BusConnects Dublin - Bus Network Changes Discussion

Not one person has explained how removing the 46a with a lesser frequency 11 will help residents on the NCR near the Phoenix park

Is that brochure with the details of the launch of Phase 6a on any official public transport website? It's great to have this thread as a resource for information and discussion but where is the official announcement? I can see nothing on TFI or the Bus Connects website. Zilch on the DB or GAI websites.

Is Taisteal Éireann (see post #13263) our mole/'Deep Throat'?

If it wasn't for this thread, I wouldn't have a clue when my bus routes are going to change.

They literally don't care, it's only an issue if howth types call their tds.

The map of the E spines on P.9 has a symbol for UCD on the wrong (east) side of the N11, roughly at the location of Sydney Parade Dart station. On the Grand Canal, roughly at the location of the Barge pub, they have a feature called 'Royal Hostpial'. If they meant to show the Royal Hospital Donnybrook, I'd question putting it on the map since it's all but invisible from a passing bus.

The junction of the N11 and Kill Lane (where the outbound E2 will turn left for Dun Laoghaire), is captioned as 'Deansgrange Village' when it should be indicated as 'Foxrock Church'. You'd have to wonder who they paid to mark significant landmarks on the maps.

Great insights, thanks

I was looking at the recent outrage about the removal of the 11 at St Pappins. They have the E spine, the 19 going to the Airport and Parnell St and the N4 is close by and there's still outrage that the 19 isn't going where the E is already going.

Can I ask how you know this? Do you work with the NTA/TFI?

There are less buses from Leixlip to the city centre under busconnects than previously. If you think that's a success that's crazy. And while the complaints from Confey may seem demanding from one point of view, it ignores just how steep Captain's hill is. A fit person can struggle with the walk up that hill, I don't know how a disabled or very elderly person could manage it. The issue regarding removal of the 66A was that for people with mobility issues who need to take the bus (the train can't bring one from Leixlip to Liffey Valley for instance), they now need to take two buses, one to get down the hill and then another to go onto a town bound bus. Given the low frequency of the routes and the poor scheduling that will inevitably result in a longer journey. Given the previous frequency was four buses an hour from Leixlip to city centre and new frequency is 2X C3 buses and 1 x 52 buses, the fourth bus could have been preserved from Confey to city centre. If you did, the absolute **** show that it is trying to get on the already overcrowded bus service likely wouldn't be happening.

And for the record I don't live in Confey, so I'm not moaning about losing my direct bus.

Nice to know how smug and absolutely detached from reality the NTA/TFI are about the actual real world experience of their service users.

Was the 155 introduced due to insufficient capacity on the N11, and if so, it really seems bizarre to be cancelling it, especially with all the developments along the route. Perhaps the NTA think they can reduce bunching on the corridor, which does often lead to jammed busses being followed by empty ones.

Interesting you mention the increased travel for less mobile passengers…on the 11, there's a regular who's wheelchair bound that goes from the terminus in Wadelai to Leeson Street every working day, he'll certainly be put out having to change although I haven't seen him in a few weeks to chat about it.

The rollout of the G-Spine has served the NTA/TFI with a good lesson in how not to operate new routes when your resources being used to run them on the streets of Dublin were stretched way too thin. They have to a degree addressed the situation in how they can instruct the bus companies to hire new drivers when necessary.

Having enough buses and drivers for these new services does provide a good backbone for the bus companies in how they can run these new routes to the best of their ability. The passengers numbers that have come out from official statistics from previous phases like the W & S routes have showed that there has been a lot of very positive results in how people are using these new services in a lot of the areas that are located outside of the City Centre.

They are generating a lot of positive feedback among passengers that are using these new routes. They will see them as big improvements in their quality of life and so on. I do agree with the point that the NTA's communication strategy does need to be improved when we will see other phases being launched under this programme.

The E-Spine is going to become a massive test now to see if that switch over from the old to the new services is going to be a sustainable one. It's going to be a big change for many people as these new services are going to be rolled out roughly at the mid-way point between Halloween & Christmas. And like it or not; that is going to be a very busy period for everyone involved which includes all of the bus passengers that will be using the new routes, the NTA and the bus companies.

It also has huge potential to go badly wrong if things don't go right during this upcoming rollout of new routes. And with the optics of a possible late November GE coming around the corner as well. It could also become a new potential headache for the new Minister for Transport to resolve as well as we head into the remainder of the calendar year.

Got the train up to Houston from Kilkenny yesterday evening. (€12, quite cheap I think)

Usual way for me to get to Finglas east would be Luas into town and the 83 bus up towards home. Last night got the N2. Fantastic.