New 39x service starting on 9th October

miamee

Received an email about this earlier today, it could (hopefully) reduce my commuting time a bit. I love how they paint it as a brand new serice when the 39x has been on and off several times over the years. I think it even ran the same route last time before they pulled it to replace with the more frequent 39a.

Anyway, here's the info:

Introduction of Route 39x
We are delighted to announce the introduction of a new xpresso service, Route 39x from Monday 9 October 2017. Route 39x will operate from Ongar to Burlington Road with 8 trips Monday to Friday.

The new route will serve 26 stops towards Burlington Road and 27 stops towards Ongar. This is 40 stops less than Route 39, resulting in a quicker, more direct route to and from the city centre during peak hours.

All changes have been approved by the National Transport Authority.

Find out more.

Caranica

miamee wrote: »

Received an email about this earlier today, it could (hopefully) reduce my commuting time a bit. I love how they paint it as a brand new serice when the 39x has been on and off several times over the years. I think it even ran the same route last time before they pulled it to replace with the more frequent 39a.

Anyway, here's the info:

I'm so jealous of the 39 routes. Us on the 38 routes really are the poor relations!

Enjoy your X, it really is good news for commuters on that route.

miamee

Thanks - hopefully they'll introduce something similar for the 38 route, it serves a large community there too.

MrMorooka

Since it's an Xpresso service, am I right in saying there is a €2.85(Leap)/€3.60(Cash) flat fare?

miamee

MrMorooka wrote: »

Since it's an Xpresso service, am I right in saying there is a €2.85(Leap)/€3.60(Cash) flat fare?

Fares aren't on the site yet but that is the rate on another xpresso service I just checked there now so it's quite likely the same for 39x. I use the taxsaver annual Leap card so it will make no difference to me as far as that goes.

blanch152

Will it replace these 4 services from the 39?

07:07
07:22
07:37
07:52

Or will it replace 39A services?

thomasj

blanch152 wrote:

Will it replace these 4 services from the 39?

blanch152 wrote:

07:07 07:22 07:37 07:52

blanch152 wrote:

Or will it replace 39A services?

It's supplementing those services .

Stephen15

I'm surprised they didn't send it to UCD like the rest of the xpessos heading southbound or maybe that would be duplicating the 39a.

Btw the one Xpresso I would like to see is a 145x that would complament the 145 between Bray and Town at peak times skipping Shankill.

thomasj

Hopefully the next thing they do is start a few 39As from inglewood

Stephen15

thomasj wrote: »

Hopefully the next thing they do is start a few 39As from inglewood

39b maybe?

thomasj

Stephen15 wrote:

39b maybe?

Possibly yeah

blanch152

thomasj wrote: »

It's supplementing those services .

I hope so, but I have my doubts.

AlanG

What would be really great would be if they could put in some sort of a walkway and safe stop on the N3 near the Waterville bridge for these services. One well engineered stop would could serve all of waterville and Blanchardstown to allow access to the 39A and X services. Would be particularly useful for those going to UCD.

thomasj

AlanG wrote:

What would be really great would be if they could put in some sort of a walkway and safe stop on the N3 near the Waterville bridge for these services. One well engineered stop would could serve all of waterville and Blanchardstown to allow access to the 39A and X services. Would be particularly useful for those going to UCD.

Completely agree, the outbound stop at the navan road Blanchardstown slipway is well used by folk heading to the village.

The NTA, I'm sure are aware of this. The plans for the Blanchardstown BRT (that follows the 39A ) has stops planned for the snugborough road and mill road.

Stephen15

thomasj wrote: »

Completely agree, the outbound stop at the navan road Blanchardstown slipway is well used by folk heading to the village.

The NTA, I'm sure are aware of this. The plans for the Blanchardstown BRT (that follows the 39A ) has stops planned for the snugborough road and mill road.

If the BRT was to be built surely the 39a would be replaced by it. If it was to be continued that would surely deminish its point.

thomasj

Stephen15 wrote:

If the BRT was to be built surely the 39a would be replaced by it. If it was to be continued that would surely deminish its point.

