Go-Ahead Dublin City Routes - Updates and Discussion

punisher5112 · 15-06-2021 5:15pm

john boye wrote: »

I was talking about the ones specifically in the pride livery. Like the Go Ahead one we were actually talking about.

DB had a few Ev done out in it over the years, Ax too if I recall.

ax586 · 15-06-2021 5:23pm

john boye wrote: »

I was talking about the ones specifically in the pride livery. Like the Go Ahead one we were actually talking about.

There was a small tfi sign on the back of the ev 2 years ago not as big as the one now

john boye · 15-06-2021 5:29pm

ax586 wrote: »

There was a small tfi sign on the back of the ev 2 years ago not as big as the one now

I remember the AXs having the logo somewhere or other too. It was in an odd spot on one of them I think but I don't remember where exactly.

dublinman1990 · 03-09-2021 5:49am

12140 has been repainted into the new TFI Hybrid livery.

Source: GAI Fleetlist (Irish Road Passenger Transport Forum)

d51984 · 03-09-2021 8:57am

I thought that was a model for a second. Looks great I have to say.

Fandymo · 03-09-2021 12:38pm

Whats the story with all the GoAhead cancellations over the past two weeks or so?? Sometimes up to 20 services a day cancelled. The 120 and 126 seems to be the ones most affected. Lots of people annoyed on Twitter and zero explanation bar operational issues. Hopefully the NTA hammer them for it.

Burt Renaults · 03-09-2021 8:54pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117841643#Comment_117841643

At this time of year, probably lots of drivers on annual leave. Also, with over a thousand Covid19 cases a day, there's a good chance that there's a higher than usual rate of absenteeism. A huge disadvantage of a relatively small operation like Go Ahead's Naas depot is that a handful of missing drivers has a huge effect on services - especially low-frequency routes. The proportion of missing drivers is no worse than anywhere else, but they don't have the luxury of spreading the cancellations around like Bus Éireann do. They need to hire more drivers, even if that means having a few of them sitting on their backsides in the depot for a good bit of the year.

Also, they recently started to announce their cancellations every day, which only serves to highlight how much of a problem it is.

Fandymo · 04-09-2021 12:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117843905#Comment_117843905

Annual leave is at the discretion of the employer. If they don’t have the drivers to cover it, cancel some annual leave. They seem to be making a dogs dinner of it. I heard yesterday that drivers are abandoning the company like it’s a sinking ship. Can’t see them lasting much longer if that’s the case.

Burt Renaults · 04-09-2021 3:52pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117845784#Comment_117845784

As far as I know, drivers aren't (currently) leaving in large numbers. They probably would if their employer decided to start messing around with their holiday plans though. Whether they like it or not, what they really need is a slight excess of drivers. Especially with Covid19 causing them problems.

TranslatorPS · 04-09-2021 6:40pm

Just to illustrate the concept, GAI have 60 lines on untimed spare rosters in Ballymount out of 377 roster lines altogether for a provision of about 225 Mon-Fri duties (in other words, to provide a full service on Dublin city routes, GAI envision a need for 377 drivers - that excludes the school services and the 197), or 16%. That means that they usually have a pool of 45-50-ish drivers available to fill in Monday-Friday roster gaps with, plus six drivers are scheduled as "timed spares", as in drivers actually scheduled to sit in the garage (2 early, 2 middle, 2 late).

16% isn't a number I would consider the greatest. Whenever I've done scheduling requirement analysis for tenders (mind you, in situations where schedules are handed down hard by the Authority, not like here where the schedule is done by the Operator, or in other words - not in Ireland), I assumed a staff overflow of between 20% and 30% above what's required to operate a week's service (these numbers being in turn based on working a 5*8 week and having the number of duties required M-F, Sa, and Su).

Going by Ballymount's numerical balance into Naas, where GAI have 50 service duties on commuter services, that should indicate 84 lines needed (377/255=1.6755, 50*1.6755=83.77), and 13 (84*0.16=13.44) would have to be spare drivers only to cover services. This means that about 10 or 11 drivers would be rostered on a weekday as spare, or in other words, available for rostering. Unfortunately I don't have access to the Commuter rosters to confirm or deny these values.

All of a sudden, with drivers on annual leave due to the holiday season and 9 drivers reportedly out due to Covid-19, this is starting to make a lot more sense than I previously gave thought to.

dublinman1990 · 24-09-2021 6:43pm

GAI have integrated Dublin GAA club sponsorship branding into the NTA's new Hybrid livery on one of their SG's.

