Go-Ahead Dublin City Routes - Updates and Discussion

New livery looks well. Hope it sticks..

Should save money respraying the fleet as well

Yellow bus poles are not only getting the blue sticker on top circle but they are replacing the timetable/info boards for longer ones exactly the same style.

So it seems these fancy silver poles aren't being fitted anytime soon.

Tarabuses wrote: »

The bus stops being used on Mount Anville Road are an improvement on what seems to be happening elsewhere. Maybe benefiting from the fact that there have never been bus stops here before?

Any pic?

punisher5112 wrote: »

Any pic?

devnull wrote: »

Any vehicles that have been delivered with silver handrails are going to have them changed to yellow. Also the handles above the seats are also going to have to be changed to yellow and there is now also concern in general about the interior colour scheme overall.

What a shambles.

GM228 wrote: »

First thing which came to mind (as pointed out by Devnull) is DBs Airlink livery. It is darker than the GA blue livery, wonder if any groups made their concerns known to DB about it?

Contrasting handrails, destination boards etc are no thanks to DB or any working relationship with disability groups, they are a result of a legally mandated standard set by the EU, and before that under adopted UN ECE Regulations from 1958, the EU adopted them long before DB even existed.


How to you know the NTA has not involved various disability groups? My understanding is they have worked with and sought submissions from various groups for various projects and reports such as for example their Statement of Strategy.

Also the last major consultation between DB and the various disability groups was in 2005 when the Accessibility Guidelines Standard Series 2 was agreed, it was not just DB though, it was various disability groups, transport operators (state and private) and Government departments - the NTA did not exist at the time.

What is to say the grab rails need to be repainted?

They just need to contrast in comparison to what is adjacent to them, whilst the grey handrails in the new GA buses is poor IMO they do contrast with the dark blue seats and that is all that DB (and other operators and disability groups) ever agreed to - to have contrasting handrails, mind you I'm not so sure they contrast with the stairwells.

As has been pointed out by other posters,the small extent of the Airlink fleet in comparison to the BAC service fleet does have a relevance here.

However,although a current BAC employee,I am in no way a spokesperson for the company,and my opinions remain purely personal.

In relation to the involvement with Disabled Representative Groups,the reality of BAC's involvement with these goes back to the inception of the company and further back into the CIE (DCS) days.

The reality of BAC's involvement & consultation,with both Disabled representatives AND disabled individuals,is at a far deeper and ingrained level than merely Head Office CEO level,PR based schtick.

The daily involvement of Area Managers,Chief Inspectors,and Operations Support and Platform staff regarding accessibility,at all levels far exceeds the NTA's current involvement,yet,for whatever reason,some posters appear to feel compelled to portray this negatively.

Is it your suggestion,for example,that BAC's last major interaction with Disabled Groups was 13 years ago ?

Are you suggesting that the Company is acting in a manner which ignores or fails to prioritize Disabled access to it's services ?

Put at it's simplest,BAC's involvement with Disability,is at a far more ingrained level across the greater organization,a point which has been raised during recent consultations with the stakeholders.

You may indeed suggest that a simple contrast between the new NTA Dark Grey interior panels and Light Grey stanchions,is in fact an improvement upon that between the pre-existing Yellow and Grey,however I am quite confident that the majority of those with vision deficiencies will disagree with you.

As has been noted earlier in thread,the light grey poles are indeed having to be recovered to the pre-existing standard,at the expense of the NTA,which is prompting the question as to why the Authority felt the need to depart from long standing and effective design in the first place.

The fact that it was'nt broken,was not reason enough to go and break it themselves.

It may come as a surprise to some,but with a total staff of 3,000+,there are now many BAC employees,who now have family members entering employment with Go-Ahead Ireland,with incredibly nobody being thrown out of the family home or otherwise blackballed as a result.

Again,from a personal perspective,I see very little threat from Go-Ahead Ireland's arrival.
In regard the Go-Ahead arrival in a positive light,as it will allow for real-time comparison and benchmarking,after a fashion,which has not been possible to date.
Equally,I see the BusConnects proposal as significantly improving Bus Service provision in Dublin,with significant benefits for both Busworkers AND Passengers ,but it is contingent upon the Busconnects principle being maintained,and robustly pursued by the NTA.
Currently I have no sense that this robustness is there in the desired quantities.

I would be a very strong proponent of the "London Model" of Bus Service Provision,but I am acutely aware that,even at senior executive level,the NTA's understanding of this term,is somewhat less than is required to deliver on the promises of a london style service pattern.

Were,for example,Anne Graham to announce a €6,000,000 programme to install Busdriver specific network of Sanitary Facilities across main Bus Routes I would robustly support her,in the same manner as London Mayor Saddiq Khan is being applauded by Busworker representatives there.

The future is bright-The future is BUS.

That 175 bus stop pole on Deerpark Road looks so much better than the crap example on the Dublin Bus poles in Firhouse.

I heard the 17 bus stop shelter in UCD has gotten new signage on the top of it. But I'm not sure if it is the same one as the Firhouse example.

What I don't understand; why does the NTA agree by spend taxpayers hard earned money by releasing two conflicting bus stop designs around Dublin in which one type of stop is meant to be replaced in it's entirety & one type bus stop that is meant to be it's new & permanent replacement. I really am amazed at what they are doing with their own rollout of bus infrastructure improvements. The good thing is that the NTA purchase new replacement buses on behalf of the state for Dublin Bus when some of the older fleet went to GAI. But the bus stop rollout & the repaint of the livery in Dublin in particular has been a joke so far on their part in the eyes of the public. Just on the livery designs with the inclusion of the yellow; this is one thing that I do not get at all. Why release a livery with a massive big media launch from GAI's depot in Ballymount & try make adjustments afterwards behind the scenes to cater for those with disabilities?

Why did the NTA just delay the rollout of the livery until it's completely finished & revealed to the public to save vital amounts of taxpayers money in the process. The NTA at this point do not have any clear accountability with regard to how they spend other's peoples money in good faith through for which it is solely given through the wishes of our government. If they were sensible with this idea of trying to rollout this plan of improving the bus service with no mistakes. Their reputation will be at a greater improved level of accountability through the eyes of the public & the government at large.

But the NTA are not trying hard enough to be good beacons with this virtue when dealing with other transport matters like the numerous redesigns for the DART Underground project which has going countless hoops of starting or not starting properly over the years from it's official announcement. Just think about that for a second. Possibly hundreds of millions of euro spent on trying to get some clear consensus on their many different versions of that project all within a specific period of hard earned time & they still can't go about in the right way. It makes the public frustrated & fed up with it's lack of progress when it will somehow get onto it's final possibility for an actual start date for building the bloody thing in the first place.

I wonder what happens now with their full news of where their CPO's are going for BusConnects. I hope the public don't get eventually fed up with the NTA's proposals about the infrastructure later in the year because I would like to see this become a game changer to make the bus service become much better for Dublin's commuters. But how the NTA are spending money by somehow trying to keep up with the joneses while compared with other countries is not a really good & frugal way of keeping accountability by making things go a little bit clearer. They should save their wares much more by not spending money for temporary vanity projects they clearly do not have because it will bite them back somewhere in unpleasant ways if they are not careful with the eyes of the public on their backs.