NTA(National Transport Authority)

darbat1

Should it be disbanded as it has failed to deliver any real improvement to public transport. If you read some of the responses from NTA about over crowding on Dublin Bus they are happy for it to continue. As the say increase in passengers are up, but are managing to sweat assets without have in to increase bus numbers. We the paying public whether it be by Leap Card or Cash are now funding the majority of this services yet, the people in charge are happy to have people left standing on bus stops as buses go by full or have to people having to nearly fight to get on or off a bus. They say they a have done a review of bus services this year we all know what happens to reports based this type of review they sit on someones desk for months, or used as a paper weight or door stop. If people in These authorizes don't won't to work they say let's have a review of services.

devnull

Note that the number of buses in the Dublin Bus fleet has increased for the last two years, including this year by 30 vehicles and next year there will be an increase of 125 vehicles to operate routes that are currently operated by Dublin Bus which should allow for a large increase in capacity across the bus network in Dublin.

I would say that we would start to see changes later next year, once the Cross City Luas has settled in and the powers that be have a good idea of the changes to journey patterns across the city and the newer vehicles start being delivered.

AlekSmart

Another significant element to the debate,is the speed of the "recovery" in the Greater Dublin Region,which has caught every administrative agency,especially Government itself,by surprise.

Dublin Bus,also is struggling to immediately refocus it's post Network Direct services in a manner which is fit for purpose in coping with a demand scenario totally at varience with what Network Direct was designed to address.

Network Direct was a corporate survival-plan,with many aspects which were not customer focused,but deemed necessary for the survival of the Dublin Bus structure as it then existed.

However,and in somewhat traditional fashion,the notion of continuous planning & development was also allowed to become redundant,which has now brought us to the current somewhat emergency like situation.

The current demand for Public Bus Services is exceeding all forecasts,but the ability of both Dublin Bus itself,and/or the NTA to respond is now tied up in administrative limbo,with the result being a perception that nothing is being done.

Like it or not,the NTA is a highly politicized construction,which now has to put it's case to Government for funding across a very broad pallette of projects.

It can be argued that the original 1980's plan for a DUBLIN Transport Authority,would have been a more prudent choice,but we have what we have and will simply have to make-do.

The BMO opportunities now coming on stream with Route Tendering,are all medium to long term strategies,when a somewhat more immediate response is now demanded.

Dublin Bus,for example,has suspended new Driver recruitment for the foreseeable future,when an immediate resumption would make 101% good sense.

There is a widesread shortage of Busdrivers,with an ever increasing age profile and an industry which is largely uncompetitive in terms of attractiveness to young aspiring entrants,which should be informing the NTA's policy in this regard.

Resuming recruitment & training within the already existing Dublin Bus framework would at least allow for a stabilizing of numbers going forward into the new situation with the Busconnects project.

Put at it's simplest,we constantly and definitively prove,that Planning,in any form,is not something we place much value on......:o

Wagon360

The NTA serves a function in that it acts as the transportation authority for Dublin; however this has led it to a Dublin bias on occasions.

A classic example was how it planned for rail connections to North Dublin and the airport while completely ignoring the National importantace of Dublin Airport to the whole island.

Dublin Airport certainly needs Metro North but it also needs an electrified heavy rail link to Dublin and beyond. The NTA’s decision to purely plan for rail connections to the airport in the context of the transportation needs of the North Dublin Corridor and nowhere else shows up in my opinion the institutional bias of the NTA, both for the Dublin area and against heavy rail.

Not for nothing is the NTA known by many as the “No Trains Authority”!

devnull

AlekSmart wrote: »

Dublin Bus,for example,has suspended new Driver recruitment for the foreseeable future,when an immediate resumption would make 101% good sense.

I'm not so sure it will in this case Alek - if it was not for the changes to the Bus Market coming up I'd agree with you, but that changes things markedly.

Bear in mind that Dublin Bus are going to lose approx 100 buses with of work to Go-Ahead whilst the number of buses operated and the number of drivers will remain the same which means next year there is going to be a good number of drivers and staff that will be able to be redeployed on expanded services that Dublin Bus are retaining.

The fact that Go-Ahead are offering to train up drivers however is a welcome-step forward, since that will no doubt encourage a few more into the industry even if it's not going to make a major difference, since even if Dublin Bus keep their numbers steady there is going to be a couple of hundred more drivers operating city bus services in Dublin next year. and 125 extra buses.

AlekSmart

devnull wrote: »

I'm not so sure it will in this case Alek - if it was not for the changes to the Bus Market coming up I'd agree with you, but that changes things markedly.

Bear in mind that Dublin Bus are going to lose approx 100 buses with of work to Go-Ahead whilst the number of buses operated and the number of drivers will remain the same which means next year there is going to be a good number of drivers and staff that will be able to be redeployed on expanded services that Dublin Bus are retaining.

The fact that Go-Ahead are offering to train up drivers however is a welcome-step forward, since that will no doubt encourage a few more into the industry even if it's not going to make a major difference, since even if Dublin Bus keep their numbers steady there is going to be a couple of hundred more drivers operating city bus services in Dublin next year. and 125 extra buses.

None of which is enough to cater for the projected increase in demand for the Public Bus Service.
With Dublin Bus alone,losing some 60+ Drivers each year to retirement,coupled with other "natural wastage" losses across the industry,there remains a significant ongoing recruitment & training gap.

The BMO changes,may have seemed radical and game-changing 5-10 years ago,but broader events have overtaken that process,most of which point to the BMO process now being little more than a realtively low-key portion,of what now needs to be a far broader project.

It must also be borne in mind that the dynamics of the Urban Transport sector will inevitably be subject to further change,in the form of significant FORCED modal shifts,as the fast-tracking of Urban Clean-Air or Ultra Low Emission Zones finally arrives in Ireland.