It looks extremely well.

Source: Aaron Donohue Facebook

d51984 · 24-09-2021 11:01pm

Note the the head light and day time running light surrounds are now painted black instead of yellow, all we need now is the surrounds on the Wrights logo put back to chrome and the front would look decent enough.

The advert itself fits in great with the new livery, hopefully a sign of more adverts like this in the future.

dublinman1990 · 11-11-2021 8:38pm

GAI had uploaded a press release about passengers giving verbal abuse that takes place in person or online to GAI staff members.

https://www.goaheadireland.ie/please-be-kind-our-colleagues

What kind of scumbags are doing this to GAI staff members, particularly the bus drivers, who are are out there while simply just doing their job?

Burt Renaults · 12-11-2021 10:58pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118152929#Comment_118152929

Traffic has got very heavy lately (sometimes worse than pre-covid levels), and outside of the main corridors, buses don't have any meaningful priority over private cars. So a lot of their buses end up late at certain times of the day (usually in the mornings and from 2pm to 6 or 7). The flawed nature of their contract with the NTA means that they avoid allowing buses to start a journey more than six minutes late at all costs. Instead, they cut the following trip short, or cancel it altogether, citing heavy traffic, force majeure, etc, to avoid fines. So passengers are being left stranded at bus stops. Then some of them get irate with the first company representative they see - the driver - or with whoever is operating their Twitter account.

I hear from people who work there that they also have major staffing issues at the moment - and it's only going to get worse. Morale, which has always been low, is on the floor. In addition to the usual exodus to Dublin Bus, to whom they've lost literally hundreds of drivers over the last three years, private coach companies have opened back up and there are a lot of jobs throughout the transport industry, offering similar or more money for less work. They used to be able to cover the cracks with overtime, but most drivers are refusing to do that now. As far as I know, they still only pay time and a quarter, and drivers want more. It's hard to see how they'll survive without having to dig deep.

dublinman1990 · 29-11-2021 2:00am

There are new timetables now up for the 17, 102C, 102P & 175 on the GAI website which came into operation on Sunday.

Annasopra · 20-12-2021 10:22am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117841643#Comment_117841643

The 185 has had dozens and dozens of cancellations in recent weeks.

Annasopra · 20-12-2021 10:26am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118152929#Comment_118152929

If you live on the 185 route. Theh are not doing their job and you can be left 3 hours for a bus or have the last bus cancelled regularly at the moment.

Fandymo · 20-12-2021 11:12am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118350312#Comment_118350312

They are absolutely useless. Hopefully they disappear soon

LXFlyer · 20-12-2021 12:27pm

Surprisingly enough, the transport companies are not in a vacuum, and are impacted by Covid as much as other companies are.

They are suffering staff shortages due to drivers catching Covid and having to self-isolate.

It is affecting the CIÉ Group companies too but isn’t perhaps as obvious due to the higher frequency on many of their routes.

Inevitably as case numbers in the general population increase, it will get worse before it gets better.

We are in for a tough month or so as the companies will struggle to maintain service levels.

Annasopra · 20-12-2021 2:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118350897#Comment_118350897

It highlights the vulnerabilities of smaller operators and throws many questions onto the whole PSO privatisation issue.

Smaller operators shouldnt be allowed to operate routes where there are no alternatives e.g. Bus users on the 185 have no alternatives, bus users on the 184 and 45a have a few different alternatives such as DART, 84, 145, 155, 46a, 133.

Its really not good enough on an hourly service where are no alternative routes to be cancelling so many scheduled buses.

LXFlyer · 20-12-2021 3:10pm

Well Bus Eireann have also been cancelling services on low frequency routes for the same reason around the country. This is not exclusively a GAI problem.

As I said Dublin Bus and Irish Rail are equally affected. Lots of cancelled services too. Dublin Bus just don’t publish a list of cancellations.

As I said above, I fear that this will get worse before it gets better as Covid cases rise exponentially over the next few weeks.

dublinman1990 · 20-12-2021 5:15pm

How did the GAI staff get diagnosed with Covid? Did they get it while they were on duty or off duty while at home?