The CEO of the NTA , Anne Graham said in a radio interview a few years ago , that the 2 routes would continue to run side by side after the introduced but the 39A would be reduced.

Stephen15

thomasj wrote: »

The CEO of the NTA , Anne Graham said in a radio interview a few years ago , that the 2 routes would continue to run side by side after the introduced but the 39A would be reduced.

That is completely riddiculous whats the bloody point on having two routes running side by side, I'm pro BRT but if its pointless. One of the big problems of the DB network pre network direct was the amount of routes that ran side by side to one another still a problem and the NTA consider themselves 'progressive'

thomasj

Stephen15 wrote:

That is completely riddiculous whats the bloody point on having two routes running side by side, I'm pro BRT but if its pointless. One of the big problems of the DB network pre network direct was the amount of routes that ran side by side to one another still a problem and the NTA consider themselves 'progressive'

Presumably it will be a trial basis before the NTA decides the fate of the 39A. You have to remember that the BRT will not follow the exact route of the 39A.

There will be 2 routes, one from the ongar area that will not serve the hartstown loop.

The other from hartstown, that will serve huntstown, blakestown etc

The other thing is not all bus stops will be served and it will serve George's street , rather than quays and O'Connell bridge etc

Time will tell!

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

thomasj

Patww79 wrote:

This post has been deleted.

The BRT will replace the 39A

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

thomasj

Bus rapid transit

https://www.nationaltransport.ie/bus-rapid-transit/blanchardstown-to-ucd/

miamee

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

It's not really, it doesn't serve all stops into the city centre or even all stops in the city centre itself. I took it this morning, the bus driver was driven mad I'd say. The bus number didn't work on the display so the front of the bus said "Entering Service" with an A4 piece of paper in the window with 39X on it so she was stopping at all the relevant stops just in case anyone was looking for it. The paper number wasn't very visible. She had to let a few people off at stops that aren't really 39X stops because they'd never bothered to ask where it stopped - hopefully they'll cut that out after a day or two.

I got on at 8.02am just before it gets on the N3 and I was getting out at the Four Courts just before 8.30am, happy days. I'm sure it'll get busier when more people see them/hear about it but I was happy with that.

Shuttle666

Took the 39x home yesterday evening - again bus was half empty as most people at stops seemed unsure whether to risk it or not!

Exactly an hour from Leeson St to Ongar, so that's probably shaving about 30-40 minutes off the 39A on the same route. Holdup in front of Trinity (light sequence very short) and in Cabra/Navan Road where there is no bus lane the worse parts. Not going into Blanchardstown Centre and no Hartstown loop.

As heating on Docklands train heating was on overdrive this morning, 39X is at least another option.

ongarboy

Shuttle666 wrote: »

Took the 39x home yesterday evening - again bus was half empty as most people at stops seemed unsure whether to risk it or not!

Exactly an hour from Leeson St to Ongar, so that's probably shaving about 30-40 minutes off the 39A on the same route. Holdup in front of Trinity (light sequence very short) and in Cabra/Navan Road where there is no bus lane the worse parts. Not going into Blanchardstown Centre and no Hartstown loop.

As heating on Docklands train heating was on overdrive this morning, 39X is at least another option.

Sounds very efficient. Out of interest would you know roughly how long it took to go from Aston/Essex Quay to Ongar? The times suggested on the official time table serm over estimated.

Shuttle666

ongarboy wrote: »

Sounds very efficient. Out of interest would you know roughly how long it took to go from Aston/Essex Quay to Ongar? The times suggested on the official time table serm over estimated.

Would guess about 45 min, that's to the Allendale stop at end on Distributor Road rather than Ongar Village.

TFI Journey planner suggest there was a 39x due as I left the office, just nothing on the bus stop board or Dublin Bus app so got to Docklands in time for a seat! And car is there too!

