Unofficial Bus Strike...

dub_commuter

shltter wrote: »

Was there windows broken

Anyone can ring Gerry Ryan or anyone else and claim to be whoever they want

If there was then surely there would not be a problem of the media trained Cliona inviting the media around to see the smashed windows, and asking all the people who were there this morning what happened.

_blank_

herya wrote: »

I would have believed you if not for the fact that I had to sit on the bus in Donnybrook for up to 15 minutes on numerous occasions - waiting for a new driver to take over. They are notoriously late.

Same as on the 128s that stop in town outside the Camera Shop, and the Laughter Lounge on the other side.

Waiting for a driver to arrive, drink his coffee, chat to his mate, then move the bus when he feels like it.

Fifteen minute waits sometimes while they sit on their holes.

dub_commuter

herya wrote: »

I would have believed you if not for the fact that I had to sit on the bus in Donnybrook for up to 15 minutes on numerous occasions - waiting for a new driver to take over. They are notoriously late.

There are some routes where there are too much running time. That result in this kind of issue.

But at the same time there are areas where there are the opposite problem, there is not enough so services frequently run late.

Look at the 39's a few years ago when the traffic was bad, and you'd see at Blanch Shopping centre, loads going to ongar but nothing the other way.

The reason? Not enough running time allowed for the traffic.

Jip

shltter wrote: »

Was there windows broken

Anyone can ring Gerry Ryan or anyone else and claim to be whoever they want

Well there you go, you're hillarious. So everyone is wrong bar the moronic drivers from Hartstown who are enforcing bully boy tactics.

Yourself and dubcommuter nicely skirted the issue on intimidation, yourself by basically saying it's not a driver, commuter by simply ignoring it.

dub_commuter

Des wrote: »

Same as on the 128s that stop in town outside the Camera Shop, and the Laughter Lounge on the other side.

Waiting for a driver to arrive, drink his coffee, chat to his mate, then move the bus when he feels like it.

Fifteen minute waits sometimes while they sit on their holes.

The Ironic thing is this is what the November 2007 strike is about, people striked because they did not want to change in the city centre because people like you would be waiting for a new driver.

However the public all moaned then about the drivers going on stirike and how dare they. Because the company got pretty much what they want, the outcome is you have to wait for buses.

jaybird

herya wrote: »

I would have believed you if not for the fact that I had to sit on the bus in Donnybrook for up to 15 minutes on numerous occasions - waiting for a new driver to take over. They are notoriously late.

You don't think its possibly because THAT driver you are waiting for was also given not enough time to get to that bus to take over? Jeez, think the whole thing through, will ya?

_blank_

dub_commuter wrote: »

The Ironic thing is this is what the November 2007 strike is about, people striked because they did not want to change in the city centre because people like you would be waiting for a new driver.

However the public all moaned then about the drivers going on stirike and how dare they. Because the company got pretty much what they want, the outcome is you have to wait for buses.

Look, I don't care about "the issues" I care about my bus service being on time and being there when the timetable tells me it is going to be.

Couldn't give a fiddlers about the strikers, apart from the fact that they are inconveniencing me and thousands others.

I don't care what the strike was about in 2007, I was inconvenienced then, I'm inconvenienced now (in 2007 I was living on the 128 Route, now I live in Finglas btw).

I am inconvenienced when the 128 stops for fifteen minutes in town.

Damn right I screamed blue murder when the drivers striked in 2007, just as I am now.

The public is right, HOW DARE the drivers inconvenience their passangers.

herya

dub_commuter wrote: »

There are some routes where there are too much running time. That result in this kind of issue.

BS, you can see the first driver bollocking the second for being late. I remember going to the airport on a DB bus (never again) and it had to change drivers mid way, we were waiting for a new driver for ages and at the end all the passengers had to drag their luggage out and try and hail taxis to make it as he never appeared. The first driver was very distressed but he said he is not allowed to continue driving.

KC61

herya wrote: »

I would have believed you if not for the fact that I had to sit on the bus in Donnybrook for up to 15 minutes on numerous occasions - waiting for a new driver to take over. They are notoriously late.

I think the problem is probably more that the bus is arriving earlier than the scheduled handover time. The driver change actually has a scheduled time, if traffic is light then the bus can get there earlier ahead of that scheduled time.

The second driver is returning to work at the time he is scheduled to do so rather than the time the bus actually arrives at the stop.

