Train commuters,what you going to do? (Merged with Commuter Hell thread)

meditraitor

KC61 wrote: »

The fastest route from Balbriggan to Malahide would be the Bus Eireann 101 to Swords and then Dublin Bus 102 to Malahide.

Ive not seen a 102 in swords in a while? how often do they run....were do they start from? The manor?

lyda

Jack2002 wrote: »

I have emailed and sent letters to all TD's and councillors in the area, the Minister for Transport, and sent letters off to Irish Rail and Bus Eireann. Think everyone really needs to have their voices heard so we get some action. I'm in Balbriggan and while they made progress this morng with direct buses they have still made no provision for anyone getting in or out of town outside of rush hour. The only alternative is the 33 which takes in excess of 2 hours which is no alternative to a train journey that used to take 40 mins. Bus Eireann needs to honour rail tickets. If they won't do it during rush hour because of the direct buses that have been laid on, they have to accept it during off-peak otherwise we essentially have a curfew placed on us for when we need to leave town (unless we fancy a 2 hour bus journey or fancy paying for Bus Eireann buses on top of our existing expensive rail tickets). Write and email - let's get heard!

Heck, Bus Eireann needs to honor their own tickets. I have a combined annual all-Ireland bus/rail ticket. I have to argue with every freaking driver that it's a valid ticket. Getting abuse from jobsworths (who even fail at that) for a ticket that costs €3,800 a year does not put me in a good mood.

But yes, everyone should mail their TD and everyone else who has a say. From what I've heard this might take as long as 15 months to fix.

<snip>

You've already posted your thoughts on rail infrastructure improvements in another thread. Let's not drag this one off-topic. HB

KC61

meditraitor wrote: »

Ive not seen a 102 in swords in a while? how often do they run....were do they start from? The manor?

Dublin Airport - River Valley - Main Street - Pavillions - Swords/Malahide Road - Seabury - Malahide - Portmarnock - Baldoyle - Sutton

http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/Your-Journey1/Timetables/All-Timetables/102/

dcr22B

For anyone who is working in the IFSC and taking the 33X home in the evening, an inspector confirmed to me that they will pick up any passengers at Dublin Bus stops (once you hail obviously) between the Custom House and the O2 on the quays.

No need to rush to Lower Abbey Street for me so!

nollaigg

No problems either way today
got 33x at 7.00 from skerries .It was full at lusk so I hope a bus turned up eventually for all the lost souls.
Into town in 1 hour not great but ok
If we did not have to go through Rush would make it 10 minutes earlier.
It all seems a bit pointless when the bus was full anyway.
got 435 home.
It was a bit of a scrum but we got there in 50 minutes or so.
Thank God for the port tunnel.
I hope they put on the 33x later than 6 or 7.
what happens if you want to go out in town?
Surely they could fill a bus at 8,9,10.and 11?

Rashers72

DB website says it goes to Tara St directly.
I was on the 06.30 service, but we turned right straight after the Port Tunnel, up under the railway bridge south of Clontarf Road, left up to 5 lamps, down Amiens St then right towards Talbot St, Abbey Theatre, up the quays to O'Connell St - I got off at the old Bord Gais offices/old Irish Times offices.
The driver seemed to be following the normal 33X route to St Stephens Green, which I thought was the 6.45am service.
Anyone know for definite, what route the 'enhanced' 33X services should be taking?

Peckham

nollaigg wrote: »

If we did not have to go through Rush would make it 10 minutes earlier.
It all seems a bit pointless when the bus was full anyway.

Can it avoid going through Rush? Would have thought bus couldn't go under that bridge on the Skerries-Rush road.

Rashers72 wrote: »

Anyone know for definite, what route the 'enhanced' 33X services should be taking?

I was getting on the one in Lusk at 07.30 this morning, and driver said he was going to Marlborough Street as that's what it said on his "board". Inspector was there at the time and he was asked should it not be going to Stephen's Green, but he was unsure and said he'd check it out. Bus followed the same route as you described and terminated on Nassau Street.

KC61

Peckham wrote: »

Can it avoid going through Rush? Would have thought bus couldn't go under that bridge on the Skerries-Rush road.

Quite correct - the only routes that a bus can take from Skerries are either to Balbriggan or to Rush.

The railway bridge over the road is not high enough to permit a double deck bus to pass under it.

Bluetonic

KC61 wrote: »

Quite correct - the only routes that a bus can take from Skerries are either to Balbriggan or to Rush.

It can also travel via Baldungan which is 0.5miles more than the Rush route.

It's roughly an extra 1 mile if the bus were to travel From Skerries to Dublin via Balbriggan, than via Rush but I'd say it's quicker (departure point MV). To the Lissenhall M1 junction six miles of the journey via Balbriggan is motorway, whilst none there is no motorway via the Rush route.

Posher

ooc99 wrote: »

Anybody figured out the best way from Gormanston?

Morning seems fine - train to Balbriggan or drogheda to link with buses but evenings seem like they must be a nightmare as there's a rail link every 2 hours from drogheda or balbriggan back to gormanston!

Thinking of driving to balbriggan and parking - Anybody know if the car park is full at Balbriggan train station by 8.20?