Shuttle666

Reverse option this morning - 7.30 departure got to stop 6111 (Allendale) at 7:40, down on the N3 by 7:50 and got Merrion Row for 8:40am.

saggycaggy

Shuttle666 wrote: »

Reverse option this morning - 7.30 departure got to stop 6111 (Allendale) at 7:40, down on the N3 by 7:50 and got Merrion Row for 8:40am.

This is brilliant-I get the Docklands/Hansfield train myself but great to have a quick option with the bus. Especially leaving town towards Ongar during the run up to Christmas.

thomasj

Given the time it is taking for the 39A to get from Ongar to Hartstown most mornings ATM, I think the 39X should be increased and the 39A taken out of Ongar.

Would benefit all.

thomasj

saggycaggy wrote: »

This is brilliant-I get the Docklands/Hansfield train myself but great to have a quick option with the bus. Especially leaving town towards Ongar during the run up to Christmas.

LOL! irrespective of whether its the 39A or 39X, It's safe to say there won't be a quick option when it comes to buses going to Ongar leading upto Christmas

saggycaggy

thomasj wrote: »

LOL! irrespective of whether its the 39A or 39X, It's safe to say there won't be a quick option when it comes to buses going to Ongar leading upto Christmas

Yeah there'll be an increase in traffic but not going through the Center is a major advantage

LadyW

thomasj wrote: »

LOL! irrespective of whether its the 39A or 39X, It's safe to say there won't be a quick option when it comes to buses going to Ongar leading upto Christmas

Oh dear god you're right.. I am dreading it...It's bad enough at the moment.. !

thomasj

saggycaggy wrote: »

Yeah there'll be an increase in traffic but not going through the Center is a major advantage

The problem is the traffic will be on the N3 road leading into the centre that the 39X uses, same with the N3 heading towards the centre, same with the navan road outbound (no bus lane - this week so far has been a nightmare)

thomasj

LadyW wrote: »

Oh dear god you're right.. I am dreading it...It's bad enough at the moment.. !

The reason the M3 parkway trains are so busy is because they are BY FAR the fastest way to Ongar, direct or changing trains in Clonsilla, they beat the 39A or 39X hands down.

Shuttle666

thomasj wrote: »

The reason the M3 parkway trains are so busy is because they are BY FAR the fastest way to Ongar, direct or changing trains in Clonsilla, they beat the 39A or 39X hands down.

Don't disagree with that, but glad to have another option, especially on a wet morning when you can't be sure there'll be car parking @ Clonsilla.

Maybe it's the novelty, but decent wifi, a seat and not feeling like I'm in a sauna all helped. I like the walk over from Docklands, but on a wet morning, can cope with being dropped on the Green

thomasj

Shuttle666 wrote:

Maybe it's the novelty, but decent wifi, a seat and not feeling like I'm in a sauna all helped. I like the walk over from Docklands, but on a wet morning, can cope with being dropped on the Green

Very soon you'll be able to hop off at broombridge and onto a luas to Stephens green.

Polar101

thomasj wrote: »

Given the time it is taking for the 39A to get from Ongar to Hartstown most mornings ATM, I think the 39X should be increased and the 39A taken out of Ongar.

Would benefit all.

Except those of us who use the 39A from Ongar and don't go all the way into the city centre. Which would be quite a lot of people.

Shuttle666

thomasj wrote: »

Very soon you'll be able to hop off at broombridge and onto a luas to Stephens green.

Don't worry, I positively drool at the trams being tested - so long as they have the pricing sorted for combining Luas/Irish Rail

39X drivers are eager beavers at the moment - 2nd evening in a row the bus had left the stop before the time on apps - another lady was trying to get on, but the driver was having none of it as technically she had left the stop.

cython

Shuttle666 wrote: »

Don't worry, I positively drool at the trams being tested - so long as they have the pricing sorted for combining Luas/Irish Rail

39X drivers are eager beavers at the moment - 2nd evening in a row the bus had left the stop before the time on apps - another lady was trying to get on, but the driver was having none of it as technically she had left the stop.

