Improve bus routes

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

I always find quite bizarre the concept of building expensive bypasses, often with bus lanes, and then deciding that the bus should actually ignore the bypass and go through the villages.

stehyl15 wrote: »

the 4 uses it

And also the 84/a use it when going into Temple Road and then out into Bray/Newcastle.

Even the 114 went on the bypass due to roadworks taking place in Carysfort Avenue last Saturday. It is the first time that bus went up Newtownpark Avenue in that direction for over 3 years.

OK so maybe I was a bit overzealous in my original post but I honestly see DB doing little to encourage or benefit potential customers even with ND improving things. Customer service is still a foreign concept, fares rise and service falls, little interest in dealing with the scumbag element, too often buses do not show or run excessively late, timetables are still only set at random points and are pretty useless if you are a distance away from one, extremely limited late services, single door operation (starting to change again thankfully) and like IE there's a not insignificant amount of doing things to suit mgt or staff over passengers.

lxflyer wrote: »

I'd strongly dispute that the RTPI is a total mess. There is an issue with on street displays that don't handle service curtailments, but as a daily user of the app (and I make at least one change each way every day) I find it by and large very reliable.

a street display that counts down to zero and reset without a bus turning up is worse than useless and would IMO drive even more people away from using the bus. the app may be better but more people will still rely on timetable and street displays and if they struggle to cope with even basic changes to runnings (CC only, curtained routes, detour info) what's the point.

The fare structure is a decision for the NTA rather than DB. Yes it does need changing - the issue is coming up with a replacement system that will be at worst revenue neutral. I tend to believe that it is a lot more complicated than simply reduce fares and numbers will suddenly increase.

It was long a decision that lay with DB before the NTA though and never was any effort ever made to change it. Zonal system, like the Luas or London or many other major cities, is the obvious choice along with higher cash fares and reduced fare prepay options. Obviously more complicated than that to work out exactly but should have been done 20+ years ago really.

As for the ND rollout, the vast majority of it is complete, so I'm struggling to figure out what other rollouts you are expecting? The Howth Road, and North County Dublin are the two main areas left for completion along with the 17 and 18.

Maybe it is, but seems to be dragging on and on. 18 months should have seen everything done and dusted. The two areas left are pretty big ones too in fairness. not something that'll get done and settle down quickly.

I wouldn't necessarily agree with your comments regarding the 145. The core part of the route (City centre-Bray) is direct, what you are talking about (I assume) is the route south of Bray - that section is effectively where the route is a local service rather like the 39a in Blanchardstown.

Yeah, the (sometimes) station detour and wandering through estates is pointless for a high capacity 'mainline' route. needless slow it and must over the course of a day mean they need at least one additional bus to cope, rather than run one as a more effective short route around the area. Though of course the fare structure and no transferability of a journey over more than one bus make that pointless anyway.

You could argue on both sides re the 7 in Sallynoggin - there would I suspect still need to be some service through the estate, but what is the question.

111 can feed to it at either end and running it down sallyglen opens up the other side of the road to people who otherwise wouldn't walk as far as they have to now for it (estate off Avondale and ballinclay) . No real net loss. Combine that with the afore mentioned blackrock bypass and you've knocked a good 12-15 mins off the timetable.

The 84 had long stopped carrying large volumes to/from the city since the advent of the upgraded 145. The 84x covers the peak traffic and outside of that people can switch to/from the 145. Just because a route has been there all along doesn't mean it needs to exist for time immemorial.

no but even the original redraw plan was better, running to cherrywood at a higher frequency. the current one is a ridiculous mishmash or a route with lower frequency than otherwise and political interference written all over it.

Regards your capacity statement, do you plan for something that happens once in a blue moon or 95% of the time? If we carried your argument through we would be back to overcapacity on all routes again. There is a balance to be struck here.

Indeed there is but there will always be a need for a small surplus of equipment available, be it to cover events, breakdowns, maintenance, rail closures, weather or pax traffic increases. If punters are still seeing 3 or 4 buses fly past full on the like of the N11 every single morning before finally getting one there's still capacity problems. And for every 1 that still stays there and waits how many of already given up and found alternate means because of long waits and overloading? A poster here and their story of the 4 is the perfect example of this, multiply it thousands of times across the city...

Routes 90, 102, 111 and 114 are still all DART feeder routes and you can buy a single Bus/Rail ticket for use to/from any DART station.

Ask for those and a lot of times you just get blank looks of incomprehension. Better still is trying to convince station staff to let you through the barrier with a bus ticket