Ta!

I used a private bus from the City North Hotel in Gormanston this morning (Matthews Coaches). It was scheduled to leave at 7.45am. It arrived at 7.52am and took the motorway, Port Tunnel and then stopped at the O2 at 8.25am then Spencer Dock Station, Amiens Street, Connolly Station, Jury's Inn and the AIG Centre. On the way home I picked it up at 5.03pm at Spencer Dock Station and got back to the City North Hotel car park at 5.50pm. I met someone I knew on it (a regular user) and she said that was the longest it ever took. It got held up at Seville Place trying to turn left onto Amiens Street and I'm sure that won't get any better next week. I have to say I'm well impressed and I will be surrendering my annual ticket by the end of next week if a direct route to each train station from Connolly by bus through the Port Tunnel isn't agreed. I am hoping my employer will allow me buy a 6 month ticket from Matthews where I can still avail of the taxsaver.ie benefits.

Matthews do run later coaches than that but they go down the M1, then N1, through Whitehall and terminate at Parnell Street.

Oh and I should add that I bought a ten journey ticket today for 50 euro and it has no expiry date. I work four days a week so that suits. The 10 journey Bus Eireann equivalent has to be used within 7 consecutive days so I'd lose two journeys.

Tuttlinghorn

Anyone ? Still no timetable on the Dub Bus site.

Peckham

Tuttlinghorn wrote: »

Anyone ? Still no timetable on the Dub Bus site.

There are two listed here: 17.40 and 17.50.

There's also the one that leaves Stephen's Green at 17.35 and gets to Abbey Street just before 18.00.

Carawaystick

Bluetonic wrote: »

It can also travel via Baldungan which is 0.5miles more than the Rush route.

It's roughly an extra 1 mile if the bus were to travel From Skerries to Dublin via Balbriggan, than via Rush but I'd say it's quicker (departure point MV). To the Lissenhall M1 junction six miles of the journey via Balbriggan is motorway, whilst none there is no motorway via the Rush route.

Would there be much time advantage on the M1 as double deckers can only go 65km/h?

Bluetonic

Carawaystick wrote: »

Would there be much time advantage on the M1 as double deckers can only go 65km/h?

Even with that speed I'd still say it would be quicker (it would of course depend on traffic and the speed limits in Loughshinny, Rush and Lusk - I'll work it out tomorrow.). It would surely be more fuel efficient? And also would be a good customer service idea so as not to frustrate people waiting along the Rush route.

Unshelved

DB website says it goes to Tara St directly.
I was on the 06.30 service, but we turned right straight after the Port Tunnel, up under the railway bridge south of Clontarf Road, left up to 5 lamps, down Amiens St then right towards Talbot St, Abbey Theatre, up the quays to O'Connell St - I got off at the old Bord Gais offices/old Irish Times offices.
The driver seemed to be following the normal 33X route to St Stephens Green, which I thought was the 6.45am service.
Anyone know for definite, what route the 'enhanced' 33X services should be taking?

Seconded! Was on a 33X that left Skerries at about 6.50 this morning - an extra one? I don't know.

Anyway on Amiens St it took a right up Buckingham Street. We got off there because we thought it was going to do a huge loop around Gardiner Street before it got to Tara St and it would be quicker for us to walk.

Anyone got any ideas?

urbeau

I come in each day from Laytown by rail but occaisionly use Matthews over last few years (if staying late in town or drinking) and they have always been superb. Buses run pretty well to time, very regular service, staff cant do enough for you etc. and they have free wifi onboard most buses for those who cant do without their web.

I was thinking about surrendering my annual ticket and transferring over to Matthews to get thru this crisis but the fact that the port tunnel is not likely to be in their plans is a killer as far as I am concerned. I think the buses using the tunnel will not be impacted by Dublin schools traffic as schools and colleges return but feel that those which dont use the tunnel will lose a lot of time.

urbeau

I am coming from Laytown and I agree that morning is fine (going by Balbriggan bus seems to be quickest). Evening would be fine if they put on a decent train service back from Balbriggan. I cannot understand why it is a problem to have trains running say every 15 minutes up and down from Skerries to Drogheda. After all the Enterprise is not using that segment of the line so we are talking small volumes of train traffic and I dont see what the issue is. Can only assume it is something to do with staff and overtime money as dont see that it could be traffic/signalling related.

Regarding Balbriggan car parking - I thought of this option also and it does not look like a great one. All of Balbriggan is on the meter for street parking (expensive and dont know if you can stay the day) and rail car park is tiny. I got the 7am bus from Balbriggan this morning and even at that stage the car park was 50% full. I am reluctant to pay 10 more euros per week for my travel costs anyway as dont see why I should be out of pocket so more freq service Sker to Drog would make more sense for me. By the way the 7am bus took only 32 minutes to get to Connolly so if you do decide to get up with the lark you will get parking and also make town very early. I work for an employer who does flexi so getting in early is meaning that I can take a day off every fortnight, meaning that for me every second weekend is a long one! Every cloud has a silver lining!

Bluetonic

urbeau wrote: »

All of Balbriggan is on the meter for street parking (expensive and dont know if you can stay the day) and rail car park is tiny.

