Fedupted wrote: » Bla bla bla !!!!?????? Is a person in this country now not allowed to earn a living wage, regardless of the work they do, Please please tell me
joeysoap wrote: » Matthews are the competitor on the M1 route to Dublin from Dundalk (Drogheda, Laytown,) superb service with about 20 departures in both directions daily. But they don't service the airport. In the 'early' days (10 years ago) they did but it 'delayed' their fast run to the city centre by 15/20 mins. They then came up with a convoluted route to the airport where they dropped you (on request) at the City North hotel and hotel mini bus made the airport run. Needless to say anybody using the airport used the BE Expressway service. I would hope that in the event of BE exiting the expressway service that the regulator would insist that private operators service the airport. Properly. I would prefer BE expressway remained though.
oppenheimer1 wrote: » I would say no one is really entitled to anything beyond their basic rights, the have to go and earn their wages.
devnull wrote: » JJ Kavanaghhttp://jjkavanagh.ie/timetable-detail-page?RouteNo=735&IsWeb=1&IsCollegeRoute=0&Direction=0&RGrp=Main%20Routes%20^%20Airport%20Routes FAQs:http://jjkavanagh.ie/faqs
Fedupted wrote: » Great stuff? So can you tell me what private sector bus i take from Dublin city centre to roscrea that accept ftp. Please I mean from the city centre!!#!# Not the red cow :-) 5kms away thanks
Bass Reeves wrote: » You can use the FTP on the LUAS to get you out there problem solved.
horseburger wrote: » The problem is, most of these services do not serve intermediate towns. I have taken Aircoach services from Belfast to Dublin, and on one recent Saturday on the 4.30pm service from Belfast to Dublin Airport and Dublin City Centre, there was around five people on the bus. Might they not get more people using their service if they ran at least some of their services through intermediate towns? The Bus Éireann Translink Ulsterbus service from Belfast to Dublin will regularly pick up and drop off passengers, at Sprucefield, Banbridge and Newry.
Fedupted wrote: » So I've to get a luas to the outside of dublin. Then get of and wait for a coach in the middle of nowhere and wait for a coach. Hardly you Muppet
joeysoap wrote: » I think the Aircoach licence is pretty restrictive and perhaps the Translink one. AFAIK Aircoach and Translink cannot pick up in the south If the journey commences in the north and vice versa. it's strictly cross border. Maybe Aircoach are not allowed any pickups at all. I don't know how the Derry service operates.
eeguy wrote: » Calm down. In fairness, I'd prefer to wait at the Red Cow than Busaras, which is usually mobbed by junkies and beggars.
emroid wrote: » Not odd at all, BE's passenger numbers have actually been increasing. What is odd is that they are losing so much money despite full buses and increased passenger numbers! Captain obvious. Free travel pass numbers have risen year after year, now 1.2million can use them. When was the last time the money paid by the government for the FTP increased? The 80's or 90's? There is your answer to how BE can carry more passengers and not be making more money.
horseburger wrote: » The item suggested that there might be an opportunity for companies like Collins Coaches to take over a route like the number 33 Derry/Dublin, Bus Éireann-Translink Ulster Bus service, if the Bus Éireann Expressway services were ended. The number 33 Derry to Dublin - Dublin Airport Bus Éireann/Translink Ulster Bus service includes services from Derry Bus Station at 12am and 4.15am to Dublin and Dublin Airport which also serve intermediate towns. I'm not sure that if any private operator took over this Dublin Derry route, that they would run a bus service at those late night/early morning times, to Dublin and Dublin Airport, which would also stop at intermediate towns. Many bus users of longer distance routes, for example the Derry to Dublin service, may not like stopping in intermediate towns, but people who live in the intermediate towns use the buses, and I think it would be a negative move, if a decision was taken by Bus Éireann, not to serve the intermediate towns.
I have taken Aircoach services from Belfast to Dublin, and on one recent Saturday on the 4.30pm service from Belfast to Dublin Airport and Dublin City Centre, there was around five people on the bus. Might they not get more people using their service if they ran at least some of their services through intermediate towns?
Bus Éireann operate extra buses at the airport to ensure extra passengers are accommodated, for example they'll put on an extra bus to cover passengers for Monaghan who may be waiting for either the Letterkenny 32 or Derry 33 buses. Also, Bus Éireann will make available an extra bus for Newry, at the airport, if the bus for Belfast is full, or very nearly full when it leaves Bus Aras.
People who want buses to serve only the place they are going, for example the places where the bus services that they use, start and terminate, don't seem to acknowledge, that other people in intermediate towns also use buses, when they are made available, and are convenient to them.