Given that seemingly of the 13 new stops on the Luas, 8 of them will be in the central zone (though this is slightly misleading since 6 of them are on the one way sections), I'd be expecting central to end at the Dominick stop, and Broombridge to be probably a zone further out than the one transitioned to there (i.e. a Zone 3). So a leap fare from Broombridge to Central under that would come in at €2.13, but you should get a Leap 90 discount on that, so €1.13 on top of the train fare to Broombridge.

From Coolmine (my nearest stop) said train fare is €1.73, so total fare then would come in at €2.86 under the current system, again, assuming that Broombridge is put into a similar zone as say Stillorgan on the Green Line. This is a bit more expensive than the equivalent train fare to CC stations at the moment (€2.46 from Coolmine), but could be significantly more convenient inbound. Outbound the prospect of a high frequency service meeting significantly lower frequency is less appealing, mind, as after 8pm weekdays, or indeed any time at the weekend, if you miss a train by 2 mins you're waiting an hour unless IE increase frequency on the line.

Comparing to the bus, that fare is basically within a cent of the expresso fare, and 26c more expensive than the max normal fare, so not terribly unreasonable, I suppose.

Obviously I'm making a massive assumption in guessing the fare zones in the above assessment, but at present the 4 zone fare is actually the same as 3 zone for Luas so there's a margin for error too. I absolutely can't see them putting it into a further out zone than that, and if they do it's torpedoing it a bit before they ever start.

blanch152

cython wrote: »

Given that seemingly of the 13 new stops on the Luas, 8 of them will be in the central zone (though this is slightly misleading since 6 of them are on the one way sections), I'd be expecting central to end at the Dominick stop, and Broombridge to be probably a zone further out than the one transitioned to there (i.e. a Zone 3). So a leap fare from Broombridge to Central under that would come in at €2.13, but you should get a Leap 90 discount on that, so €1.13 on top of the train fare to Broombridge.

From Coolmine (my nearest stop) said train fare is €1.73, so total fare then would come in at €2.86 under the current system, again, assuming that Broombridge is put into a similar zone as say Stillorgan on the Green Line. This is a bit more expensive than the equivalent train fare to CC stations at the moment (€2.46 from Coolmine), but could be significantly more convenient inbound. Outbound the prospect of a high frequency service meeting significantly lower frequency is less appealing, mind, as after 8pm weekdays, or indeed any time at the weekend, if you miss a train by 2 mins you're waiting an hour unless IE increase frequency on the line.

Comparing to the bus, that fare is basically within a cent of the expresso fare, and 26c more expensive than the max normal fare, so not terribly unreasonable, I suppose.

Obviously I'm making a massive assumption in guessing the fare zones in the above assessment, but at present the 4 zone fare is actually the same as 3 zone for Luas so there's a margin for error too. I absolutely can't see them putting it into a further out zone than that, and if they do it's torpedoing it a bit before they ever start.

It will be interesting to see whether there is an effect on Maynooth trains, I agree with you that inbound will see an uptake in people taking the LUAS, but I also wonder about the outbound issues.

thomasj

blanch152 wrote: »

It will be interesting to see whether there is an effect on Maynooth trains, I agree with you that inbound will see an uptake in people taking the LUAS, but I also wonder about the outbound issues.

I read somewhere that Irish Rail are in talks with NTA about upgrading off-peak frequency on the Maynooth line later this year.

thomasj

Polar101 wrote: »

Except those of us who use the 39A from Ongar and don't go all the way into the city centre. Which would be quite a lot of people.

sorry i explained that badly,

In my opinion there should be an overhaul of the 39s as follows

39 - stay as normal , connection remains

39A - starts from hartstown distributor road to hartstown and then as normal

39B - from ongar, serves ongar road, Blanchardstown road south?, blanchardstown centre and then via 39A

39X - remains as normal

39D - new route from hartstown distributor road to whitestown then follows 39X

ongarboy

Polar101 wrote: »

Except those of us who use the 39A from Ongar and don't go all the way into the city centre. Which would be quite a lot of people.

