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The Dublin Coach Experience

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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 5,776 ✭✭✭Old diesel


    Stephen15 wrote: »
    Rumour going around another one has caught fire tonight.

    How many incidents are needed for someone official to start looking into what's going on.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,001 ✭✭✭ Roberto Square Hangman


    Old diesel wrote: »
    How many incidents are needed for someone official to start looking into what's going on.

    If you google the company you can see the RSA have already been investigating them and DC have been fined.


  • Registered Users Posts: 24,647 ✭✭✭✭punisher5112


    If you google the company you can see the RSA have already been investigating them and DC have been fined.

    Fines which would make you laugh.

    They don't turn the setras off as they won't start again, smoke spewing out, lights faulty everywhere, bits hanging off or missing.

    They are an absolute joke to be honest.

    Should be a proper crack down on all psv ....


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,001 ✭✭✭ Roberto Square Hangman


    Fines which would make you laugh.

    They don't turn the setras off as they won't start again, smoke spewing out, lights faulty everywhere, bits hanging off or missing.

    They are an absolute joke to be honest.

    Should be a proper crack down on all psv ....

    We need the likes of VOSA to come in here and clean up the place properly.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,935 ✭✭✭TallGlass


    How are they getting DOEs for some of the buses alone is a mystery. Theyd have to pass a visual, I guess and unless your blind most of the buses bodywork is shocking.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 24,647 ✭✭✭✭punisher5112


    TallGlass wrote: »
    How are they getting DOEs for some of the buses alone is a mystery. Theyd have to pass a visual, I guess and unless your blind most of the buses bodywork is shocking.

    Has to be in house.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,001 ✭✭✭ Roberto Square Hangman


    Has to be in house.

    It is in-house


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,964 ✭✭✭Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime


    It is in-house

    Is that not against CVRT rules ?

    And anyways, their not on the CVRT register for testing

    https://www.cvrt.ie/en/About-CVRT/Pages/CVR-Test-Operator-Register-.aspx


  • Registered Users Posts: 910 ✭✭✭XPS_Zero


    Journal.ie did a bit on the bizzare price differences between Translink and Expressway the other week. Not QUITE understanding that while they are the same route they are different companies with different revenue systems that cover different %'s of the work on said route, use different currencies and vat rates etc....


    ...anyway. You can always get a good laugh (or migrane) reading the comments on that website, it's hilarious, or scary, depending on the day, how uninformed people are. One person suggested that BE was expensive because "someone has to pay for all the free houses"...what BE's fares had to do with non existent free houses I'm not sure....but that wasn't the one that amused me, it just confused me.


    It was second or so most popular comment, and it suggested that the other companies are well worth looking into, and it mentioned DC only charging a tenner...and I thought ....if only you guys knew that you're taking your life into your hands for that discount!:D


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,935 ✭✭✭TallGlass


    Has to be in house.

    No problem with this at all. However, do the RSA not pull some buses from in-house place and do an audit on how good they are conducting the test or is a case till a bus crashes and kills a few people? Funny thing is, it won't be the company in that case, it be the poor fella that signed it off that will get sued to the hilt and the company will deny anything.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,001 ✭✭✭ Roberto Square Hangman


    Is that not against CVRT rules ?

    And anyways, their not on the CVRT register for testing

    https://www.cvrt.ie/en/About-CVRT/Pages/CVR-Test-Operator-Register-.aspx

    I only recently learned it isn't, since i moved to Cork anyways.

    If you look up Dermot Cronin motors & Cronins Coaches in Cork they are one and the same company doing their own CVRT's as well as other vehicles.


  • Registered Users Posts: 12,077 ✭✭✭✭Gael23


    The M9 service is terrible. Never on time and always really old buses.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,776 ✭✭✭Old diesel


    If you google the company you can see the RSA have already been investigating them and DC have been fined.

    I meant the fires as a specific issue


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,001 ✭✭✭ Roberto Square Hangman


    Old diesel wrote: »
    I meant the fires as a specific issue

    I’d have expected the more modern stuff to have fire suppression equipment installed. One would need to ask themselves is some of it arson.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,935 ✭✭✭TallGlass


    I’d have expected the more modern stuff to have fire suppression equipment installed. One would need to ask themselves is some of it arson.

    It's pretty much 50/50 to me. The buses are so bad it wouldn't surprise me if it just burst into flames in the engine.

    Its just odd to me that the engine compartment is badly damaged and the front of the other bus just went up.

    Sure there was a car park in the UK that went up cause of one car going on fire.

