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Go-Ahead Dublin City Routes - Updates and Discussion

Stephen15

So since the last thread on this got closed and dosen't appear to be reopening any time soon. Heres a new one for you.

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devnull

Interior of Go-Ahead's new vehicles

GM228

devnull wrote: »

First vehicles in public service this morning
https://twitter.com/TFIupdates/status/1033633794429992960

I guess that means officially August 26th is GAs first day of operating in Ireland for the public as opposed to September 9th.

devnull

First vehicles in public service this morning
https://twitter.com/TFIupdates/status/1033633794429992960

punisher5112

Similar to swords express....

No bus stop, so no expenses there just buses, fuel and drivers.

icdg

Incidentally the Route 139 (that odd hybrid of city and country route) has been operating for months and most of the bus stops it uses are still fully Dublin Bus or Bus Eireann branded.

Stephen15

I thought they were going to go for design similar to what can now be seen in Cork and on some BE routes not a design I'm mad keen on myself. I don't like some of these new style stops, just look at the state of some of the Aircoach stops compared to DB stops which are usually quite well maintained to be fair even some of the plastic DB stops in the city centre aren't in great shape either.

Qrt

devnull wrote: »

The stupid thing is that they have design guidelines for this kind of thing and the proposed designs are much better than what we are seeing on the ground for the first few stops at least.

The design manual they produced was excellent, but the fact that they're cutting corners already doesn't speak much for how the roll-out of an integrated system is going to go.

Lets just hope this is not the sign of things to come, and is only a very short term thing.

I'd say they're just stop-gaps really. Considering certain stretchs of road may be losing their bus service and having it go up the next street, I doubt they're keen to install the fancy bus stops like down in Cork.

punisher5112

Wonderful going back to a pole that is basically invisible.....

devnull

The stupid thing is that they have design guidelines for this kind of thing and the proposed designs are much better than what we are seeing on the ground for the first few stops at least.

The design manual they produced was excellent, but the fact that they're cutting corners already doesn't speak much for how the roll-out of an integrated system is going to go.

Lets just hope this is not the sign of things to come, and is only a very short term thing.

dublinman1990

Here is one in Firhouse. Holy moly. The bus stop looks awful tbh. What were the NTA thinking?

file.php?id=352

john boye

Stephen15 wrote: »

Which stops are these as a matter of interest? Do they only serve GAI routes or both DB and GAI routes? I noticed stop 3129 in Cabinteely which recently had a new shelter added has had DB branding applied despite the fact it serves DB route 145 but also future GAI route 63.

I saw them in Dundrum on stops along the 75 route.

Stephen15

devnull wrote: »

The first signs of preparing for the Go-Ahead routes starting at bus stops have appeared.

Starting to see a few DB stop poles which have had their yellow heads replaced with blue heads.

Looks very odd and a very cheap, easy and lazy way of doing things rather than doing them properly.

Which stops are these as a matter of interest? Do they only serve GAI routes or both DB and GAI routes? I noticed stop 3129 in Cabinteely which recently had a new shelter added has had DB branding applied despite the fact it serves DB route 145 but also future GAI route 63.

devnull

The first signs of preparing for the Go-Ahead routes starting at bus stops have appeared.

Starting to see a few DB stop poles which have had their yellow heads replaced with blue heads.

Looks very odd and a very cheap, easy and lazy way of doing things rather than doing them properly.

Stephen15

dublinman1990 wrote: »

Are these red single decks from Go-Ahead London?

The one I saw in Bray didn't appear to be as it only had one door. I think it was ex Oxford Bus Company as there was faded writing on it.

dublinman1990

punisher5112 wrote: »

Seeing more and more ex uk single Decker's in red with up to 6 on board.

Are these red single decks from Go-Ahead London?

ax586

Here we go wrote: »

For those that are training they are going in on intervals iv a start date for 10th Sep I assume that lot will be trained for the next batch of routes and the next lot will be in the day after for training

I say that’s it I start on the 17th of September

devnull

Stephen15 wrote: »

Fair enough but surely when it comes to delivering a bus service it is equally important to have all staff needed in the delivery of service in place for the commencement of service that includes drivers, mechanics, inspectors etc.

And I'm sure they will have adequate numbers of people coming on stream at the relevant time. As someone who has been involved in recruitment in the past, the way that Go-Ahead are going about things is exactly how I would expect them to do for a recruitment exercise of this size.

There is only so much capacity you have to interview and hire people so you need to stagger the process and that is what Go-Ahead are doing. If they put all the jobs online and interviewed for them all at the same time they'd need 30-40 HR staff and be in interviews all day for weeks and weeks back to back.

Stephen15

devnull wrote: »

Believe it or not the Go-Ahead HR team is not going to be big enough to recruit for every single job in every single position at the same time, they have been clearly structuring the way that recruitment has gone by doing it bit by bit, as any company doing large scale recruitment does, it's not simple to hire 500-600 staff and the amount of interviews, admin work and such it requires, so it'll be broken up into chunks.

Besides a lot of drivers have not started yet and are still to commence employment with Go-Ahead as they have staggered the start dates from everything I have heard. That also, is completely routine.

Fair enough but surely when it comes to delivering a bus service it is equally important to have all staff needed in the delivery of service in place for the commencement of service that includes drivers, mechanics, inspectors etc.

