The bastardisation of Dublin Bus/16A route

shltter wrote: »

Read the Dublin Bus terms and conditions

they can change a route at any time due to circumstances beyond their control

again, I'll see your "terms and conditions" and raise you the Consumer protection Act 2007.
Or rather I would if I could see your terms and conditions. They are not displayed before boarding a bus, they are not shown on bus tichets, they aren't linked to from http://www.dublinbus.ie/home

If dublin bus advertise bus routes so an average person thinks the route goes that way, and they don't then Dublin bus are breaking the law.

section 46, (2) (a) (i)


If you won't accept the law, beacuse dublin bus can't get it's act together, I'm sure dublin bus will suddenly start entertaining all the hard luck stories its passengers tell when fare dodging....

unless those disclaimers are on every single piece of advertising and timetables distributed by dublin bus, they are misleading. I've never seen a disclaimer stating the route may be changed on those rotary timetables on bus stop poles. Maybe that's changed, in the last few months.
but if it's not there on *every* advertising piece for Dublin bus, then it's misleading and illegal.

Gosh this thread has so many issues in it. I'm going to try and examine several of the points here as dispassionately as possible, and then in a second post try to deal with the circumstances of the situation. (I hope I can live up to my reputation Trellheim!!!).

Apologies for the length of the post, but bear with me as I try to explain to one and all the complexities of the situation.

And, before I write this I will point out that I do not work for Dublin Bus, but am a daily passenger who has a great interest in public transport provision throughout Ireland. I will also say that much of the problems identified are themselves the result of much greater issues that are prevalent.

1) Control of buses and their routing
The routing of individual buses is down to the route controller and never to the driver. It is only with the permission of the controller that a bus can be diverted from its official routing. Therefore it is unfair and incorrect to criticise the bus driver for this.

Try to remember that a controller's job is to try to manage the entire route, and not just certain sections of it.

So, why does this happen? Generally this will only happen when a bus is running so late that it is impossible for the bus to recover the time lost to get it to where it (and the driver) ought to be per the schedule. Examples of the actions that a controller may take include:

a) Picking passengers up along the section of route where no alternative bus exists until a suitable alternative route exists and then either transfer the passengers to another bus or then switch to operating out of service and then stop only to set down only.

b) Operating the bus out of service to get it back to where it should be - this is only used in exceptional circumstances and usually only where sufficient alternatives exist

c) Re-routing the bus - Again this should only happen in exceptional circumstances, for example where perhaps there is a major traffic snarl up and several other buses of the same route group are trapped - this enables some level of service to be maintained on the rest of the route.

d) Timetabled Deviations - There are some buses that do deviate from the official routing and are generally shown as such in the timetable. However, these are not always made clear by depot staff to drivers when leaving the garage.

I do have some experience of the latter, i.e. bus drivers being unaware of the correct routing, namely the 0650 westbound 75 bus and to a lesser extent the early morning outbound 65B journeys, and which all deviate from the normal routing in Tallaght Village to operate via Airton Road and thus serve the industrial areas.

On several occasions where the regular driver was absent the replacement driver was unaware of the deviation, and on several occasions would not accept that I was correct even when I showed them the timetable! It got so bad on the 75 that I would ask on boarding that they were operating via Airton Road, and had to insist that they contacted control to confirm it!! In fact, the line manager in Donnybrook whom I contacted suggested that this is what I should do every morning - despite my pointing out that this was his job and not mine! The lack of proper route handbooks for drivers containing full route descriptions, maps, and timetables (as issued by Transport for London to each driver) is something that Dublin Bus lets itself down on.


2) Buses leaving early
Again this should only happen at the discretion of the route controller and usually occurs because a bus is missing due to either a breakdown, a bus being late or a driver being absent etc. This will take place in order to preserve some form of regular service on the route rather than having an enormous gap. Obviously it is inconvenient for the passengers who are showing up for the timetabled bus that has left early, but which the controller is trying to balance the needs of two sets of passengers.

An example would have been on the 15B under the old timetable, which had buses leaving Ballyroan at 0730, 0740, 0750 and 0800. On one occasion that I can recall the 0730 operated, but the bus operating the 0740 broke down en route to Ballyroan. In order to keep an even service, the controller advanced the 0750 to 0745 so as to keep an even spread between the buses. Sure it was inconvenient for anyone showing up after 0745, but it did keep the greater number of passengers moving.

3) Buses changing number en route from one route to another
This should not happen full stop (without a change of bus being provided) - In the example quoted of the 46B that turned into a 46A after a driver change at Donnybrook it sounds like the second driver either took over the wrong bus or made an honest mistake. However, in that case I would stand my ground and ask him to contact the route controller - or you should ring the garage yourself if he refuses - numbers for each depot are at the bottom of every timetable.

