BusConnects Dublin - Bus Network Changes Discussion

That would be warranty work from volvo DB do the same

The mechanic aspect of go aheads 'reasoning' is only part of the reason for so many cancellations. A large backlog of repair & maintenance work built up but buses with serious defects were being sent out in service over driver objections. This happened repeatedly.

The NTA told them services had to operate. Concerns were raised to the RSA who arrived unannounced in Ballymount to check & they told them to repair said buses before they were allowed back into service. For obvious reasons there is no way go ahead management will highlight this, like lots of workplaces what can be git away with will be got away with I suppose.

So Go-Ahead were cutting corners and putting public safety at risk. No doubt they were probably putting drivers under pressure to drive these death traps and they'd point the finger at the driver if there was to be an accident.

I highly doubt they'll get any PA's anytime soon…

The 75 was terrible, you've had dirt and trash in between seats too…

That's the clientele, unfortunately. Certain routes were worse than others, but I always remember the 75 having a much higher proportion of what can only be described as absolute scum. Especially on weekends and during school holidays. Some days, there literally wouldn't be a clean seat on the bus.

About €5 million in fines have been issued from the NTA to Dublin Bus & Go-Ahead Ireland over fresh complaints about ghost buses since the E-Spine came out 2 weeks ago.

Also in the news about BusConnects; a councillor in the Glencullen Sandyford area was saying to the Irish Independent that residents in Kilternan were not happy with them losing the 63 bus to Dún Laoghaire.

Many of these passengers are students who went to school or college on the 63 bus. I am not sure if they were students attending Cabinteely Community School & IADT in Bakers Corner.

The 63 bus used to go along Pottery Road between Bakers Corner and Cabinteely to maybe pick them up to bring them into school or college & then do the reverse journey home in the afternoon and evenings.

I think the students in this case now may have to take an extra bus to get them to school or college or to walk from the bus stop to the school or college throughout the week.

A lot of the other passengers who were impacted by the loss of the 63 were complaining about the loss of the direct link to Dún Laoghaire.

If those passengers were relying on transfers on the Dart at Dun Laoghaire on their morning commute throughout the week. They have now said to the councillor that they have to use private transport to do their morning commute from now on.

EDIT: The Irish Independent article is here.

Probably hard to measure, but I wonder how many previous bus users (before BusConnects) have moved to cars/private transport since the roll out affected them.

Another site talked about the E spine buses not being able to cope with demand; school kids waiting up to an hour to get on a bus because they are all passing full, because the frequency has reduced vs pre-BusConnects.

Parents will then just drive them to school and you cant blame them. Same with this example in the article.

The principle of connecting buses makes sense, only IF the connections are reliable.

For those commuters that used to get a single bus to and from their destination that are now expected to change buses, knowing that there are likely to be delays or cancellations on both routes, you really cant blame them for driving the car instead.

It does appear that BusConnects has lost the room, as far as a lot of commuters are concerned.

Can we ever just get on with it and build a bloody Metro!

A metro population of 2.3 million people and growing is just not going to function on 2 tramlines, a coastal train and buses.

Yes

What were the plans for DART coastal south?

Are there any plans to connect the Luas at Brides Glen to the DART at Shankill?

Dart South: close all the level crossings and improve capacity between Greystones & Bray. It looks like just the Greystones bit is going ahead but they haven't even published the plan yet.

Luas: Cherrywood to Bray Dart is in the long term plan, mid 2030s possibly.

I wonder when the modelling suggests that the buses will reach capacity, based on the projected population growth.

If the capacity is due to be reached in the next 10 years, its hard to see any new rail/luas infrastructre being live by 2035, bar the tiny Green line extension to Finglas.

Car ownership is also increasing. We have record numbers of cars on the roads.

All forms of transport are increasing because of the population increase.

Fingluas was brought forward. The Bray extension is relatively simple, so might move up the list.

It would be interesting to know what the like-for-like increase in usage is for each spine, stripping out the totally new services such as new orbitals or 24h services where none previously existed before.