BusConnects Dublin - Big changes to Bus Network

Don’t get me wrong, personally I agreed with the view that some routes should stay on Dame St/College Green, but I think that we have moved on at this stage, and this is the best possible compromise.

This is about the network, not the infrastructure, and the revised routings so this is the correct thread for the discussion.

I don’t really see how you can improve on the draft plan that the NTA have without massive doglegs across to Winetavern Street and back, assuming Parliament Street is out of the equation as it appears to be destined for pedestrianisation too.

For one the route via St. Stephen’s Green reinstates an original connection that was removed some time ago during LUAS construction, and I suspect that it’s a lot more free flowing than the alternative via Winetavern Street.

By removing Spines from around O’Connell Bridge I think you would get a very large pushback. A basic concept of the plan was based on the Spines connecting together at one place.

You can do it with radials such as the 23 & 24 or 71 & 72 and indeed the 80 which have that freedom to be added on top of the Spine network and divert.

The 71 & 72 will dogleg via Winetavern St every 15 mins.

Church Street will have a bus every 10 minutes via the 23 & 24 - that’s not exactly infrequent and is more than it has now.

I quoted combined frequencies for the 71 & 72 and 23 & 24 simply because the 71 & 72 and 23 & 24 in each case follow the same route out of the city at least as far as the canal in the same way as the Spines have core sections. If someone wants to connect from a Spine the combined frequency is the relevant one rather than the individual routes.

The frequencies quoted are all day long.

They 71/72 intersect with all Spines except the H, but passes close to it, and the 23/24 and 80 all intersect with every Spine except the H-Spine.

Just to clarify that, in case that it’s not clear, the 23 and 24 will have an integrated timetable, as will the 71 and 72. They won’t be timetabled individually. Just in case you haven’t realised that! ;-)

They should be timetabled in the same manner as a spine, to offer a 10 minute frequency along the core section from Glasnevin inwards.

You could make exactly the same argument as your postulating above about how the A1, A2, A3 and A4 (or any of the Spine routes) can possibly integrate despite all having different termini.

That’s where getting the stop by stop scheduling right is important. You work back from the point where the routes join to the terminus of each route to decide the departure times. So, if you look at the H1 for example, the inbound terminus departure times aren’t equally spaced all day as they’re dependent on the running times from the terminus to the point where the route joins with the H2 and H3, which changes at different times of the day.

As to whether it will actually work, that’s another matter, as that depends on the quality of the schedules. But done properly, the schedule should deliver an integrated service along the core section.

Ok to explain the scheduling processs:

Every individual departure on each route in Dublin already has a stop-by-stop timetable which in turn is used to generate RTPI times by applying the predictive running times to the GPS location of the bus.

On the “BusConnected” routes, the Spine routes should be scheduled together from where they meet. The individual times for stops before that point are worked backwards using the appropriate running times depending on the time of day.

Punctuality is measured based on the actual times at each stop compared with the schedule. There is a box in the driver’s cab which will tell the driver if the bus is running early and there are designated stops agreed with unions where buses can wait to catch up on time. Penalties apply where a bus is more than 1 minute early or more than 6 mins late all along the route.

Taking the H Spine, here is the H1 for example:

Inbound the H1, H2 and H3 timetables are integrated together from stop 604. The times prior to that are worked back to the terminus based on the different running times applicable depending on the time of day. If you look at the schedule, you’ll see that the running times are applied to groups of departures.

The same principle will apply to each of the Spines.

Getting the running times right is key and doesn’t always work. When the N4 launched for example, the running times were far too generous and buses were having to stop almost at every stop to keep to time. Revised running times were implemented two months later that were more realistic.

GoAhead tend to schedule conservatively and this often leads to buses crawling along at times which isn’t a good thing.

So you can see that there’s a massive amount of work involved in coming up with the working stop-by-stop schedules and the driver/bus rosters to operate them.