_blank_

jaybird wrote: »

You don't think its possibly because THAT driver you are waiting for was also given not enough time to get to that bus to take over? Jeez, think the whole thing through, will ya?

What does this mean?

How can someone not have enough time to get to work?

I'm not paid for MY travel to work time, by the way.

herya

jaybird wrote: »

You don't think its possibly because THAT driver you are waiting for was also given not enough time to get to that bus to take over? Jeez, think the whole thing through, will ya?

No, you can see them walking up happily not a bother in the world and the first driver gives them bollocking for being late. Sorry to burst your bubble. I pass Donnybrook every day so have big bunch of observations.

dub_commuter

KC61 wrote: »

I think the problem is probably more that the bus is arriving earlier than the scheduled handover time. The driver change actually has a scheduled time, if traffic is light then the bus can get there earlier ahead of that scheduled time.

The second driver is returning to work at the time he is scheduled to do so rather than the time the bus actually arrives at the stop.

Bang on. Exactly what I was trying to say,

Dyr

On the changeovers, I've seen 4 changeovers in parnell square take 10 minutes because the second driver was too engrossed in conversation with one of his buddies to actually get on the bus and go to work.

Those poor poor drivers. :rolleyes:

herya

KC61 wrote: »

I think the problem is probably more that the bus is arriving earlier than the scheduled handover time. The driver change actually has a scheduled time, if traffic is light then the bus can get there earlier ahead of that scheduled time.

I agree it may account for a number of such cases, but seeing it often I can tell how the drivers behave. Also I can't see how a bus can "save" 15 minutes on a relatively short route.

dub_commuter

Personally I don't agree with changeovers in the City Centre, they should happen at the start or end of the route or in the depot and I've always said this.

However management wanted to introduce them on the 4/128 when previously this did not happen in Harristown.

Jip

Hey Dubs, don't be ignoring the fact that you've been proven wrong on the intimidation bit, all of a sudden you seem unable to see any of my posts when you had no problems seeing them all day yesterday and today up to about a half hour ago. Selective myopia ?

shltter

herya wrote: »

I agree it may account for a number of such cases, but seeing it often I can tell how the drivers behave. Also I can't see how a bus can "save" 15 minutes on a relatively short route.

poor scheduling

shltter

Jip wrote: »

Hey Dubs, don't be ignoring the fact that you've been proven wrong on the intimidation bit, all of a sudden you seem unable to see any of my posts when you had no problems seeing them all day yesterday and today up to about a half hour ago. Selective myopia ?

I did not see any intimidation

shltter

Des wrote: »

Same as on the 128s that stop in town outside the Camera Shop, and the Laughter Lounge on the other side.

Waiting for a driver to arrive, drink his coffee, chat to his mate, then move the bus when he feels like it.

Fifteen minute waits sometimes while they sit on their holes.

No he takes it up when he is due to take it up, not when it arrives.

herya

Des wrote: »

Look, I don't care about "the issues" I care about my bus service being on time and being there when the timetable tells me it is going to be.

Exactly. I actually very much appreciate the drivers - when I don't know where I need to get off they are always helpful and give directions. Dublin is the only European capital I know with no map or even route inside the bus! And it took several people to explain to me that the timetable you have on the bus stop does not actually show when to expect the bus before I believed them. It's crazy, I don't know what the management is doing at all?

But apart form all this the drivers have just collectively shot themselves in the foot. I'm missing an important class tonight because all the buses there are cancelled and there is no way a friend could give me a lift with all the extra traffic. I don't give a ff what are the bill procedures at DB. This is what unions are for. As a customer I condemn this guerilla strike.

dub_commuter

The only things I have heard on intimidation are what the Dublin Bus spokesperson has said, and on here I've also heard from several staff who said there was not any which has happened. Therefore why would I comment in intimidation when I don't know first hand.

Yes it could be argued the staff have a hidden agenda by saying there was no intimidation. Yes it could also be said that certain figures in management had a hidden agedna in saying there is also. It's up to induvidual people what they decide.

jaybird

Des wrote: »

Look, I don't care about "the issues" I care about my bus service being on time and being there when the timetable tells me it is going to be.

Couldn't give a fiddlers about the strikers, apart from the fact that they are inconveniencing me and thousands others.

I don't care what the strike was about in 2007, I was inconvenienced then, I'm inconvenienced now (in 2007 I was living on the 128 Route, now I live in Finglas btw).

I am inconvenienced when the 128 stops for fifteen minutes in town.