For example, the 109A last Friday night / Saturday morning, that left from Bus Aras at 3.25am, was full leaving Bus Aras, apart from one seat - there was only one free seat available when it arrived at Dublin airport. When it stopped at Ashbourne, many of the passengers got out, and then more at Dunshaughlin. Yet, if there was someone standing in Navan or Kells, and saw the bus go by, after it had left Dunshaughlin, they might think far less people had used the bus, from Dublin City Centre and Dublin Airport to Kells. The 24 hour 109A is a recent development, having started operating 24 hours since 31st July 2016, to and from Kells and Dublin, and the example of the Ashbourne stop on the 3.25am service last Friday night, indicates that people are using the service to and from intermediate towns, even if it may not always be that full, at other times.
joeysoap wrote: » I think the Aircoach licence is pretty restrictive and perhaps the Translink one. AFAIK Aircoach and Translink cannot pick up in the south If the journey commences in the north and vice versa. it's strictly cross border. Maybe Aircoach are not allowed any pickups at all.I don't know how the Derry service operates.
devnull wrote: » Privates are VERY loathe to set up services on cross border routes because the market is effectively not regulated because it falls outside both governments regulation power because it is a international route, this leaves companies with situations were they can pretty much do what they like and there is not a jot that people can do about it which makes it very hard to run a service. When there are two state run companies who are incumbents on that route and strong ones at that, it means there is virtually zero viability in running such route when the incumbents can engage in predatory behaviour, predatory timetables and flood the corridor with buses and there being no way of stopping that. This could not happen within the ROI as the NTA has systems in place to stop that. The trouble is they are only able to carry passengers cross border, because the Northern Ireland authorities will not allow them a license to carry passengers from say Newry to Belfast and Aircoach did the whole stopping thing before which didn't work out. That route is doing particularly well a lot of the time, the core patronage tends to be those based in Belfast, with the earlier services from Belfast very busy and the later services from Dublin being very busy - of course there are some exceptions, but generally that is the trend. Reliefs are also scheduled on Aircoach if forecasts or online booking numbers suggest that they are needed. As an efficient private It sounds to me that on these routes, it makes sense for Bus Éireann to serve intermediate towns. I completely agree, there will always be the need for both kinds of service depending on passengers need, no dispute with that whatsoever. And this is a perfect example of a great route that is socially necessary but probably not viable commercially. That is why it is subsidized by the taxpayer who provides BE with vehicles to run it and funding to run it. It isn't however, a valid comparison against Expressway or other commercial routes because it's based on a totally different model.
horseburger wrote: » You raise a valid point. I don't think private coaches would operate many of the services that are operated by Bus Éireann.
devnull wrote: » Essentially Aircoach decided back in 2012 that in the long term the loss of intermediate customers would be made up for by more non stop customers, whilst BE believed that the loss of intermediate customers would not be made up for by non stop services.
bk wrote: » I'd disagree, I'd suspect privates would be quiet happy to run any of the services that BE run. The likes of Aircoach, GoBE, Dublin Coach, Citylink, etc. get lots of attention on this forum as they are the premium non stop intercity services. However it would be a terrible mistake to think these are the only private services operating in the country! People seem to forget that there are 3 times as many private buses and coaches operating in Ireland then BE and DB combined! Everything from the likes of Aircoach at the top, down to companies like Feda O'Donnell and John McGinley Coaches operating buses around the most rural areas of Donegal and everything in between. There are plenty of private operators operating multi-stop stopping services such as JJ Kavanagh. Citylink to Galway and beyond is a great example of a company operating both a direct, non-stop service and a stopping service along the same route. Showing clearly that privates are happy to do both if demand exists and it is profitable. There are even many subsidised PSO routes that many operators would be happy to operate without a subsidy. The 109 is a perfect example of this. Very strong rumours have it that Dublin Coach applied for a licence to operate this route with no subsidy, but it was turned down due to fears that it would be too much competition for BE! Of course there are some truly low capacity routes that wouldn't be profitable for a private to operate. However with a subsidy, of course a private would be happy to operate them. And I don't see why a private operator would require any more money then BE does to operate the same route, not with BE's insane cost structures.
horseburger wrote: » I'm just not too sure that a private company would operate a service, like the 109, as regularly throughout the whole day, and late into the evening, to and from Dublin. The 109 is hourly to and from Cavan, which serves Kells and Navan with services later in the early evening that also serve Dunshaughlin, for example the 5pm from Cavan.
Idbatterim wrote: » Shane Ross only involvement should be to say " break even at minimum ever year" therecwill be no government involvement.
end of the road wrote: » not his job. it's a socially necessary service so breaking even will only happen if enough passengers use the service and bring in extra income. he cannot tell the expressway what to do as it is a commercial service.
end of the road wrote: » he cannot tell the expressway what to do as it is a commercial service.
markpb wrote: » He's still the sole shareholder of Bus Eireann, even if it has a commercial division.
Brendan Bendar wrote: » He should play no part in this.
markpb wrote: » I totally agree, he's doing the right thing so far. I was just correcting EOTRs assertion that he _could_ not do anything. He could but he shouldn't.
