Driver interaction on buses

GT89 wrote: »

A discussion about the enforcement of Covid 19 restrictions on board got me thinking. It should be considered in my opinion as part of Bus Connects to remove all driver interaction onboard buses like is the case in many other cities on the continent and perhaps when social distancing is removed/relaxed allow boarding at both the front and centre doors and perhaps introduce buses with three sets of doors in the future.

Enforcement of tickets/passes should be done like on the Luas with regular revenue protection checks instead of just having drivers do this. It would make the job a lot easier for drivers and a lot easier to use for passengers as the service would be more efficient due to reduced dwell times. Obivously there would still be some level of driver interaction but only in emergencies. How would other posters and those who are bus drivers feel about this.

10000% however as always ireland is that bit more old fashioned unfortunately.

The amount of times people are left waiting on a bus for 10-15 mins while people get on the bus and have to stand in line to pay with a variety of either coins, notes, some using passes or leap cards, then they have to wait for their change AND their pointless (and waste of money) paper ticket is crazy.


The amount of money being wasted on those paper bus Éireann tickets on the inter City buses..

Why can't they follow other European countries and introduce either one card for residents that they can top up every week or month, and only accept those?

Old people who can't grasp it can top it up in a post office rather than online or something, or maybe accept cash in exceptional circumstances.

GT89 wrote: »

A discussion about the enforcement of Covid 19 restrictions on board got me thinking. It should be considered in my opinion as part of Bus Connects to remove all driver interaction onboard buses like is the case in many other cities on the continent and perhaps when social distancing is removed/relaxed allow boarding at both the front and centre doors and perhaps introduce buses with three sets of doors in the future.

Enforcement of tickets/passes should be done like on the Luas with regular revenue protection checks instead of just having drivers do this. It would make the job a lot easier for drivers and a lot easier to use for passengers as the service would be more efficient due to reduced dwell times. Obivously there would still be some level of driver interaction but only in emergencies. How would other posters and those who are bus drivers feel about this.

You should be aware that the scenario in relation to Bus 'Dwell Time' has always been a core element of the BusConnects plan.

The only element which changed was the timeline for Cashless payments being extended from 12 months to approx 3 years,this would have seen Fully Cashless Urban operation introduced in Q3 of 2021.

Perhaps the most positive by product of the Covid event,is the realization that the hour has cometh,and full cashless is required NOW.

NTA policy is to move Public Transport payment to 'Account Based Ticketing' as in taking payment directly from a customers account,without middlemen such as Leapcard etc.

I am confident of on-bus cash transactions being deleted before Christmas 2020,perhaps even as an integral part of the 4th Module of restriction easing.

What is perhaps interesting,and indicative of a level of confusion/indecision on the part of the NTA,was the postponement of the annual fares revision due in early December to March.
Covid events however,took a hold and there has been no announcement from the NTA regarding the Revision to date.

This revision (Dec 2019) was to have seen the introduction of a Time-Based Fare (c.€2.60 ) giving 90 Minutes of travel across ALL NTA PSO modes in the Greater Dublin Area (some execeptions for Commuter Rail).

Sadly,it also appeared to include a Short-Hop fare of some kind to muddy the waters,and the retention of Cash Transactions (However,cash fares would be single-journey only-with NO transfer availability)

The general thrust is here....now somewhat overcome by events.....

https://busconnects.ie/initiatives/just-the-ticket/

This will require a move to either a “tag-on” and “tag-off” facility, similar to Luas and DART, or a single “flat fare” approach in order to reduce the need to interact with the driver for fare payments.

As part of this process, cashless operation will be introduced on all buses, to remove the delays caused by cash payments. Currently over 70% of fare payments are made by Leap card. As this increases over the next couple of years, the transition to a cashless regime will become easier. BusConnects will incorporate the latest developments in account-based ticketing technology, potentially allowing use of credit / debit cards or mobile devices as a convenient means of payment. This will also allow integration with other transport payments such as parking facilities and bicycle hire.

In regional cities, despite the recent upgrade, cash transactions are still faster than Leap transactions.