Damn right I screamed blue murder when the drivers striked in 2007, just as I am now.

The public is right, HOW DARE the drivers inconvenience their passangers.

Are you as stupid as you seem? If you care about your bus coming on time, and thats all, why do you not listen when people attempt to tell you why your bus does not come on time? BUSES DO NOT RUN ON TIME BECAUSE THE SCHEDULES ARE BADLY DRAWN UP. DRIVERS DO NOT DRAW UP THE SCHEDULES, MANAGEMENT DO.
How dare the drivers inconvenience you? What are they, your bloody servants, no rights at all as long as you get your damn bus? And you call them selfish?
Tool.

thebman

jaybird wrote: »

You don't think its possibly because THAT driver you are waiting for was also given not enough time to get to that bus to take over? Jeez, think the whole thing through, will ya?

LMAO, yeah its never the drivers fault. Drivers are gods apparently, all of them no exceptions.

The reality is the bus service is crap (drivers and everyone else to blame in the craphole company).

Customer doesn't care about that, they just want the bus to turn up on time. They never do. I live at the end of the route. I can see buses go down and take about a 15 minute break even if they are 5 or 10 minutes late. I can see them at the rest area from the nearest bus stop to me and I see it when I'm driving past it too. There is no way I almost always happen to get a bus at a scheduled break period unless every run has a scheduled break period at Maynooth.

Also on the 38 on more than one occasion, I had to tell the driver what route he was driving (ie. where he was supposed to go). Fooking ridiculous. Another time, I was asked to get off a bus and get on the other bus along with other passengers and the driver of the now empty bus took off to somewhere else.

Another time, the road was flooded and the bus stopped for over an hour before someone else from Dublin Bus came out and allowed the driver to change route.

If you think this is good service or in any way how the service should be run then you must be trying to wind us all up. The service is a joke and the company needs to disappear. It doesn't work and it has never worked.

dub_commuter

thebman wrote: »

Also on the 38 on more than one occasion, I had to tell the driver what route he was driving (ie. where he was supposed to go). Fooking ridiculous. Another time, I was asked to get off a bus and get on the other bus along with other passengers and the driver of the now empty bus took off to somewhere else.

I'm not going to defend the 38, I used it for two years and it was shocking. But a bit of perspective here, not all routes are ****e like that.

shltter

herya wrote: »

Exactly. I actually very much appreciate the drivers - when I don't know where I need to get off they are always helpful and give directions. Dublin is the only European capital I know with no map or even route inside the bus! And it took several people to explain to me that the timetable you have on the bus stop does not actually show when to expect the bus before I believed them. It's crazy, I don't know what the management is doing at all?

But apart form all this the drivers have just collectively shot themselves in the foot. I'm missing an important class tonight because all the buses there are cancelled and there is no way a friend could give me a lift with all the extra traffic. I don't give a ff what are the bill procedures at DB. This is what unions are for. As a customer I condemn this guerilla strike.

See the laughable thing is you don't give a flying **** yet you also want to complain about the outcome, So for example you complain about the time wasted on handovers but you fail to see that DB drivers never wanted those handovers on the 128.
Handovers are a pain simply because DB schedulers never predict with any accuracy what time a bus will arrive at a particular point and they also refuse to pay a driver to be there earlier than the expected time.

So DB estimates bus will arrive at 13:00 they stop paying the driver at 13:00 and start paying the next driver at 13:00 however the bus arrives at 12:50 you sit there for 10 minutes. If DB overlapped the times so the take up driver was due to start at 12:50 even though the bus was not officially due till 13:00 then you would eliminate the majority of the handover waiting.

Either that or get a more accurate schedule.

KC61

herya wrote: »

I agree it may account for a number of such cases, but seeing it often I can tell how the drivers behave. Also I can't see how a bus can "save" 15 minutes on a relatively short route.

Genuinely you would be surprised - as an outside observer, I would have to say that the whole scheduling process leaves an awful lot to be desired. It is quite possible that a 46A would reach Donnybrook 15 minutes early - it depends on how long he was given to do the trip (the schedule may be too generous), the driver might have driven faster than normal, there could be light traffic.

Many of the issues with schedules are dictated by the restriction on driver's hours, in terms of how long they can work. This creates oddities in what would otherwise be a clockface or regular interval departure schedule.

A complete overhaul of how the scheduling is prepared is needed, and a complete refocus on the customer is also needed.