    But just as easily be arson I suppose.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,001 ✭✭✭ Roberto Square Hangman


    TallGlass wrote: »
    It's pretty much 50/50 to me. The buses are so bad it wouldn't surprise me if it just burst into flames in the engine.

    Its just odd to me that the engine compartment is badly damaged and the front of the other bus just went up.

    Sure there was a car park in the UK that went up cause of one car going on fire.

    But just as easily be arson I suppose.

    From what I was told it was the astromega that went up first taking the Setra with it, unless it was electrical at front I don’t know really.

    I remember that car park you are on about. There was some nice stuff lost in that I think.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,048 ✭✭✭Truckermal


    One of them broke down in Naas either Friday or Saturday!


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,857 ✭✭✭patrickc


    I heard one had to stop and passengers transfer to another over the weekend on the m50, why because a wheel was about to fall off due to loose wheel nuts!


  • Registered Users Posts: 910 ✭✭✭XPS_Zero


    From the passengers point of view, what is the point having a dirt cheap service if there is a good chance it's a shoddy worked to death bus that might sputter out and stop...thus not getting you the advertised fast journey time..and you have to wait around for a transfer?


    Also TBH I've never had a problem paying higher fares (within reason, and I take the same attitude to airlines, in the US the pilots pay is shocking) to get better wages. I want the guy driving me careering down the road at 70-80km/ph to be well fed and satisfied, not worrying about his finances.


  • Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,350 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    XPS_Zero wrote: »
    From the passengers point of view, what is the point having a dirt cheap service if there is a good chance it's a shoddy worked to death bus that might sputter out and stop...thus not getting you the advertised fast journey time..and you have to wait around for a transfer?

    The strange thing is, they aren't any cheaper then Aircoach/GoBus/Citylink/etc. on their equivalent routes, yet Aircoach/GoBus/Citylink/etc. seem to be able to operate excellent services, with good quality vehicles, excellent maintenance and high reliability for the same ticket prices.

    So I don't think it is really about being "dirt cheap", I'd say it is more of a case of DC having a monopoly and squeezing every cent of profit out of it that they can by running old, badly maintained, second hand coaches.

    You can see that they operate a much better service to Belfast, where they face lots of competition.

    I've always said, monopolies are bad, public or private.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 910 ✭✭✭XPS_Zero


    Which is why I support he bus plan of tendering, a monopoly means one strike = the entire network shuts down, whereas with that plan we still have unions, we still have collective bargaining, we still have workers rights, we still have well paid workers, but they don't have the power to hold the public to ransom by monopoly.


  • Registered Users Posts: 28,928 ✭✭✭✭end of the road


    XPS_Zero wrote: »
    Which is why I support he bus plan of tendering, a monopoly means one strike = the entire network shuts down, whereas with that plan we still have unions, we still have collective bargaining, we still have workers rights, we still have well paid workers, but they don't have the power to hold the public to ransom by monopoly.

    they already don't have the power to hold the public to ransom. they haven't for a very long time. a monopoly in subsidized services is fine as long as it is managed properly.

    shut down alcohol action ireland now! end MUP today!



  • Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,350 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    they already don't have the power to hold the public to ransom. they haven't for a very long time. a monopoly in subsidized services is fine as long as it is managed properly.

    Complete nonsense, last year we saw BE drivers try and hold the country to ransom for three weeks with their strike. It only failed because the private operators were their and people were able to use them instead. Many people were still highly inconvenienced, but it wasn't as bad as it would otherwise have been. The country mostly kept moving.

    Previously CIE strikes brought the entire country to it's knees. The fact that services have been broken up and de-monopolised means it is more difficult to do that now.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,314 ✭✭✭KyussB


    Earlier this week I got the bus from Belfast to Dublin and back, and on both occasions, witnessed the police arrest someone getting off the bus.

    The first time, I was boarding an outbound bus, and in front of the inbound bus that just pulled in behind us, saw the police tackle a guy to the ground and arrest him - "don't see that very often..." I thought.

    The Next Fucking Day - I am on the inbound bus, and three drunk guys are on it too (this is becoming more and more normal for their buses) - one of them becomes aggressive after unintelligibly asking the driver a question, shouting increasingly angry racist abuse at the bus driver.

    Then a woman intervenes telling him to stop, pointing out that the driver has to concentrate on driving, and then he gives her a fuckton of shouty abuse - continuing to alternate between racist abuse towards the driver, shouty abuse towards the woman, threatening to hijack the bus, threatening to have someone waiting to attack the woman (and possibly driver, did not hear clearly) when the bus arrives, and seeming to make a semi-unintelligible phone call trying to arrange this.

