BusConnects Dublin - Big changes to Bus Network

Conyngham Road may have a number of issues, since...

in Phase Two they only lost the 25 (Mon-Fri 22 buses and 39 drivers) but gained the 26+L53 (MF: 20B 36D) and L54 (MF: 9B? 14D), an increase of 7 buses and 11 drivers. Furthermore, it's not at all unlikely that a number of the 25 drivers may have opted to follow the road and transfer to Phibsboro or Ringsend for the C1/C2.

and now in Phase Four they lost the 13, 40, and 79/A, a total of 36 buses, but gained the G1+G2 and 60, a total of 32-33 buses - so seemingly less buses on the road, but some of the 13 drivers may have opted to also follow the road when it transferred fully over to Harristown, for whom it's another major PVR increase after the N4 that, let's be honest, came out of nowhere. (I'd be surprised if there was a major move of CNR 40 drivers to HST as the ones who are on the job long enough would have been 78 drivers previously, and if we're sentimental enough then the G2 replaced the 78 that's been masquerading as a 40).

Locals going mental. Despite driver familiarisation the 60 missed a stop on the quays outbound and the last 2 mornings the 7am 60 to the city took the wrong side of claddagh green and missed the stop leaving people stranded. Hardly the drivers fault as the driver instruction leaflet said turn right to spiddal road and take 3rd turn left to claddagh green. The stop is on the other side of the green and is the 4th left. So he was probably unaware of his mistake. The timetable fell apart at school time again today. 13.30 60 reached spiddal Park at 14.35. The evening 16.30 and 17.30 the last 2 days took 74 mins to spiddal park meaning 90 plus to finish the route. Running time is 56 mins. The 79 took 40-50 mins and that was with serving cherry orchard as well. One girl said she was crying with frustration at the length of time she was on the g1 this morning

I was wondering why the 60 was taking so long, then I looked and it’s going through Clondalkin Village?? I assumed it was going the same way as the G1.

Great on paper, terrible in reality.

I pointed this out to Bus Connects in the public consultation after their very first design.

It looks fine on paper but it's an awful bottleneck, particularly at the Central Bar where you have two (one-way) lanes, and buses going both left and right at the lights, but not enough width for a bus to pass another bus (or truck, etc.) so must wait until both its light and the light for the other lane are green.

They also just assumed that the Luas Red Line had infinite capacity so it was perfectly fine to dump passengers at Red Cow and Kylemore and expect them to continue to the city centre on the Luas.

I think one of the issues traffic wise for 60 is where it makes the right turn from le fanu road to ballyfermot road. The right turning light is green for approx 7 seconds but most times traffic can't make the turn due to the line of traffic backed up on ballyfermot Road. It can be several turns of the lights before traffic moves as if the bus pulls forward its stranded in the middle of the junction and can't proceed due to a green pedestrian light. The quicker option would have been onto ballyfermot Road at the roundabout. Its also getting stuck on kylemore Road due to 2 sets of pedestrian lights and a lollipop woman coupled with abandoned and badly parked cars at school timed. The stop on lefanu Road and kylemore Road in both directions are only seconds apart. The inbound stop should have been further back at St John's college. Kids either get off the bus at the gala and walk after the bus for johns college or go past the school and walk back. Most of what's happening was brought up at the consultations but was ignored

Absolutely no sense of community services. Every consultation on the 60 was met with you will still have a direct bus to the city centre once an hour. The majority did not want to go to the city. The 79 came down to tescos off peak and emptied at tescos and refilled with people going back to lower ballyfermot. And the same in the other direction. It was mostly the elderly who attended the recent local meetings. Thier sole purpose for bus use was to go shopping. Most of them are on rollators and couldn't go to the city even if they wanted to as they couldn't get around. We took some of the elderly from claddagh Court down to tescos yesterday. We took the 60 to the gala and tried to board a g2 to go one stop to tescos but it was full. We then waited another 15 mins for the next bus which was a 76. So the 5 min journey on 79 took 25 mins. On the return journey we waited 14 mins on a g2 to go back to the gala to connect with the 60 but it wasn't tracking so we missed it. We then waited 17 mins for a g1 and carried thier shopping up frim clifden Road. It not fat but elderly people find it a fair distance. 2 of them said they wouldn't have managed it without us being with them. One said she would rather get a taxi than wait an hour for the next 60. Then she said the savings she would make by going to tescos would be negated by the taxi fare so she would probably shop in the dearer centa across the road. They all agreed they would miss the social aspect of the outing. The journey back from tescos in all took 45 mins. Previously it would have Been 7 mins. Its sad to see how this has impacted these people. We will be contacting all local representatives and groups to raise awareness of the situation.

Who would have thought that the hourly radial would be the bus of choice over the spine ? Eh, anyone in Ballyfermot. The G1/G2 is a mess of a route at peak hours, takes about twice the time of the 79/60 route, mainly due to the bottleneck from Mount Brown down to Emmett Road. This evening I checked out the times and saw that the 60 was due to leave Burgh Quay at 5.37. I left work at 5.15 and reached the stop at 5.25, not wanting to take any chances. G2 arrived at 5.30, but I let it go. 5.40 came and I was starting to get a bad feeling. At 5.45 the 60 arrived, so I thought, ok, not too bad. Bus pulls up to the stop and the driver announces that the bus is breaking down and he’s only going to the next stop !!! Get the G1 or G2 is his advice. Brilliant. Finally at 6 O’Clock a G1 arrives. A full 30 minutes after the G2. So much for buses every 12-15 minutes ! Got home at 6.50. Over an hour and a half after leaving work. This so called service is a farce. We need more frequent 60’s on the route, at least at peak times in the evening, or, one of the G1/G2 needs to go down the quays.

https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-news/ballyfermot-locals-frustration-new-busconnect-25304837

As somebody who lives in Ballyfermot, I think the frequency of the 60 is too low (should be 30 minutes) and to be honest no route in Dublin should be hourly.

I also think the 60 should be rerouted slightly; travel via the village instead of the detour via Le Fanu and also take the 79a routing once it gets to the end of Sarsfield road after Decies. That should help alleviate pressure on the G1/G2 and decrease the journey time.

Also, the turn onto Claddagh Green (shop side) is actually the 4th turn; claddagh road, moycullen, claddagh green (west side) and then claddagh green (east/shop side) so the driver manual/literature is worng if it says take the 3rd turn.

I generally support the idea of the G-spine following the old 40 route but Mount Brown/Old Kilmainham was always a nightmare, especially outbound in the evening. They should of put in place soem temporary solution to increase traffice flow or put in a bus gate.

Lastyl, while both G1 and G2 are experiencing issues, its the G1 in particular that seems to performing very poorly.

Had me wondering would the locals be happy to sacrifice the 60 in favour of a more frequent "local" service (maybe 30 minutes?) that did the old 79 route as far as Heuston station ?

Would it be achievable to make the 60 every 30 mins given the ongoing driver shortages?

I have heard that some NTA officials paid a visit to the garage which operates the G spine earlier this week to see how things were running. They were offered the chance to listen in on some of the phone calls coming in to complain about the new services.

Apparently they were horrified and couldn't understand why there were any complaints at all. At least one phone call contained a physical threat to the inspector who answered it. The NTA officials quickly left with their tails between their legs.

So this is what we are dealing with. Naïveté and stupidity from those charged with running a transport service for the public. They just don't appear to have a clue.