square outside of the already peak additional services. Including extra weekend services

extra departures from Merrion Square towards Wadelai Park, 13 departures Monday to Friday and 11 departures Saturday and Sunday.

extra departures from Wadelai Park towards Merrion Square, 14 departures Monday to Friday and 12 departures Saturday and Sunday.

https://www.dublinbus.ie/news/revised-timetable-on-route-19

cgcsb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123108398#Comment_123108398

The media still refers to Henry street as "north Dublin' and Grafton St as "Dublin city centre". For any normal person "north Dublin" is Swords, not Henry st

Hippodrome Song Owl

I don't know which thread to post this, but since when did TFI take over responding to customers queries to individual operators on Twitter? This is not a good move for customers. GAI were always useless at communicating, but Dublin Bus was overall pretty good at answering queries and providing updates in a timely manner. It was a lifeline. TFI is a total disaster - answer hours later, provide generic responses, and keep advising to check their website for service updates - where there is a link to individual operators who provide zero information on most issues. It's a massive downgrade in customer communication.

On another note, it is so noticeable that every time a new phase launches, other routes are sacrificed and suffer - particularly with GAI. When the S4 launched the W2 suffered widespread cancellations and this has.not fully resolved - only 5 out of every 8 W2 in each direction actually operate during morning peak. Since the latest launch the other day, the W2 is decimated with 4 or 5 cancellations in a row in the morning. I believe the S4 is also now suffering some cancellations.

lordleitrim

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123108398#Comment_123108398

I can't help thinking a lot of them use AI or ChatGPT to write their articles...

RobbingBandit

Tracking the 19 going to Ballymun yesterday for appointment TFI stops were excluded the journey took 20 extra minutes why Dublin bus and TFI didn't future proof this I don't know, obviously only the second day but unbelievably the bus stops were all worked correctly as the bus incorrectly passed them by, absolute nightmare compared to number 4 or 155 which incidentally are now the E2.

I hate being an autistic bus passenger.

Annasopra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123071573#Comment_123071573

It is also really ridiculous that the 144 bus route from Bray to Sandyford luas is now gone though

Polar101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123107149#Comment_123107149

It's about time JJ Kavanagh got new buses.. they had a bunch of 10+ year old similar buses that were in absolutely appalling condition, and the 2018 Volvos they originally got for the route are battered and dirty. What they really need for the 139 is real-time information, because it's not uncommon for the bus to be delayed by 45 minutes.

DUBLINBUSGUY

GAI also operating the L1/L2/L3 very poorly the first 3 days. Check out @ AtlanteanPete on X...

mikeybhoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123110193#Comment_123110193

So if the 2018 buses are already battered then I'm guessing the new buses will also be battered in a few years too. I'm guessing their maintenance standards aren't great but not quite Dublin Coach levels.

mikeybhoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123110074#Comment_123110074

Why it was an irregular service that wasn't integrated with the rest of the DB/GAI network. I don't get the argument that Bray needs a connection to the Luas.

Any of the main destinations on the Luas can be reached with a combination of the E1 and another bus. Sandyford E1+S8/114, Dundrum E1+L25, Ranelagh E1+S2 so why does there need to be a Luas connection.

As for Greystones and further south I can get the argument as options are more limited and require more changes. Although I always thought the 84 was a poor feeder service as the driver change in Bray made it effectively like two routes in one. Would be quicker to get off on Bray main street and change to a 145/155 than detour to serve the DART station and wait for a driver change.

Arhanedus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123107428#Comment_123107428

I feel like the completely broken schedules make the service unreliable.

I was heading from Bray to DCU on the E1 at 10am today. My bus was 10 minutes late at Foxrock (became "3 minutes late" because of the scheduled 8-minute wait there), then ended up still being 11 minutes late upon getting to DCU.
Meanwhile the next bus overtook us and was about 5 minutes early…

Same story going home but the other way around - two E1's left about ten minutes before my bus, I ended up overtaking both of them (one seems to have gotten held up in city centre, the other one at the driver change in Donnybrook).

New service, but the same problems with heaps of buses all bunching up, leaving huge gaps, and the E1 being scheduled to take 10-15 minutes to go one stop when merging with the E2 definitely doesn't help - buses end up showing up at "10 minutes early" despite having departed on time. I hope that the timetables are redone sooner rather than later.

dublinman1990

A recent comment underneath this post on Facebook was saying that GAI have a total of 70 buses parked up in their depot at Ballymount. The reason for them being parked up in there relates to an ongoing issue of GAI having trouble to retain mechanics to repair the buses to get them out into service.

If that information appears to be accurate as to why GAI have had these huge number of cancellations in their bus services over the past few days; than those 70 buses parked up in Ballymount are needed out there to make the difference in providing a reliable service to it's passengers or a disastrous one.

The comment was made by someone within the last half an hour underneath this post from I Love Terenure.

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=992410562945606&id=100065300148258&rdid=fEYpRZWYNmMEoGYj#

Joshieo303

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123110612#Comment_123110612

If that's true, judging by the amount of buses listed on bustimes, that's about 25% of their fleet which is an insane amount to have off service.

mikeybhoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123110803#Comment_123110803

These buses are owned by the NTA. Surely the NTA need to be throwing the book at GAI if so many buses are off the road. First we had the driver shortages is lack of mechanics the latest excuse from GAI management about their inability to provide the service promised?

Maybe just maybe it's neither and GAI are just an incompetent outfit. Not saying DB are perfect or anything far from it but they seem a damn sight better than GAI. At least DB can keep their fleet on the road.

mikeybhoy

Where is the L27 terminating? I would've assumed it was terminating outside Dunnes in Ballyogan but Google maps is saying it's at the Luas stop which seems like a bit of a dodgy place for buses to do a u turn.

Seems like it would be logical to extend this route up to Belarmine.

DUBLINBUSGUY

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123110897#Comment_123110897

Yes it's terminating on the Ballyogan Road at the bus bay beside the Luas stop. My 11 to Sandyford was late by 20+ mins on Monday morning so when I got off the Luas I got straight onto the L27 which was due to leave so unfortunately I didn't see where they turn around.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123110897#Comment_123110897

It uses the roundabout at the entrance to Leopardstown Valley housing estate to turn.

Hippodrome Song Owl

Whatever is going on, Go Ahead appears to have just given up. There are mass cancellations on W2, S4, S6, N6. And no doubt others. Literally multiple services in a row cancelled and gaps of 1hr+. Unexplained "operational issues" according to the TFI twitter which is the only response you can get now.

AngryLips

Just catching up on the comments, is this the most disastrous spine launch yet?

loyatemu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123110571#Comment_123110571

if the plan is to extend the Luas to Bray (and it is) then the least they could do in the meantime is run a bus connecting the two.