TFI Live - potential new Transport Planner App

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121154268#Comment_121154268

It’s nothing to do with the app.

The Dublin AVLC system doesn’t seem to be working properly today - the live GPS positions aren’t feeding out.

AngryLips

I dunno, I hated the new app at first, but now that I'm used to it I find that it pretty much does what I need it to.

markpb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121154268#Comment_121154268

It's easy to forget but before NTA, things were much worse. Applications for new inter-city bus routes had to be dealt by Dept. of Transport where they would disappear into a void for many months only to be declined because some other operator had a route that was vaguely similar. CIE were happy to let each of their subsidiaries act independently so cross-operator tickets were only for month or annual ticket holders who paid handsomely for it. There was no Leap card (sort of), no fare capping, no cross-operator 90 minute ticket, no website with a combined journey planner and no real-time system.

I'm far from saying that NTA are perfect or even good but they have 30 years of bad management and no investment to catch up and, on top of that, they have very few permanent staff so everyone there is a contractor and could be gone in a few weeks.

thomasj

i find bustimes.org to be great as you can go onto the map and check is there a bus en route, where is it ? and when is it due at my stop. its a great webpage for that information

p_haugh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121154464#Comment_121154464

I know it's not the fault of the app, but they should really be proactive about issues like this by making use of the notification system in the app that's used for service disruptions etc.

I.e. have a notice put out going like "Please bear with us, but realtime data is not currently available" or something along those lines.

loco_scolo

The TFI app really frustrated me today. I was in a hurry to get across the city and needed to switch in town. There were lots of options I knew I could use, and I knew the app was missing half of them.

The easiest switch would have been 13 to a 27 on College Green, but it simply wouldn't show that option. A 27 was due to arrive 5minutes after I got off the 13. I ended up walking to the 140, as there was one due in 2mins, but that option was also not shown.

On the way home, I was trying to click my address from 'Recent Locations', but clicking did nothing. I had to type it out again. Useless.

Also this is not the 140 route. Utterly useless.

bk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121157024#Comment_121157024

You should try the Transit app, it seems to work well and unlike Google Maps it uses the realtime data.

p_haugh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121156945#Comment_121156945

So seems they have added that into the app! It didn't send out a notification however, I had to click on a route to be able to see it.

Also got an email about the disruption as I set up an account in the app

Citrus_8

I'd have used a 'Dublin City Bus Services' term to make sure people understand it's in relation to both bus operators.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121231797#Comment_121231797

It was only the Dublin Bus AVLC that was down. Go Ahead was fine.

Citrus_8

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121232130#Comment_121232130

Oh! Very interesting...

xper

TFI's information distribution regarding the (necessarily) extensive service adjustments for the Dublin City Marathon today are a disgrace.

The official list of diversions available on the TFI website and on the app (though useless on the latter as you cannot scroll it) only covers Dublin Bus routes. NO mention of Go-Ahead or other operators services. Seriously, wtf?

Go-Ahead do have information on the affected routes' timetable pages on its own website but they are just a list of stop numbers that are not in service with no narrative or location names. I mean seriously, are we supposed to parse this to figure out what sections in service?

• 17 Diversion
• 26th Oct 2023 onwards
• Please note due to the following event Dublin City Marathon the following diversion will be in place from 08:00am to 18:00 on Sunday 29th of October 2023. 
• 
  
• This means these stops will not be in use on the day until the road reopens. Approx. time 18.00 pm. We apologise for the inconvenience this may cause our customers. 
• 
  
• Stops affected: 2068, 2010, 2069, 2009, 2070, 2008, 2084, 2007, 767, 2071, 2012, 2082, 867, 2052, 866, 869, 865, 870, 864, 873, 863, 874, 862, 861, 3012, 3011, 2820, 2823, 5032, 2892,1334, 1300, 1335, 1299, 1336, 1120, 1087, 1119, 1088, 1118, 1089, 1090, 2437, 2413, 2436, 2414,m 2435, 2415, 2327, 2451, 2464, 2465, 2466, 2449, 3360, 3358, 3357, 1392, 1391, 1394, 3356, 3355, 3354, 3353, 1409, 1407, 2190, 1406, 1381, 1366

briany

...

mikeybhoy

This app is terrible. I was intending to get the 63 today from DL app said 12 mins the app the bus continued to count down so but kept getting stuck. 35 minutes later the bus showed up which was annoying as three 46a went past in the meantime which I could've used albeit with a longer walk to my destination.

The service I intended to use was clearly cancelled but never showed on the app. Another time I used it the service counted as normal until it got to due when it appeared as cancelled.

p_haugh

Realtime seems to be somewhat back on Google maps? The 133 that's marked as cancelled is still tracking according to TFI Live and Transit, the other times seem to correlate though. Bus positions still aren't shown outside of the stop listing either.

The issue of a lot of services showing the full duty they're part of is still present also 🤷‍♂️

Hotblack Desiato

Two Ls in 'cancelled'...

