Dublin Bus route 31/31B services reduced and cut

David Healy

I hope it's not inappropriate for me to post the attached press release I issued today. In fact I realise this will be the first time some users of these routes will learn of these changes. I would welcome feedback on this.

David

Greens condemn cuts in bus services in Howth/Sutton area

Today, Sunday 13th March 2005, Dublin Bus placed notices in the newspapers announcing that as of today, the 31A and 31B services will be amalgamated and reduced from 24 departures a day to 8 departures on weekdays, 6 on Saturdays and a laughable 3 on Sundays. Additionally, the 31B will terminate at Howth Summit and no longer serve Howth Dart station.

While there will be an increase in the number of 31 buses on weekdays, it will not compensate for the reduction of the other services. No part of the peninsula will have an increased service to the city and the south of the peninsula will lose 65% of its buses.

Worse still, the total number of departures to/from Howth will be cut back massively on Saturdays and Sundays, with a reduction from a current 52 departures to Howth village on Saturday to 37 and a cut on Sundays from 36 departures to 27.

As if making these cuts was not bad enough, this decision has been announced in today’s Sunday newspapers and put into effect on the same day. As late as yesterday there was no information on the 31 bus in relation to the proposed changes. Tomorrow morning there will be people waiting at bus stops in Howth and Sutton wondering where their bus is. This is a disgraceful way for Dublin Bus to treat their customers.

It is particularly appalling that there is to be a 30% cut in services at the weekend. Weekend buses are already overcrowded due to the shutting down of the Dart. Currently on recent weekends buses for Howth are often full even before they leave Eden Quay, and refusing to pick up passengers at subsequent stops.

It appears that part of the reasoning behind Dublin Bus’s changes is their desire to compete with the Dart for passengers. Recently a delegation from Dublin Bus told a Fingal County Council meeting that “We’re a bus company and it is our intention to bring people to the city by bus not by train.” The decision to stop running the 31B service to/from Howth Dart Station is a reflection of this. It means that the public will have to suffer a deliberately unintegrated public transport system. Local demands for feeder bus services are being consciously resisted by Dublin Bus.

The Department of Transport has apparently approved this change with no public consultation. We call on the Department of Transport to reverse these changes and cuts in service.

Further information: Cllr. David Healy 01 8324087

cdebru

correct me if i am wrong but are the same number of buses operating on the route

the number of departures has gone down because the timetable was not reviewed since the 1980s to keep the departures at the same leve extra buses would have to be put on the 31 route and clontarf can not house any extra buses in the depot

so to get extra buses DB would have to take them from another route which probably would not also have the dart servicing the area

the main problem is a lack of investment and if dublin bus management are saying that about trains and buses isn't that what the dept of transport want competition between the 3 companies in CIE is that not why brennan at the time said he wanted to break up CIE

the dept of transport also want DB to operate on a commercial basis isn't that what DB are doing

the problem is the public transport policy that the dept of transport have started what is happenig is the logical conclusion of the scandalous policies started by brennan and continued by cullen

David Healy

cdebru wrote:

correct me if i am wrong but are the same number of buses operating on the route

the number of departures has gone down because the timetable was not reviewed since the 1980s to keep the departures at the same leve extra buses would have to be put on the 31 route and clontarf can not house any extra buses in the depot

so to get extra buses DB would have to take them from another route which probably would not also have the dart servicing the area

The total number of departures per day from the peninsula to the city is increasing slightly on weekdays and dropping substantially on weekends so they must be changing the number of buses on the route. I really don't understand what they are at. There is no Dart at weekends until June. As a result the weekend buses are full already. the bus I got at 1750 yesterday wouldn't pick anyone up between Eden Quay and the start of the Howth Road. I don't see how they can provide the weekend service at a reduced frequency. Already they claim they are supplementing the timetabled departures with extra buses. Maybe they hope they can discourage enough people from using the service by leaving them repeatedly behind at the bus stops.

Personally, I'll be cycling if I have to go to Dublin at the weekends.

cdebru wrote:

the main problem is a lack of investment and if dublin bus management are saying that about trains and buses isn't that what the dept of transport want competition between the 3 companies in CIE is that not why brennan at the time said he wanted to break up CIE

the dept of transport also want DB to operate on a commercial basis isn't that what DB are doing

the problem is the public transport policy that the dept of transport have started what is happenig is the logical conclusion of the scandalous policies started by brennan and continued by cullen

I think that's correct. These changes have been approved by the Department of Transport.

Winters

I got wind of this over the weekend but thanks David for expanding on it. As a Howth resident I think that this is a pathetic backward step. The service as it is is insufficient and infrequent and yet they plan to curtail it even further?

This move and its absurd approval by the Department of Transport goes against the Platform for Change, integration and commonsense.

"Dublin Bus - Serving the entire community"? Isolating or abandoning the community more like.

John R

The new timetable provides a big increase in buses from Howth Summit to Howth Station and onwards to the City better serving the area where most of the Howth population lives, seems to me like it provides better DART connections for most Howth residents.

The 31b route from Howth summit to Sutton is very sparsely populated and mostly by non bus using people anyway.

Iób

John R wrote:

The new timetable provides a big increase in buses from Howth Summit to Howth Station and onwards to the City better serving the area where most of the Howth population lives, seems to me like it provides better DART connections for most Howth residents.

The new timetable provides a big increase in buses between Howth village and Howth summit. That's valuable. It matches the previous Sunday 31 timetable.
It is a useful but minor extension of the route. It appears that it is being used as a cover. There is no increase in the total number of buses to town. In fact, there's a big drop in the total number of buses at the weekends.

The new timetable provides better Dart connections for those on the north side of the hill and no Dart connections for those on the south side including a significant population in the Carrickbrack and St. Fintan's estates which now effectively has no public transport.

John R wrote:

The 31b route from Howth summit to Sutton is very sparsely populated and mostly by non bus using people anyway.

I'm not too sure on this "non bus using people concept". But are you suggesting there's a difference between the populations a) between Howth village and the Summit and b) between the Summit and Sutton Cross?

The 31B route serves 2 secondary schools. As it has been shortened, there is no longer a bus route taking students from Howth village to these schools. And of course it is so infrequent now it is of little use anyway.