taxi availability at xmas time :)

Red Alert

do they know it's christmas time at all?

are the taxi drivers out in force this christmas? just wondering if there's any hope of getting a taxi home late tomorrow night. i remember wandering around for hours on previous christmasses!

blondie83

Being a Wednesday it hopefully won't be all that bad. I did a quick check, and luas runs every half hour from one untill three am if thats any help to ya. Nitelink also runs every 20 minutes from 1230 to 0430 if one goes in your direction. There will prob be a big gang of 4th years in and around the Camden Street area anyway - I think we are "Palace"bound tomorrow night! Where are your class off to?

seamus

Tomorrow shouldn't be an issue. Friday will be the bad one. If you haven't got your lift home sorted by 11pm, then by God you better leg it outside and get a taxi.

Red Alert

don't know yet. if you lot are going there i'll certainly suggest it to our crowd - i haven't been in the palace for ages! LUAS is on till 3?

T.G Catter

it's been impossible the last few nights i've been out to get a taxi....

think hours in the freezing cold on dame street.

Third_Echelon

midweek shouldnt be too bad...

we were out with work on friday night (17th)... one of the lads had to walk from town to terenure as there were no taxis.... nice 1hr30mins walk at 3am in the morning fairly sobered him up...

Agent Smith

theres 13000 or so taxi's in dublin, the company i work fior has over 100 out at the min, there is approxmittly the same number of hackney cabs in dublin also, so lets say, on average, theres 17000 taxi's/cabs out in dublin.....


given the fact that there are more people in dublin at x-mas then every other time of the year, this can make getting a car slightly difficult,

Flukey

A walk home is great to sober you up on these cold nights. It is always best to start walking and get a taxi along the way rather than standing at a rank getting nowhere waiting for one. There should be more buses. The Nitelink is far from sufficient and is only of use if you are in the centre of town and heading out. Anyone at a party in the suburbs heading towards town or across the city is not served by the Nitelink. Even taxi drivers have said to me that they would like to see more buses on the street at night. The Nitelink is not adequate at any time of the year, not just now.

Zaph

Took hours to get one on Friday night, walked all over the place trying. Was no bette the previous Friday when I waited an hour and a half at the rank on Stephen's Green. Tomorrow mightn't be too bad, but Thursday is going to be a real pain.

Flukey

Like I said, never wait at a rank, just start walking. You'll be getting home and have a better chance of getting one on the street. When you do get one you'll be a bit or even a lot closer to home and have a cheaper fare. You'll be home quicker than you would be if you had waited in the rank. That cold wind will help sober you up too. The worse place to get taxi is at a rank. I normally get the Nitelink, but if I have to get a taxi I keep moving homeward until I do or until I am close enough to home to just keep going.

Zaph

I agree, but I was with two women whose shoes weren't exactly suitable for a long hike :rolleyes:

ShiverinEskimo

Is the palace open again? I used to go up to a mate in Kevin Street most wednesdays then he would come home to dundalk for our college balls on the thursdays. oh those were the days. They used to have to get us to leave at 7 and come back in to pay in for the pound a drink promo. We normally got there at 6 to get our seats at the bar. I heard they closed the palace, that it was just that cheesy place on the ground floor.

Jaysus. Thems were the days.

Hobbes

agent smith wrote:

theres 13000 or so taxi's in dublin,

There is 13,000 registered licenses. It doesn't mean there are 13,000 out. A lot less (I would say less then 11,000 and thats being generous). Basically with the new licenses they aren't worth anything to sell on, so people drop them and new people just register for a new license. Hence the number keeps incrementing.

Add to that a large number have dropped out over the tax clearance cert.

Ciaran_Dub

agent smith wrote:

given the fact that there are more people in dublin at x-mas then every other time of the year, this can make getting a car slightly difficult,

No offence mate but what about the rest of the year? It can still be bloody impossible to get a taxi after closing in Dublin at the weekend.

I have full admiration for taxi drivers its a tough job but more taxis are needed in Dublin simple as that and to hear taxi driver complaining and whining about de-regulation really got on my tits big time. Proved to me taxi drivers first priority was themselves and forgetting that they had customers to look after first like any other business.

Flukey

This is one of the great misconceptions of Dublin public transport. We do not need more taxis. The reason there are queues at taxi ranks at night is because the hundreds of buses that brought thousands of people into town and to a whole host of other places throughout the evening are nearly all back in their garages. The vast majority of the people waiting for a taxi home probably got a bus to where they were earlier in the evening, but using the same option to get home is not available.

We do have the Nitelink. This is fine if you happen to be in the dead centre of the city wanting to go out, but for anyone else it is useless. For many people going home after a night out means travelling into Dublin. If you are in one suburb trying to get to another the Nitelink is useless, or if you are trying to cross the city or just get into it, it is the same. So for example, if you were in Glasnevin, trying to get to Dun Laoghaire, having got to Glasnevin by bus earlier, the Nitelink is of no use. You could get the Nitelink to Dun Laoghaire from town, but to get in you have to get a taxi. If there was a proper night service there would be a far less demand on taxis. So there is not a shortage of taxis, there is a shortage of buses and DARTs.

BaZmO*

Flukey wrote:

It is always best to start walking and get a taxi along the way rather than standing at a rank getting nowhere waiting for one.

This is something that I really don't get. Why do people wait at Taxi ranks at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning when all you have to do is walk about 1km in the direction that you are going and get the Taxi's coming back into town!!

It's not even as if you could say that it's safer waiting at a rank!

B.

sprinkles

ShiverinEskimo wrote:

Is the palace open again? I used to go up to a mate in Kevin Street most wednesdays then he would come home to dundalk for our college balls on the thursdays. oh those were the days. They used to have to get us to leave at 7 and come back in to pay in for the pound a drink promo. We normally got there at 6 to get our seats at the bar. I heard they closed the palace, that it was just that cheesy place on the ground floor.

Jaysus. Thems were the days.

Ah the memories!

Yeah its open again but its now called the picturehouse. It will always be the palace to me. They played the S team music there a few weeks back. Nearly brought a tear to my eyes. Love that place!

seamus

sprinkles wrote:

Ah the memories!

Yeah its open again but its now called the picturehouse. It will always be the palace to me. They played the S team music there a few weeks back. Nearly brought a tear to my eyes. Love that place!

Prefer the A team myself.

Flukey

zaph wrote:

I agree, but I was with two women whose shoes weren't exactly suitable for a long hike :rolleyes:

Next time get them to take off their shoes!


Seriously though, if you have people with you it is a bit more difficult. A woman may not want to start walking alone. You may all be going different directions. Even if you are going the same way some people are just plain lazy. I have seen people waiting for buses and then only go a few stops, a distance they would have been well able to walk in less time than they had to wait for the bus in the first place. One of the reasons there are so many cars in the morning rush hour is parents bringing kids to school, often for a distance that would not have taken them long to safely walk or cycle. I am someone who does not mind walking long distances, but there are many people out there who would regard a five minute walk as a long way or too far! Is it any wonder that there are so many unfit people out there?

blondie83

Red Alert wrote:

don't know yet. if you lot are going there i'll certainly suggest it to our crowd - i haven't been in the palace for ages! LUAS is on till 3?

Hey Red Alert, hope you had a good night! I left the Palace at about one, and got back into it at half two, so sorry I missed you. It's probably a good thing you didn't see my dodgy swing dancing though! I personally blame those catchy Christmas songs they were playing I had a great night out, really enjoyed that whole day, and its just so nice to be finished now!

JohnCleary

Galway city
Christmas Eve, 10PM
Didnt even have to Q for a taxi at the rank.