Burt Renaults · 20-12-2021 8:43pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118350326#Comment_118350326

Hardly the fault of the driver who actually has turned up and is doing their job. I hear they're getting huge abuse at the moment. That's the worst thing about that job - dealing with tantrums from grown adults who expected me to know the intricate details of "what happened to the bus before" - i.e. some other bus that some other person was supposed to drive. Maybe if there weren't so many entitled, spoilt brats out there, who get confused between a service and a God-given right, more drivers would be prepared to sacrifice their rest days and cover missing duties. And maybe fewer drivers would be heading out the door to work in other industries too.

Lots of drivers, from all companies, either out with or exposed to Covid and awaiting tests at any given time. And it's gonna be like that for the foreseeable future.

Annasopra · 20-12-2021 9:24pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118353415#Comment_118353415

I dont agree with any abuse at all. I dont condone any abuse. Given the stress the pandemic is causing in the general public and on top of that they are often dealing with a completely unreliable service that can regularly leave them stranded or abandoned - I understand why people would be angry.

Burt Renaults · 20-12-2021 9:46pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118353594#Comment_118353594

I don't understand why anyone would ever be angry with the driver of the bus that does turn up. However justifiable your frustration might be, it's not in any way justifiable to vent it on someone doing a low-paid job. Someone who has no control whatsoever over what happened to some other bus. A lot of people seem to forget that it's a service, not a right.

I've a lot of sympathy for people getting stranded by irregular buses not turning up. When I was younger, I often had to wait three or four hours for what was supposed to be an hourly bus. This was usually after working a ten hour shift. There was no shelter at the bus stop. Sometimes, I'd be soaked through. It never even occurred to me to (a) tell the driver how long I had been waiting, (b) ask the driver what happened to the previous buses, or (c) shout and roar at him/her. Because I knew that none of those three things would get me home any quicker. If the driver has any backbone, the third one should get me kicked off the bus.

Annasopra · 20-12-2021 10:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118353664#Comment_118353664

I do understand it. Bus drivers can and often do know what happened the previous buses because of their radios so I dont see a problem with asking them. Also the bus driver is a representative of the company that has let them down and often the customer service reps on the phone are not helpful. I completely understand the anger and frustration.

Burt Renaults · 20-12-2021 11:15pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118353811#Comment_118353811

More often than not, unless they literally see it with steam pouring out the back, getting towed away or hanging off a cliff (this is the 185 we're talking about), they don't know what happened because they've enough responsibility with their own bus. Depending on the time of day, traffic levels, etc, they can often take a wild guess. Regardless, knowing what happened to the previous bus won't help you get home any quicker. If anything, having to explain it through a glass screen and a mask to every curious old biddy who gets on the bus only serves to cause further delays. The driver has enough to be dealing with. Unless he or she can offer any practical help, it's always best to leave them alone and let them do their job.

I was always happy to go way beyond the call of duty to provide actual practical help to a passenger in need. I've chased Aircoaches for them, I've helped them with their shopping, I've reunited them with their lost property, I've stopped in places that I shouldn't have, I've gone off-route and dropped them to the door of their workplace when it was raining, I've woken them at the terminus on the last bus and then driven them home. I even gave someone cash to get the last Luas one night because they missed the last 14. I always draw the line at being an irate customer's verbal punchbag, just because I happen to be wearing a uniform.

Citrus_8 · 20-12-2021 11:16pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118353811#Comment_118353811

It should be forbidden talking to driver. Passengers frustrate the drivers who then need to continue driving full bus of other people and be responsible for everyone. While the shouter is then sitting and relaxing. Not fair. It's unethical to ask driver things which are not their direct job and hold a bus and waste other time who are waiting for the bus in the other stops and also are on the bus. There is a customer support for that - they are representatives of the company, not the drivers who are just operators.

Annasopra · 20-12-2021 11:39pm

Maybe its a case of educating passengers a bit more then...

Eduard Khil · 20-12-2021 11:55pm

17a is a GAI bus that serves Beaumont hospital the service in the past 6 months has been increasingly poor buses not turning up 3 buses turning up at once.

In the evening time trying to get one at Blanchardstown shopping centre the terminus there can be 4 of them parked at 5pm with the buses due either 10 or 15 minutes apart and none will start they just stay parked while the drivers chat.

TFI need to conduct a quality assessment survey with passengers in the new year to see just how badly this service is currently running it's like a zombie bus service some days.

Go-Ahead Dublin City Routes - Updates and Discussion

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