The reality that Ireland will be fined some €5.5 BILLION per anum by 2030,if we continue to ignore the increasingly stringent reduction targets,should be informing the regulatory authorities and prompting them to get their houses in order NOW,rather than "seeing what will happen",as has been our traditional preference.

devnull

AlekSmart wrote: »

None of which is enough to cater for the projected increase in demand for the Public Bus Service.

With Dublin Bus alone,losing some 60+ Drivers each year to retirement,coupled with other "natural wastage" losses across the industry,there remains a significant ongoing recruitment & training gap.

Personally I think the fact that Dublin Bus are going to lose 100 buses worth of work next year will free up well over 100 drivers to be redeployed to provide additional capacity on the routes thqat they will retain. The Urban Dublin City bus network is going to see an increase of bus numbers of approx 13% which will be the biggest increase in memory and just over 10% of that expansion is ear-marked to be used on radial and cross city routes which will certainly help with congestion.

Of course however I totally agree that Dublin Bus needs to recruit more staff to replace those who retire and natural wastage, that goes without saying, but even if Dublin Bus keep the numbers the same, in the next 12 months or so we are going to see 125 extra buses on the road which I would say would certainly deal with the vast majority of the concerns about capacity in the next 12 months, especially when in conjunction with a network restructure as has been outlined

dfx-

The NTA have a sweet situation in fairness to them.

They're not responsible for any changes, they can't be voted in or out like a government and have no way of direct negative customer feedback, they don't face any ire from strikes even when they are one side of it. They don't need to come up with any of their own ideas, they are just following London. They can hand out and remove contracts as and when they like for whatever reason and not disclose the details of the decision.

Cushy deal.

fly_agaric

Wagon360 wrote: »

The NTA serves a function in that it acts as the transportation authority for Dublin; however this has led it to a Dublin bias on occasions.

Well, as mentioned already the "NTA" was actually supposed to be the "DTA" as conceived and was not intended to be dealing with any stuff outside Dublin+Dublin commuter belt at all. As a non expert, the whole dog's breakfast of competing quangos and semi-states and private companies involved in public transport in Ireland is comical + seems designed to ensure bad planning; but maybe some of the insiders here know the rationale for it! It all beyond the ability of my tiny mind to understand anyway.

Rashers72

The NTA are completely failing the rail passengers in the greater Dublin region that's for sure. They let Irish Rail extend journey times recently with no thoughts for impact on their customers, and allow a very poor pricing structure to remain, which while benefiting annual ticket holders (who main travel peak time), has meant that many off peak trains remain empty apart from those traveling for free. The NTA should be holding IE a lot more accountable for the poor service they are delivering. But that's been like that since the NTA was formed, so not sure we will see that change anytime soon.

darbat1

I think the number of buses in service is 980 but if you google dublin bus 2006 you will see that Dublin bus had 1200 buses running daily so even if you get the 100 or so extra buses because of go-ahead you will be short of what we had in 2006 that is without the number of people back to work they say dublin bus passengers are up by 21% that 21% extra revenue for Dublin Bus yet we are hoping for extra buses based on go-ahead taking over routes. Why are we hoping for something to happen when we the passengers pay more then 50% of the funding for our public transport system. What is the Dublin Bus and NTA doing with that extra money.

Infini

Rashers72 wrote: »

The NTA are completely failing the rail passengers in the greater Dublin region that's for sure. They let Irish Rail extend journey times recently with no thoughts for impact on their customers, and allow a very poor pricing structure to remain, which while benefiting annual ticket holders (who main travel peak time), has meant that many off peak trains remain empty apart from those traveling for free. The NTA should be holding IE a lot more accountable for the poor service they are delivering. But that's been like that since the NTA was formed, so not sure we will see that change anytime soon.

Look as much as we love blaming the poor management of IR the government spent the last ten years starving the place of funding. The physical infrastructure itself is insufficient to meet demand and even the smallest delay can have a cascade effect on other services.

Unless theres a serious investment in the network people are gonna have to deal with the issues.

devnull

darbat1 wrote: »

I think the number of buses in service is 980 but if you google dublin bus 2006 you will see that Dublin bus had 1200 buses running daily so even if you get the 100 or so extra buses because of go-ahead you will be short of what we had in 2006 that is without the number of people back to work they say dublin bus passengers are up by 21% that 21% extra revenue for Dublin Bus yet we are hoping for extra buses based on go-ahead taking over routes. Why are we hoping for something to happen when we the passengers pay more then 50% of the funding for our public transport system. What is the Dublin Bus and NTA doing with that extra money.

Have to remember, whilst I'm critical of Network Direct and it's impact on some routes and corridors, prior to it there was a large amount of over capacity and many ineffiencies in the system and that is before you start to mention things like poor QBC intergration and some routes such as the 172 that simply existed to keep politicians in seats. There was also a lot more of dead running compared to what there is now.

Whilst people say that there hasn't been much increase intimetabled services over the past couple of years, there have been extra buses thrown at services and many of the cross city bus services have had a few extra buses added to them. There's been no increase in timetable because of the fact more buses were needed to keep existing services running as the commencement of the LUAS on street works slowed journeys down.

In addition, in relation to the fares they have gone up more than 21% since 2006, that I can assure you, for years where such data is avaliable, it's been proven that Dublin Bus have often asked for higher fares than the NTA have sanctioned.

budhabob

Wagon360 wrote: »

The NTA serves a function in that it acts as the transportation authority for Dublin; however this has led it to a Dublin bias on occasions.

Im not sure if it has changed, but they certainly only HAD a legal remit for the GDA, up until very recently. There was talk of a change in statutory powers but ive no idea if anything has changed.