Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Covid Bus Time? 3 Minutes?

Options
  • 03-06-2021 11:14pm
    #1
    bobbyss
    Registered Users Posts: 5,195 ✭✭✭


    Got on bus and needed to make a connection. No time to spare. The bus was due to leave let's say at 18::00 but arrived 2 minutes late. Everybody got on. Bus didn't move for two minutes. Looking like i was not going to make my connecting bus.
    I approached driver and asked him when were we due to leave.
    I hoped this would remind him that we were due to leave at 18:00 and it was now about 18:04. He said in one minute. I told him the timetable said 18:00 but he weirdly said there's 3 minutes Covid time. Amyone know what this means?

    During all of this he was on his moble. The bus was at the stop but as far as i can remember the engine was off so he was presumably parked. Therefore he would be allowed to be on his mobile?


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    StreetLight
    Registered Users Posts: 1,394 ✭✭✭StreetLight


    Are you talking about Dublin Bus?

    If so, there is an agreement that a driver may take three minutes rest before commencing the next journey.
    If he arrived at 1802, he did not need to do anything until 1805.
    In fact, he was doing you a favour by admitting people on the bus to relax for the few minutes, instead of leaving you standing and then opening the doors.

    I'm hoping you wouldn't deny a driver to check his phone in the meantime. You don't know if he had a family issue to monitor, but I've never heard of "Covid time".


  • Options
    #3
    Xterminator
    Registered Users Posts: 4,718 ✭✭✭Xterminator


    Be practical about this. A bus driver cant take a 5 min break when he is on the road. if he arrived a few mins late that's traffic. but if he needs a minute, he should take it, rather than drive on.

    complain if you want, but a driver pulling out from the stop within 5 mins of the scheduled time - seems within acceptable parameters.


  • Options
    #4
    gctest50
    Registered Users Posts: 9,605 ✭✭✭gctest50


    bobbyss wrote: »
    ............

    .Looking like i was not going to make my connecting bus.

    ................


    Did you make your connecting bus ?


  • Options
    #5
    bobbyss
    Registered Users Posts: 5,195 ✭✭✭bobbyss


    StreetLight wrote:
    If so, there is an agreement that a driver may take three minutes rest before commencing the next journey. If he arrived at 1802, he did not need to do anything until 1805. In fact, he was doing you a favour by admitting people on the bus to relax for the few minutes, instead of leaving you standing and then opening the doors.


    That may explain Covid time. His words not mine. It was BE.
    To be clear. A BE driver is allowed 3 minutes rest. The stop in question galway city has a scheduled 5 minute break. It's in the middle of the city going east to west.

    I assumed the reason for this 5 minute break was because its half way through the journey, in the city city centre and so there would be lots of people getting on and off.
    I think if he's parked at a stop, engine off he can use mobile? Same as car once parked?


  • Options
    #6
    Oscar Madison
    Registered Users Posts: 693 ✭✭✭Oscar Madison


    You left it very late to catch a connecting bus and because you probably

    didn't make it you want to blame somebody else for your poor planning! :mad:


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #7
    usernamegoes
    Registered Users Posts: 901 ✭✭✭usernamegoes


    Some of the negative replies to the OP are one of the reasons the bus system in this country is so poor.

    Paraphrasing:

    "He was doing you a favour by letting you relax on the bus before it left late he was well within his rights to leave you standing on the "
    "It was poor planning on your behalf to follow the plans of BE timetablers"


  • Options
    #8
    StreetLight
    Registered Users Posts: 1,394 ✭✭✭StreetLight


    usernamegoes wrote: »
    Some of the negative replies to the OP are one of the reasons the bus system in this country is so poor.

    Paraphrasing:

    "He was doing you a favour by letting you relax on the bus before it left late he was well within his rights to leave you standing on the "
    "It was poor planning on your behalf to follow the plans of BE timetablers"


    You'd begrudge a driver three lousy minutes to switch off and compose themselves after who knows what they had to endure on the previous journey to attempt to make it to the terminus on time. Unbelievable.


  • Options
    #9
    usernamegoes
    Registered Users Posts: 901 ✭✭✭usernamegoes


    StreetLight wrote: »
    You'd begrudge a driver three lousy minutes to switch off and compose themselves after who knows what they had to endure on the previous journey to attempt to make it to the terminus on time. Unbelievable.

    Didn't say that.


  • Options
    #10
    StreetLight
    Registered Users Posts: 1,394 ✭✭✭StreetLight


    usernamegoes wrote: »
    Didn't say that.

    No, I said it because that's what you were implying.


  • Options
    #11
    usernamegoes
    Registered Users Posts: 901 ✭✭✭usernamegoes


    StreetLight wrote: »
    No, I said it because that's what you were implying.

    Wasn't even implying it. But it's the attitude that thinks I was that I am criticizing.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #12
    GT89
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,770 ✭✭✭GT89


    StreetLight wrote: »
    You'd begrudge a driver three lousy minutes to switch off and compose themselves after who knows what they had to endure on the previous journey to attempt to make it to the terminus on time. Unbelievable.

    All it does is re emphasise why drivers should not let passengers board until their scheduled departure time


  • Options
    #13
    markpb
    Registered Users Posts: 9,254 ✭✭✭markpb


    GT89 wrote: »
    All it does is re emphasise why drivers should not let passengers board until their scheduled departure time

    That doesn't answer the OPs question which, on the face of it, is a simple one: why did the bus leave late. Whether the passengers are allowed on the bus early is a red herring. Whether the driver was taking his allowed break is also somewhat irrelevant. The driver mentioning covid is daft. If the driver had said "The bus is running behind schedule so we'll be leaving in 3 minutes", that would have answered the OPs question and probably kept them happy.

    People on this forum are very defensive about queries like this. Passengers have a more black and white belief in timetables.


  • Options
    #14
    GT89
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,770 ✭✭✭GT89


    markpb wrote: »
    That doesn't answer the OPs question which, on the face of it, is a simple one: why did the bus leave late. Whether the passengers are allowed on the bus early is a red herring. Whether the driver was taking his allowed break is also somewhat irrelevant. The driver mentioning covid is daft. If the driver had said "The bus is running behind schedule so we'll be leaving in 3 minutes", that would have answered the OPs question and probably kept them happy.

    People on this forum are very defensive about queries like this. Passengers have a more black and white belief in timetables.

    Another poster gave a perfectly reasonable possible explanation that the driver may have been taking a short break before he continued driving. No one here bar the OP was actually in the situation so we are relying on second hand information so judging that has been relayed that appears to be the most likely reason that the driver was waiting 3 mins to depart.

    I am not familiar with the operational procedures of BE in Galway. I don't get covid being mentioned either unless it's some sort of revised timetable in operation for during covid. All people are doing is giving the OP the reason which they were looking for.


Advertisement