4) Driver - Passenger Communication
If a bus has to deviate from the scheduled route for whatever reason there is NO excuse (full stop) for not making a clear announcement at the first possible opportunity over the pa system, and explaining the reason why. This obviously should not be done whilst the bus is moving as it is not safe to do so, but at the first available stop.

5) Dublin Bus By-Laws & Consumer Law
By purchasing a ticket on board a bus you are deemed (by law) to be aware of the terms and conditions (and by-laws) under which Dublin Bus operate. This is clearly stated on the back of every ticket issued. These are summarised in the current timetable book, and online, and are available in full from Dublin Bus Head Office. That has always been and remains the case.

To suggest that under no circumstances can Dublin Bus change a bus routing due to severe traffic congestion or other extreme reasons because of consumer law would render the provision of a public transport service impossible. If that were the case, then Dublin Bus would be fined every time a bus did not operate, and due to the vagaries of traffic in Dublin I would venture that is impossible.

The by-laws and general information are linked from the home page of the Dublin Bus website under the heading "Your Journey" and the relevant section is:

"Every reasonable endeavour is made by the Company to ensure operation of its buses according to schedule but no responsibility whatever is accepted for any failure so to operate or for any error appearing in this timetable. The Company shall not be liable for loss, delay, detention or unforeseen incidents resulting from failure to keep to these times or to run at all.

The timetable is subject to alteration, although notice will be given to passengers as far is practicable."

This is in common with every other public transport provider across the globe.

6) Provision of extra buses and Competition in the Bus Market
Dublin Bus is currently introducing into service the remainder of 100 buses that were purchased in late 2006 and early 2007 to expand the fleet. Some of these have been precluded from entering service due to:
a) Private operator objections to either new routes commencing (such as the 141);

b) Private operator objections to enhanced services operating on certain routes (Lucan QBC enhancements on 25A and 66 - objected to by Circle Line); and

c) Others due to internal difficulties (the recent dispute in Harristown over the 4/4A and 128).

The provision of bus services is regulated by the 1932 and 1958 Transport Acts, and their interpretation by the Department of Transport.

At present, a private operator may apply to operate a service, and if Dublin Bus or Bus Éireann subsequently apply to either improve an existing service or operate a new one, their application must wait until the private application is decided upon.

The classic example is on the Swords-Dublin City, where Swords Express applied to operate a service sometime in 2006 from Swords to Dublin City via the Port Tunnel. In October 2006 Dublin Bus applied to introduce a cross-city high frequency service (route 141) via the Swords QBC (including Drumcondra) from Swords to Rathmines. Because the private application was received first, no decision on the Dublin Bus service could be taken until the verdict on first application was decided upon. This took over 1 year to do. Meanwhile buses purchased with State funding lay in Broadstone (and still do) unused as the Department has still not reached a decision on the 141.

Until the current EU investigation into the State funding of Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann concludes sometime this year, there will be no further incremental additions to their respective fleets, only replacement vehicles can be ordered. In other words neither company can expand its fleet anymore other than the buses currently ordered (the 100 vehicles for Dublin Bus and 160 for Bus Éireann). There are no more buses available to improve timetables.

Statements such as "They should open the market up to private competition" ignore the fundamental problem that unregulated competition in the provision of public transport just does not work. At present we have a situation where several operators are (in very simple terms) drawing up new routes on a map and deciding where they should operate, what vehicles they should use, and what fares they should charge, together with totally inadequate penalties for non-compliance with legislation. Several operators have tried operating services that just have not worked, and this is down to poor planning in some cases but mainly to the fact that there is no proper regulatory authority.

What is needed is a central regulatory authority that:
a) Decides on the design of the overall route network
b) Decides on the timetables for each route
c) Offers routes up to tender with specific targets
d) Decides on vehicle specification - low floor access essential
e) Penalises operators for non-performance (where this is within the operator's control)

That is a summary of the problems here!

Two excellent posts KC

+1

The DTA >should< do most of the regulatory work. But it will be the stepchild of the RPA


-> holy war [ as we can see behind the scenes ] with DCC being the unwilling referees

I think that as long as drivers have easy excuses at hand, and have plenty of people willing to back them up, regardless of the individual circumstances (union culture perhaps) the less conscientious drivers will leave early, will take short cuts, miss bypass traffic black spots on their own gut instinct.

I'm sure the good drivers who dont dream of breaking the dublin bus codes will always back them up, unwilling to believe that drivers will leave early other than if their watches were out by a minute or two.

It is a shame for the several professional dublin bus drivers out there that andecotal evidence points to unprofessional behviour being more common than it is sometimes painted.