    This went on for a while. His 2 mates were comatose at the back.

    At some stage it dawned on him this meant the police would be waiting. As soon as the bus pulled off the motorway in Belfast, before reaching its final stop, he and one of his semi-conscious mates rush up to the driver and he starts shouting, demanding to be let off - there was a brave lad who, earlier on, moved close to the front to keep an eye.

    The drunk guy then assaults the bus driver while the bus is moving - the lad who was keeping an eye rushes forward to help - and gets thrown forward, practically flying, into the drunk guy - as the bus driver has to break while being assaulted (cue multiple "fucking hell", "jesus christ" exclamations from passengers).

    Fair play to that lad though, as he got the drunk guy in a headlock, pulling him free from the driver and partly back up the aisle - and when the drunk guy got free and squared up to him, the lad backed up the aisle and kept the drunk guy distracted long enough, for the bus driver to turn the corner where the police were waiting.

    The bus driver finally stops early and opens the door, before things can kick off again - and (after some persuasion from passengers) the drunk guy and his mate run off right as the police pull up, practically into their hands.


    Fucking disaster of a bus-service/journey. The driver did extremely well under the circumstances, but he should not be in a position where this sort of thing can happen - if he was attacked on the motorway it could lead to a serious accident - Dublin Coach need to properly support their drivers, and make sure they're not put in situations like this (not to mention passengers, also...) - they need to stop letting drunk/high people on the busses (and have a procedure for dumping them off early), and they need to have someone there to protect the driver if something does kick off.

    I won't be using their service again, anyway. Dodgy/drunk/high folk on their buses is a regular thing, that I've just kind of shrugged off up to now, as they usually don't cause a bother - never again, though - it's just plain unsafe if the driver is open to being attacked, relying on bystanders to defend him.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,048 ✭✭✭Truckermal


    Well now that's funny as we stopped in Kildare village for a coffee yesterday and the two guys beside me were discussing some drunken incident but more so were really slating their employer talking about stuff falling apart etc etc.

    When I got up I copped the logo on his jacket and they use that for changing over driver's.


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,085 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    Locked or loaded pax is not a company specific problem really!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,907 ✭✭✭Stephen15


    L1011 wrote: »
    Locked or loaded pax is not a company specific problem really!

    Agreed but it doesn't take from the fact that DC are a shambles of a company for plenty of other reasons


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,314 ✭✭✭KyussB


    What companies do or don't do in response to a growing trend of such passengers, is a problem specific to each company, though - are they going to make sure nothing like that happens again, or are they just going to lump it on the drivers and passengers to sort out?

    If they take the latter policy - which is just plain unsafe, as it can lead to a crash if the driver is on his own if assaulted - then that's not on, there is a situation they know is unsafe, that has a fair chance of happening again, and if they don't take preventative action then that is negligent and they (as a company) need to be held responsible (preferably well in advance, before anything like that can happen again).


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,907 ✭✭✭Stephen15


    KyussB wrote: »
    What companies do or don't do in response to a growing trend of such passengers, is a problem specific to each company, though - are they going to make sure nothing like that happens again, or are they just going to lump it on the drivers and passengers to sort out?

    If they take the latter policy - which is just plain unsafe, as it can lead to a crash if the driver is on his own if assaulted - then that's not on, there is a situation they know is unsafe, that has a fair chance of happening again, and if they don't take preventative action then that is negligent and they (as a company) need to be held responsible (preferably well in advance, before anything like that can happen again).

    What do expect companies to do to be fair not a whole lot they can do if the person has a valid ticket when boarding and isin't visibly intoxicated and only becomes aggresive mid journey.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,907 ✭✭✭Stephen15


    KyussB wrote: »
    What companies do or don't do in response to a growing trend of such passengers, is a problem specific to each company, though - are they going to make sure nothing like that happens again, or are they just going to lump it on the drivers and passengers to sort out?

    If they take the latter policy - which is just plain unsafe, as it can lead to a crash if the driver is on his own if assaulted - then that's not on, there is a situation they know is unsafe, that has a fair chance of happening again, and if they don't take preventative action then that is negligent and they (as a company) need to be held responsible (preferably well in advance, before anything like that can happen again).

    What do expect companies to do to be fair not a whole lot they can do if the person has a valid ticket when boarding and isin't visibly intoxicated and only becomes aggresive mid journey.


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