Dublin Bus Summer Schedules

I have seen people say that these are decreased frequencies for the most part. I have not had the time to compare them myself.

Will any routes increase, e.g. the 145 to Summery Bray or the 33 to Sunny Skerries?

They have helpfully left the original timetables on their website so for each of the affected routes you can compare the previous schedule to the summer timetable.

Example: http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/Your-Journey1/Timetables/?searchtype=route&searchquery=13

The "Summer Schedule" arrangements have to be viewed in the context of what they are,part of the Company's cost-saving plan arrived at after a somewhat long and involved dispute last year.

It has been noted that in the interim,the overall situation is altering,with small yet significant increases in business across many of these routes.

In addition,with the College Green issue beginning next week,it may well not be a quite opportune time to be removing duties from those routes which travel through the City Centre.

All of these alterations involve reductions in duties,and vehicles on the routes concerned,with the theory being that No Schools=Less Business.

My gut feeling is rather than reducing service levels,we needed to be working to identify ways to get those Children travelling on the bus during the Holidays,something which the new Child Leapcard arrangements would appear ideally suited for...but the new Leapcard arrangements don't commence until the New Term...nice bit of cross-fertilization there ....:(

The Children and School Staff may indeed be on holidays,but that does not mean they have been packed into a deep-freeze for three months....They remain out there,with some level of mobility requirement,which we now appear content to tolerate,rather than stimulate.

For me,the combination of a significant Reduction in Peak Vehicle Requirement + College Green = Potential Disaster

lxflyer wrote: »

To be fair Alek on most of the routes there is plenty spare capacity to cope with the children during the day, which is when they will be out and about, rather than in the morning peak.

The peak loads drop significantly during the summer time and trying to suggest otherwise is, I think now, being a tad economical, shall we say?

No more than at Christmas when the Saturday schedules were implemented, this is trying to align the services with the demand for them, which is obviously lower with the schools and colleges closed.

Also, I'd rather see the company demonstrating that it is trying to continue to cut costs which these measures will do.

My perspective is,another way of "Cutting Costs" would be to set about Increasing Revenue.

Nobody,certainly not me, is suggesting that peak-loading don't drop during the School Holiday Period,however I am suggesting this need not always have to be accepted as a"Given".

I feel that,in the absence of the NTA or any other agency being bothered,then BAC itself needs to get innovative on attracting,developing and retaining new Youth-Centred business.

The Summer Language Student business is a case in point,with nobody as yet being able to answer whether BAC had sought information on the Numbers of Foreign Students booked in to loations such as DCU/UCD this year..?

I've no particular beef with all this "Service Alignment" of which you speak,however where we differ appears to be on what should come first...the downward alignment or the attempt to stimulate business upward ?

The worst-case scenario,which I see a great risk of developing,is where the College Green-BXD Work combines with the reduced availability of resources to create a perfect-storm of negative customer experiences with all that follows on from it !

Hopefully,it'll all be grand.....;)

lxflyer wrote: »

I think you start to do that Alek when finances are back under control - then you rebuild the product.

Right now the key is to get back into an even keel.

All well and good,if that even keel is quantifed and accepted...however with the Government still fixated upon "Dominant Market Position" as it's prime motivator,it's highly unlikely that any set of BAC accounts will ever be permitted to show the company on an even enough keel to allow it to become more assertive.

The product itself is remarkably resilient,and still retains highly desirable attributes such as Brand Recognition and Customer Regard (:))

The struggle may well be far more about attempting to protect it's current product's inherent value from predatory asset-strippers than any rebuilding in the future.

Has there been a summer schedule in other years?

Another thing to note is that the Summer Schedule will reflect, to a degree, the reduced staffing levels of drivers, as they are rostered for their annual leave during the summer months. Bus users may remember some pretty terrible dropping of departures on many routes last year, due to 'staff shortages'.

VG31 wrote: »

They were on the DB website last year.

As lxflyer has already said, they were never introduced.

adamski8 wrote: »

Holy crap 83 route has an hour wait between buses in the morning. That makes thing really hard for people traveling to work when we have no alternative buses up the northside.

I don't see any hour gaps on the new 83 timetable.

Aard wrote: »

Has there been a summer schedule in other years?

They used to do it with the 39A back when it was only a one way route only operating in the morning .

When it came to the summer break they would reduce or cancel them their reasoning being with the school holidays in place it would be less journey time for the 39.