I also believe they will using subcontractors for the roles of cleaning, shunting and refuelling of buses so they are not directly recruiting for those positions.

[Deleted User]

Any one know if any drivers are in and ready to go on the 175 when it starts on September 9. After that there's another 4 week gap before the next batch of routes start.

devnull

Stephen15 wrote: »

They've already recruited 425 drivers. I don't think they need 425 drivers for just eight routes which they'll be taking up between now and October. They'll only need 425 drivers come January.

Believe it or not the Go-Ahead HR team is not going to be big enough to recruit for every single job in every single position at the same time, they have been clearly structuring the way that recruitment has gone by doing it bit by bit, as any company doing large scale recruitment does, it's not simple to hire 500-600 staff and the amount of interviews, admin work and such it requires, so it'll be broken up into chunks.

Besides a lot of drivers have not started yet and are still to commence employment with Go-Ahead as they have staggered the start dates from everything I have heard. That also, is completely routine.

Here we go

Stephen15 wrote: »

They've already recruited 425 drivers. I don't think they need 425 drivers for just eight routes which they'll be taking up between now and October. They'll only need 425 drivers come January.

For those that are training they are going in on intervals iv a start date for 10th Sep I assume that lot will be trained for the next batch of routes and the next lot will be in the day after for training

[Deleted User]

Noticed the go ahead training buses going around all week with approx 3 trainees per bus

Noticed them in the city center and also finglas test center

But more interestingly noticed they've been out as early as 6 am and out until after 8pm

Most definitely they are trying very hard to get the training done as much as possible.

Stephen15

devnull wrote: »

They are not struggling to fill positions from what I have heard. They're simply now starting to recruit for the later waves of services when they start them up to January and also for the Dublin commuter routes which they will start later.

Pointless hiring the whole mechanic team in September when they'll only be running one bus route and the majority of them are twiddling thumbs. They'll be hiring them in phases to co-incide with more routes starting.

They've already recruited 425 drivers. I don't think they need 425 drivers for just eight routes which they'll be taking up between now and October. They'll only need 425 drivers come January.

devnull

Stephen15 wrote: »

Noticed on their fb page that it appears Go-Ahead are ramping up the recruitment for non driver positions within the company particularly mechanics. Perhaps they are struggling to fill those positions? They also appear to be deferring the recruitment of traffic inspectors and revenue protection officers.

They are not struggling to fill positions from what I have heard. They're simply now starting to recruit for the later waves of services when they start them up to January and also for the Dublin commuter routes which they will start later.

Pointless hiring the whole mechanic team in September when they'll only be running one bus route and the majority of them are twiddling thumbs. They'll be hiring them in phases to co-incide with more routes starting.

punisher5112

Seeing more and more ex uk single Decker's in red with up to 6 on board.

Stephen15

Noticed on their fb page that it appears Go-Ahead are ramping up the recruitment for non driver positions within the company particularly mechanics. Perhaps they are struggling to fill those positions? They also appear to be deferring the recruitment of traffic inspectors and revenue protection officers.

devnull

This thread is about Go-Ahead starting to operate services in Dublin and related discussion.

All discussion about the removal of the change facility on Dublin Bus have been moved to a new thread as I feel it deserves it's own where people can see it who are not necessarily interested in this one

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057903670

- Moderator

punisher5112

Stephen15 wrote: »

I received a PSC card without free travel recently in order to apply for a driving test. Have to say it felt like a very cheap bit of plastic alright.

Do drivers have the authority to confiscate a card? I would have thought this could only be done by an RPO.

Yes drivers have the right to do so.

Not many will mind.

It was over the confusion at it's introduction where a notice was put up stating no card could be conviscated to then having another notice placed beside the 1st stating one could do so if it wasn't the person on the card.

It has since changed again to anyone presenting a blocked card and not their own one either.

Also if their card doesn't work(scan) or it's blocked they must pay for travel.

Stephen15

punisher5112 wrote: »

Many of the new ones are now been abused also.

The card can stay in ones wallet they hop on scan or pretend to scan, others have damaged the chip so it won't read as most likely the card is blocked.

Coming across many blocked cards also.

The cards arent the best made either and to be honest they should all have been exact same material as leap card as they can take a fair amount of abuse.

If a card doesn't scan the passenger must pay, if it's blocked a driver is to take it and hand it into the debot.

I received a PSC card without free travel recently in order to apply for a driving test. Have to say it felt like a very cheap bit of plastic alright.

Do drivers have the authority to confiscate a card? I would have thought this could only be done by an RPO.

punisher5112

liger wrote: »

Drivers won't get it in the neck because nobody will be expecting change tickets as there can't be an overpayment with Leap.

Cashless isn't scheduled for at least 2 more years. And just look at the paper social welfare passes, they were due to be cancelled and no longer accepted on public transportation due to the new PSC but they still haven't done it yet. And my guess would be 90% of the paper passes left are dodgy.

Many of the new ones are now been abused also.

The card can stay in ones wallet they hop on scan or pretend to scan, others have damaged the chip so it won't read as most likely the card is blocked.

Coming across many blocked cards also.

The cards arent the best made either and to be honest they should all have been exact same material as leap card as they can take a fair amount of abuse.

If a card doesn't scan the passenger must pay, if it's blocked a driver is to take it and hand it into the debot.