Three days into a major new timetable on the 14/14A and 48A and the OLD timetables are still displayed on all bus stops along the route. While I appreciate that there is a major dispute, these sort of "small details" are FUNDAMENTAL to operating a service with public goodwill.

The sooner that the decision on what schedules are to be operated is removed from the operator and given to the DTA the better, along with the marketing thereof. It would then be incumbent on the operator to prepare rosters to operate the schedule, and not to worry about the customer side of it.

bunyip123

meanmachine3 wrote: »

ohhhhhhh boy now you've gone and done it gunner :mad:. how dare you come out with a statement like that, you dont pay my ****ing wages dublin bus does and no one else got it. thats the most ridicilous thing i've ever heard, so no matter where you go be it on holidays with a travel agent, getting a taxi or shopping in your local super market your attitude is " i pay your wages". well lad get on the bus i drive and try that attitude with me and we'll see how far you get Mr. I PAY YOUR WAGES. what you've just said is a load of bollox. i've seen that tripe in other places before and i will not accept that off anyone. up to now i've been calm , co-operative and very polite the best i can and given my views in an ordilary manner. tell you what go **** yourself and your views. most posters in here know my temperment, if someones nice and polite i'll be the same back but if someone rubs me up the wrong way i'll hit back twice as hard


how would you describe a nice friendly driver gunner ,please tell me and dont say it aint me.

is this a joke or something? its just someone elses opinion and he's entitled to it. why do passengers and revenue not have some impact on your wages? DB makes a continual loss and it will get worse if there are less people using the service and paying money for an already rubbish service. If it was a private sector company you would have to get used to it. Grow up.
DB is like Aer lingus was years ago - overinflated costs, overfinflated egos and generally needing a kick up the a$%^

thebman

dub_commuter wrote: »

I'm not going to defend the 38, I used it for two years and it was shocking. But a bit of perspective here, not all routes are ****e like that.

Almost every Dublin Bus I've ever gotten is late. Nobody even expects them to arrive on time.

They all have issues like this and you can go on about the scheduler guy all day but all the people want is buses arriving on time and it isn't always that guys fault so drivers shouldn't be on here acting like saints that never make mistakes or that there are just some bad drivers out there.

The problem is people can't tell what the problems are in Dublin Bus as a customer because there appears to be so many problems that it would be easier to start from scratch than fix this company.

jaybird

thebman wrote: »

LMAO, yeah its never the drivers fault. Drivers are gods apparently, all of them no exceptions.

The reality is the bus service is crap (drivers and everyone else to blame in the craphole company).

Customer doesn't care about that, they just want the bus to turn up on time. They never do. I live at the end of the route. I can see buses go down and take about a 15 minute break even if they are 5 or 10 minutes late. I can see them at the rest area from the nearest bus stop to me and I see it when I'm driving past it too. There is no way I almost always happen to get a bus at a scheduled break period unless every run has a scheduled break period at Maynooth.

Also on the 38 on more than one occasion, I had to tell the driver what route he was driving (ie. where he was supposed to go). Fooking ridiculous. Another time, I was asked to get off a bus and get on the other bus along with other passengers and the driver of the now empty bus took off to somewhere else.

Another time, the road was flooded and the bus stopped for over an hour before someone else from Dublin Bus came out and allowed the driver to change route.

If you think this is good service or in any way how the service should be run then you must be trying to wind us all up. The service is a joke and the company needs to disappear. It doesn't work and it has never worked.

How is any of that the drivers fault? So they shouldn't take any breaks, because management haven't factored in the breaks properly. Ok, lets cancel all driver breaks then.

THe bus driver didn't know the route he was doing? Then he hadn't been given any training on the route, which happens sometimes. Driver says I don't know the route, management says, tough, do it anyway.

If you had to get off a bus and the bus was sent somewhere else, obviously the driver had been told to do that. He hardly decided it for himself, did he? He'd be fired if he did, for some stupid reason thats what he was told to do, probably made as much sense to him as it did to you.

People just keep on blaming the drivers for everything. Can you not see how that makes no sense? Its like blaming the till girl in tesco because they don;t have your favourite biscuits!

KC61

shltter wrote: »

Once a bill is in the drivers have NO and I repeat NO way to get it changed all they can do is request management to look at revising the bill. In my depot we are still waiting 5 years for a promised new bill for one particular road.

That is why there is such strong feelings on bills once they are in they are very hard to get changed.

I think that this is the nub of the overall problem.

The whole manner in which schedules are reviewed needs an overhaul and a customer focus.