TranslatorPS

The issue of a lot of services showing the full duty they're part of is still present also 🤷‍♂️

The only way to get rid of that would be to get rid of the piece of information that links the trips together, and that's actually on the data creator level, ie. the NTA (or DB+GA+BE).

(As somebody who enjoys schedule analysis, I'm personally against, but objectively I can see the confusion.)

AndrewJRenko

Just FYI

https://twitter.com/dacor_ie/status/1735317437787029544?s=46&t=3l1OhjvjsuAh4w9RMjlH8g

Hippodrome Song Owl

Does anyone know if the TFI Live app is accurate at the moment with services running Sat/Sun services on weekdays? Are the listed upcoming departures following the appropriate timetable rather than the typical M-F times?

Looking at planning a trip tomorrow but I'm hesitant to trust it given it was counting down departures (not even marked "scheduled") on Christmas Day when nothing was running.

Edit: looking at the pdf timetables it doesn't seem accurate today anyway. Looking at the C4 Maynooth terminus it's listing departures in line with the M-F times on the pdf when it should be Sat times. What a disaster.

Edit again to say that if the little green bus icon moving on the map is to be believed, then the departures on both C1 and C4 right now are following a M-F timetable and not Saturday, as advertised. Who knows what to believe?

Citrus_8

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121540416#Comment_121540416

For tracking I find bustimes.org the best

https://bustimes.org/map#10.91/53.4143/-6.297

For pdf schedules Dublin Bus or Go Ahead websites.

LXFlyer

The PDF timetables for the C Spine routes are long since out of date (the NTA haven’t bothered updating them).

The correct timetables are on bustimes.org

Hippodrome Song Owl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121540716#Comment_121540716

Thank you - that explains a lot! I got the pdfs from the DB bus website. Ridiculous that official information provided to customers is inaccurate.

If a Sat/Sun services is advertised as duringthe current period, where do the operators and/or NTA actually expect customers to be getting their information? Bustimes looks like a great resource - thanks for the suggestions above - but it isn't official. Where are the official accurate timetables?? Is the TFI app the official source of supposedly accurate info?

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121540772#Comment_121540772

Bustimes is pulling the information from the NTA server. It's the only place where you can get the full accurate timetable in one place now for routes that have been "BusConnected".

The TFI app should show the accurate times in the journey planner, and glancing at them both they are displaying the current Saturday timetables.

I suspect this is another example of the NTA biting off more than it can chew.

bk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121540696#Comment_121540696

I’d also recommend the Transit App.

It has accurate real time info and bus positioning like the excellent bustimes.org app, but a nicer mobile oriented app with journey planning too.

Hippodrome Song Owl

There appears to be no live tracking on any site or app today.

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121553523#Comment_121553523

Its worse than no tracking: BusTimes is showing a bunch of Cork buses rattling around Galway!

AngryLips

One of the few days where services are out of ordinary and when real time information is particularly needed, the entire thing falls down. This happens every time there's unusual timetabling like around Christmas or marathon day

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121554027#Comment_121554027

No that's not quite true.

The system is actually switched off on St. Patrick's Day and the day of the marathon because it is simply impossible to deliver predictive times, due to the rolling nature of the diversions and the unpredictability of the journey times as a result of the congestion and diversions.

You have to remember how the RTPI system works. Every individual departure has a stop-by-stop timetable drawn up by the schedulers, based on historic journey times. The system then takes the live GPS location of the buses, and then applies the stop-by-stop timetable appropriate to that departure to the live location of the bus to generate predictive times all along the rest of the route.

It just simply isn't possible to do that when you have massive one-off disruption, lengthy diversions and indeed rolling road closures at the direction of An Garda Síochána, such as on St. Patrick's Day or the day of the marathon, which when combined with the fluidity of the traffic congestion means that the service is just not predictable, thus meaning that you can't apply predictive schedules.

You'd have to come up with individual schedules for every departure for those specific days in any case, which inevitably would end up being cast aside, as the situation on the ground inevitably trumps any schedules that could be created.

While I agree that it is frustrating, it's one of those situations where the system just cannot function.

What's happened today is different - there seems to have been an IT problem at the NTA in terms of output of the vehicle locations and predictive to the apps and that's meant that there has been no live RTPI.

I'm also not sure why you think services are out of the ordinary today? It was a normal Sunday schedule today.

mikeybhoy

No mention on DB website that services are finishing up early tonight. Even though they normally finish around 10 on NYE. I remember a few years ago they finished early on NYE with no mention on DB website apparently it due to some union agreement.

Could never understand why they finished early on NYE when a full service runs on New Year's day.

Hippodrome Song Owl

I don't think there is an early finish tonight? And the Nitelink and 24h services are due to operate.

Thankfully the tracking returned after a few hours today.

As for the RTPI being switched off on St Patrick's Day and for the marathon - I get that no meaningful scheduling can take place on such days, but surely there would be benefit in being able to live track the bus regardless, and draw your own conclusions as to whether or when it may arrive.