BusConnects Dublin - Bus Network Changes Discussion

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123132886#Comment_123132886

A driver made a mistake - it’s not quite “mayhem”.

I wouldn’t expect the buses on the 19 to have luggage racks - it’s a local community bus route that will primary be used by airport employees with a much smaller number of air travellers using it.

bikeman1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123132889#Comment_123132889

Well in fairness, they have a nice newly built lay by from which they can load up passengers while waiting at the terminus stop and the proceed to the roundabout to turnaround and back out. They did this on the first day. There is also space there for a bus shelter. I have no idea why people have to wait on the far side of the road, which is more inaccessible and when the bus pulls up blocks the road for absolutely no reason.

jd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123133667#Comment_123133667

I suspect they found there wasn't enough room in the lay by when buses were running at 7-8 min frequencies

dublinman1990

Dublin Bus have uploaded more youtube videos showcasing their new E-Spine routes namely the E1/E2 & the 19 today. Although; there's no video available yet for the L12 & L14.

https://youtu.be/ns1BY23UfXA?si=4UIAzFKAiEosPxPS

https://www.youtube.com/%40dublinbusnews/videos

Tarabuses

How did

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123134319#Comment_123134319

How did our E2 end up behind a 155 at 2:52 in the video?

mikeybhoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123135098#Comment_123135098

Probably a training/test run before the route commenced operation I'm guessing

Arhanedus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123135098#Comment_123135098

The 145 and 13 still existed at the time that these videos were recorded. You might also notice that (at least in the E1 and 19 recordings) the bus pretty much doesn't stop anywhere.

So I'm fairly certain that these were just made before the launch, with the bus being out of service.

hfjm20

Was there ever any update given about the E9? Or did it just vanish from the plans

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123136931#Comment_123136931

It was replaced by extra peak hour workings between Ballywaltrim and the City Centre & v.v. which are in the E1 timetable.

cgcsb

I had the misfortune of getting the 11 on the NCR last night. A disaster of a 'service'. Single door operation, 20 minute frequency during the peak hour and completely wedged by the time it gets to hanlons corner. A friend of mine who I was visiting has switched back to driving, a heartbreaking decline in service by all accounts. A few passengers were heard commenting on how ridiculous it's been.

I wonder can we get some TDs involved and get the downgrade of service reversed.

Citrus_8

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123139870#Comment_123139870

I wi der if these people have voiced their concerns during the BusConnects consultations? Whether it's the people's or the NTA ignorance.

john boye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123140010#Comment_123140010

The 11 was never mentioned as a replacement in the consultations. Sure, it's only temporary but all they were told was about the high frequency O.

trellheim

This is correct. The planned O orbital was to be at a similar frequency to the 46a ( albeit not starting from the Phoenix park and it not going to town ), leaving punters with a good bit of a walk to change to the E routes in phibsboro .

HOWEVER it was, at least, part of the design. The 11 reroute had no consultation whatever and was merely imposed with a lesser frequency and single door buses

Those works to enable the O at Heuston ? They could be done right now , enabling the S2 and N2 to pick up their routings as per their original plans . Those works don't need to wait for the O launch. Why are we waiting on them ? S2 has been launched for 16 months now and still trundling up and down bridge street in horrendous car traffic.

In other news BC routes got discussed in the Dail last night https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/2025-02-05/20/#s23

trellheim

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123139870#Comment_123139870

Several TDs in the area have been contacted ; only one has bothered to respond to any of us in any serious form.

cgcsb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123140010#Comment_123140010

There was no consultation on reducing the service and putting in old single door buses. The consultation was on the new network which we haven't gotten. Instead we just got our service downgraded

mikeybhoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123140373#Comment_123140373

Agree the revised 11/11b is an unacceptable downgrade on the 46a for the NCR.

Personally using single door buses would be the least of my worries mind you Donnybrook could probably move the single door buses to the L25 a quieter route than the 11 but let me guess the NTA don't want single door buses on a bus connected route.

