Go-Ahead Dublin City Routes - Updates and Discussion

thenightman wrote: »

Bashing DB til the end Devnull. I use Dublin Bus daily (13,69,40, 145, 25 and 66's depending where I'm working) and I haven't noticed any significant drop off in services, certainly nothing as dramatic as Go Ahead are experiencing with their limited package of routes.

The fact is that there has been issues with summer services way before Go-Ahead came on the scene, if you look at threads for the last few summers on boards, you will see that services not operating is nothing new, it has been going on for years and it is high time that something was done about it by the NTA.

You may have not noticed a drop off in Dublin Bus services but you can find several users who have posted different experiences such as Stephen_15 (here), john_boye (here) who said he saw a huge number of services cancelled, whilst VG31 (here) has outlined experiences with the Swords routes being cancelled, Dazberry (here) reported issues with the 123 also.

It would be nice to compare how many services exactly Dublin Bus and Go-Ahead were cancelling, however unfortunately the former is not being very transparent with that information, whereas at least Go-Ahead is actively informing customers that their bus is cancelled, something that the NTA needs to force Dublin Bus to do as well because it is the right thing to do, but unfortunately they're not at the moment, you'll have to ask them why.

Kh1993 wrote: »

Same, I use a mixture of the 9/83 and 17a every day. I can time the 9/83 to a tee everyday, reliable, buses run and no messing around. The 17a , on the other hand, has once again been given a new timetable that they don’t have the resources to run, doesn’t have enough running time (still!) and doesn’t appear at even headway’s (at the terminus - so length of route no excuse).

The 17A has always been a bit of an awkward route though, I used to take it often and the journey time on a particular service would never be the same two days running. Between Blanchardstown and Kilbarrack there are so many bottlenecks, that I wouldn't like to schedule it either. But certainly I would be surprised if it isn't reviewed again by the end of the year.

I complained about the shambles of the start of GA operation of the 17a on here at the start and I was shouted down asking me where my criticism of Bus Éireann was (by a moderator for some reason). It hasn’t got any better. At least now the media and general public who don’t have to rely on them can see the operation they’re running. I feel sorry for their drivers too. Lose-lose situation.

Indeed, who would have thought that the big evil profit driven commercially driven company would be the one to be open about it's cancellations and tweeting about them ahead of departure so their customers could plan around it by taking an alternative route or another method of transport.

All well and good certain posters trying to offer up anecdotal evidence to say that DB are just as bad, but to be honest it just seems as window dressing. Things such as the last 3 or 4 services of the day of hourly routes not running is disgraceful as PT goes.

Because if Dublin Bus actively don't post about a cancellation, it must never have happened, right?

If you’re first reaction to this news is to admonish Dublin bus for not being transparent, then you’re part of the problem tbh.

Why should they not be transparent? Why should they not give their patrons who are travelling to school, home, work or to see their sick relatives in hospital the information they need to change their journey around such information? Maybe the public should instead just be quiet and sit waiting for a bus stop for half an hour in the hope that a bus will arrive instead and be late for work, school or to see their relatives?

Stephen15 wrote: »

Do you use any GAI services regularly yourself? I use both DB and GAI services fairly regularly not on a daily basis but at least every second or third day mostly a mixture of the 46a, 75, 145, 155 and 63 and I can't say I can particularly fault either operator and would describe myself as satisfied with the bus services I receive from both operators but yes there is always room for improvement.

I have noticed a significant improvement in the 63 since it transferred without wanting to sound bias towards GAI but the service has improved mainly because of the significantly more frequent service at evenings and on weekends but I have also noticed less buses not operating since the changeover has only happened me once since the routes have changed over. Haven't used a bus in Ireland in a few weeks as I'm on holidays at the moment.

The NTA have published figures on reliability and punctuality of both Dublin Bus and Go-Ahead Ireland services in recent months so I just took a look to see what the statistics show for low frequency routes across both operators.

In the period up until March, the latest data for Go-Ahead Ireland on file, it shows that approx 2% of scheduled km were not operated that should have been, which was an increase of the 0.5% in the prior period, which was essentially February, which would sound about right to me as certainly the problems were not so pronounced in January/February, it would be interesting to know how later months compare.

Looking at the data for Dublin Bus in 2018 as a whole, also the latest available at present, the number of scheduled km not operated ranged between 3.4% and 7.2% depending on which month that you look at. Some days have been excluded from these statistics due to storms, very bad weather and other things, which is sensible since it wouldn't be fair to include those days where the operator has no chance of running a proper service.

However the report also mentions Between 18th June and 9th September performance of Dublin Bus was impacted by reduced driver numbers and in these months which resulted on average 6.7% of scheduled vehicle kms not being operated by Dublin Bus, so it comes back to what I was saying earlier on, substantial disruption due to driver shortages was a problem last year, it's not anything new this year.

Obviously these are historical figures, but having looked at the reliability tables for Go-Ahead Ireland and Dublin Bus as well, it seems that both operators have not been hitting their targets on a regular basis and as such it is clear that Dublin Bus would have been fined for their performance in 2018, but the other interesting thing is that if you look at the targets set for operators, they're increasing year on year.

There is also has been issues earlier in the year with Dublin Bus services that have been leaving early (SIPTU have admitted this) and apparently fines have been issued due to this. There has also been reports of Go-Ahead Ireland leaving early on occasion so I would imagine that they have been fined as well. Hopefully the fines are particularly harsh for both the first and last bus for both operators.

Sources
- Dublin Bus Reliability (2018)
- Dublin Bus Punctuality (2018)
- Go Ahead Ireland Reliability (2019 to P3)
- Go Ahead Ireland Punctuality (2019 to P3)
- Route by Route Punctuality Table - 2018

I've created a new thread here with more of these similar datasets and other data the NTA recently made available if anyone is interested.

Stephen15 wrote: »

From what I gather DB and BE have also been fined for services which didn't operate.

Dublin Bus were fined €1,200,000 last year whereas Bus Eireann were fined €600,000 according to what the NTA spokesperson said in the Irish Times. He also said that GAI were being set tougher targets than that have been set for Bus Eireann and Dublin Bus. It will be interesting if in the next direct award contract that Dublin Bus will also be given the tougher targets.