39 bus would fulfil that service

Stephen15

ongarboy wrote: »

39 bus would fulfil that service

Yes but the 39a is a more frequent every 10 mins Mon-Fri compared every 30 mins on the 39 Mon-Fri

TheChrisD

thomasj wrote: »

In my opinion there should be an overhaul of the 39s as follows

39 - stay as normal , connection remains

39A - starts from hartstown distributor road to hartstown and then as normal

39B - from ongar, serves ongar road, Blanchardstown road south?, blanchardstown centre and then via 39A

39X - remains as normal

39D - new route from hartstown distributor road to whitestown then follows 39X

Needlessly complex with too many sub-routes. The only changes, if any, that need to be made to the routes:

• Swap the 39 and 39A route numbers. Main, higher-frequency trunk route should never be a letter suffix.
• Have the new 39A serve the entire length of the Clonsilla Road - cut out the detour up to the Centre and the Hartstown/Huntstown loop.
• If Clonsilla village complains about no more SC service - it's 5 minutes walk to either the 37 or 39; or use the 239. If Blanch village complains, route the 17A through the village instead of the dual carriageway.

MrMorooka

[QUOTE=TheChrisD;104952446
[*]Have the new 39A serve the entire length of the Clonsilla Road[/QUOTE]

Isn't it one-way westwards from the roundabout at St Mochtas up to the entrance to Coolmine industrial estate?

miamee

MrMorooka wrote: »

Isn't it one-way westwards from the roundabout at St Mochtas up to the entrance to Coolmine industrial estate?

Not any more, they did away with that quite a while ago.

Polar101

thomasj wrote: »

sorry i explained that badly,

In my opinion there should be an overhaul of the 39s as follows

39 - stay as normal , connection remains

39A - starts from hartstown distributor road to hartstown and then as normal

39B - from ongar, serves ongar road, Blanchardstown road south?, blanchardstown centre and then via 39A

39X - remains as normal

39D - new route from hartstown distributor road to whitestown then follows 39X

As an Ongar resident I'd obviously like a bus (such as your 39B here) that doesn't do the Hartstown 'loop', but it's hard to see that happening. I do agree that we don't really need 5 buses (39a) following each other half-empty all the way around to the current terminus - which is what happens at rush-hour now.

At the moment it takes 30 minutes on a bus from Ongar to Blanch village, which is silly. Of course, there is a train, but they've managed to timetable the 39 to avoid most train connections (departures at :52, train leaves :57).

ongarboy wrote: »

39 bus would fulfil that service

My point was to leave the 39a like it is - it's frequent and much better than what was in place before Network Direct. Wouldn't mind if the 39 was improved, of course.

Stephen15

thomasj wrote: »

sorry i explained that badly,

In my opinion there should be an overhaul of the 39s as follows

39 - stay as normal , connection remains

39A - starts from hartstown distributor road to hartstown and then as normal

39B - from ongar, serves ongar road, Blanchardstown road south?, blanchardstown centre and then via 39A

39X - remains as normal

39D - new route from hartstown distributor road to whitestown then follows 39X

Would it not make more sense to reroute the 39 away from Ongar with the 39a remaining in place.

SATSUMA

Id appreciate if any 39 whatever would show up in the morning whereby i did not have to stand crushed up until bachelors walk.

I fell twice this week from being on a packed bus and the driver hit the breaks. I did notice the 39x fly by practically empty...

ION08

Most annoying thing about the 39x is the constant questions people ask the driver when it comes to a stop.

"Do you go by here?" , "Do you stop there?", "How much is it?"

How about you do a bit of research beforehand and stop questioning the driver and delaying a bus full of people on what is supposed to be an "Express" service. :rolleyes:

Drives me up the wall.

Just this morning there was a passenger giving the lady bus driver an earful because she hadn't [rightly] stopped at a specific stop on the Navan road.

All that being said, even the drivers don't seem to know what they're doing..

Every time I have been on the bus so far, the driver stopped/dropped passengers off at a stop number they were not supposed to.