LXFlyer

With over 100 AX, EV and VG buses in the fleet, they have to operate somewhere and will continue to do so until sufficient dual door replacements arrive. That's not likely to change until 2026.

And with the greatest of respect to posters here, I don't think users get to be consulted on which bus type operates which route.

john boye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123141593#Comment_123141593

Yeah I fully understand complaints over not being consulted over the service reductions before the O launch but expecting to consulted over the bus used is a bit precious now.

dublinman1990

Go-Ahead's timekeeping issues are being reported on the Six-One news this evening.

https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2025/0206/1494952-ghost-buses-dublin/

It says in the article that Go-Ahead are short of six mechanics to fix their buses in Ballymount. That's a remarkably small figure needed for Go-Ahead to fix the bus fleet which have caused these issues with these ghost buses.

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123141788#Comment_123141788

How do the NTA fines to service providers work?

I read somewhere that the buses can only be late by about 6 mins, otherwise they incur fines. This can then cause them to skip stops, in order to make up time and avoid the fines.

This may not be true at all, but it would be useful to understand how the NTA fines effect the bus services.

bk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123141788#Comment_123141788

Yes, it is the downside of them being a much smaller operator. They have less flexibility to respond to unexpected situations. Given they have just one depot (not including the Commuter one) I'd assume all the mechanics work together, have lunch together, etc. very easy for a flu or covid to easily spread amongst them and take most of them out at the same time!

Fortunately it looks like it is easing and some of them are back to work. Yesterday just 32 of the Double Deckers were off the road according to bustimes, compared to 38 the day before and 70+ last week. I've been keeping an eye on the N2, N6 and south side orbitals today and I'm not seeing any cancellations now, so looks like they are close to returning to normal, but probably not quiet there yet.

BTW Interesting related story, back when covid started, a major part of the disaster planning in utilities like power plants, water plants and data centers was around changing engineer roosters and hand over procedures to try and limit exposure between teams and roosters, so if covid spread, it wouldn't completely take down the entire plant. Some went as far as one week on, one week off, to make sure no overlap.

mikeybhoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123141861#Comment_123141861

Being a small operator is an excuse like saying DB service operated by Clontarf are less reliable than Donnybrook operated services because Clontarf is a smaller garage. Actually forget DB for a minute JJ Kavanagh, Citylink, Wexford Bus, Dublin Express etc. all seem to operate a fairly reliable service without the resources of CIE.

john boye

It also ignores the fact that the mechanics work on shift (and GAI have skeleton crew on each shift) and are very rarely all together.

Burt Renaults

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123143072#Comment_123143072

Being a smaller operator means that when something goes wrong (whether it's a lack of drivers, a lack of mechanics or a lack of buses), there's nowhere to hide. Another problem is that so many of their routes are low or medium frequency. Dublin Bus can hide cancellations more easily. The likes of Go Ahead, or Bus Eireann in Cork, have nowhere to hide. It's not just about resources - it's the fact that cancellations can't be spread around.

mikeybhoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123143180#Comment_123143180

Don't GAI already send a lot of buses down to Naas to Irish Commericals for work. Why can't they use them if they're struggling to find mechanics of their own.

Cookie_Monster

why cant all these single door buses just be modified with a second door?

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123143446#Comment_123143446

They are all going to be withdrawn over the next couple of years.

It would be costly, time consuming and pointless at this stage of their lives.

L1011

They physically could be, but yeah ^, it would be a waste of time and money now.

The new high capacity single deckers for the O are at least partially here already, but do appear to be a bit problematic (see introduction and then withdrawal on the C spine)

cgcsb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123141666#Comment_123141666

I dont think people expeected to be consulted rather they expect it to just not happen at all.

Burt Renaults

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123143183#Comment_123143183

Probably because they too have limited capacity. Especially for the numbers of defects we're talking about. I heard at one point last week, the figure was closer to a hundred. They've shipped a load of mechanics over from the UK, which should've been done sooner.