All of Balbriggan is NOT on the meter for street parking, Hampton Street for one 500 meters away from the train station and is on street free parking. A council car park at the Church also has a few 100 spaces in it and is free and used daily by rail commuters, it's 800 meters from the train station so a approx an 8 minute walk. There is also free parking at Blackrock beach which is 400 meters away.

urbeau

This is good info and much appreciated, I had thought that all of the town had been "got to" for paid parking but then again I dont go there too often and only the main street and a few side streets would be familiar to me and they all seem to be metered. Walking up to 800 metres for me is absolutely no problem so this does open up the option of drive to Balbriggan each day and use bus.

Again thanks.

urbeau

Travelling in yesterday on the bus I met some friends from Sweden and they are totally exasperated over this crisis. Whilst they are happy with Irish Rail's contingency plans they cannot believe we are talking of months or worse to get the service back in operation.

Their view was that it this happened in Sweden the army would be involved with 24 hours and the waterway would be temporarily pontooned or have some other temp bridging structure put in place and that downtime would be measured in days and hours at most. You can be pretty sure that in wartime if a major artery over water was down, and only 20 metres to span, that it would be bridged in some way at the blink of an eye.

martipants

Balbriggan:
From Tuesday 25th of August: A special direct bus service will operate between Balbriggan Station and Dublin Connolly station via The Dublin Port Tunnel commencing Tuesday, 25th August for the morning and evening peak. Rail tickets will be accepted on this service.
Balbriggan – Dublin Connolly: 07:00hrs, 07:30hrs, 07:45hrs, 08:00hrs, 08:30hrs

Dublin Connolly (Sherriff St. Lower) - Balbriggan: 17:00hrs, 17:30hrs, 17:45hrs, 18:00hrs, 18:30hrs

My monthly rail ticket starts on 1st Sept (didn't buy one for August as was able to get a lift). For the last remaining days of August, can I buy a "train" ticket at Balbriggan in the morning to avail of the buses laid on, and ditto for the buses leaving from Sherriff St in the evening. Has anyone seen tickets being sold on these services or is it for existing rail ticket holders only?
Appreciate any info!

KC61

Unshelved wrote: »

Seconded! Was on a 33X that left Skerries at about 6.50 this morning - an extra one? I don't know.

Anyway on Amiens St it took a right up Buckingham Street. We got off there because we thought it was going to do a huge loop around Gardiner Street before it got to Tara St and it would be quicker for us to walk.

Anyone got any ideas?

Some of the 33X buses are following the normal route which operates via Sean McDermott Street, onto O'Connell Street and around into Nassau Street.

KC61

Bluetonic wrote: »

It can also travel via Baldungan which is 0.5miles more than the Rush route.

It's roughly an extra 1 mile if the bus were to travel From Skerries to Dublin via Balbriggan, than via Rush but I'd say it's quicker (departure point MV). To the Lissenhall M1 junction six miles of the journey via Balbriggan is motorway, whilst none there is no motorway via the Rush route.

I would be very surprised if the road via Baldungan were suitable for double deck buses. I don't recall at any stage Dublin Bus (or indeed the GNR) using any route to get to/from Skerries other than via Rush or Balbriggan.

I think people have to remember that Dublin Bus have a finite number of buses and drivers available (and before anyone brings up the topic of the recently withdrawn vehicles, most of them have already been sold), and as such they are trying to maximise the service to the people of Skerries, Rush and Lusk by offering the 33X.

I would suspect that the service pattern will be kept under review - already they've added two extra departures from Rush Station.

urbeau

martipants wrote: »

Balbriggan:
From Tuesday 25th of August: A special direct bus service will operate between Balbriggan Station and Dublin Connolly station via The Dublin Port Tunnel commencing Tuesday, 25th August for the morning and evening peak. Rail tickets will be accepted on this service.
Balbriggan – Dublin Connolly: 07:00hrs, 07:30hrs, 07:45hrs, 08:00hrs, 08:30hrs

Dublin Connolly (Sherriff St. Lower) - Balbriggan: 17:00hrs, 17:30hrs, 17:45hrs, 18:00hrs, 18:30hrs

My monthly rail ticket starts on 1st Sept (didn't buy one for August as was able to get a lift). For the last remaining days of August, can I buy a "train" ticket at Balbriggan in the morning to avail of the buses laid on, and ditto for the buses leaving from Sherriff St in the evening. Has anyone seen tickets being sold on these services or is it for existing rail ticket holders only?
Appreciate any info!

The ticket offices are open and the ticket machines are also active so cant see anything to stop you. Also it would be crazy to limit to existing holders only as some people buy by the day, week or month and that would mean that your right to travel would expire when your ticket did. I am sure that Irish Rail will also want the revenue as I believe that increasing numbers of rail users are actually taking the option to get refunds on their tickets (Irish Rail announced this option earlier in the week - you can get full refund pro rata).

My assumption would be that you just buy your ticket in the normal way i.e. machine, desk or taxsaver through your employer. I just checked on www.irishrail.ie and cant find the option to buy tickets (even though they say it is there!) and wonder if they took it off the sitemap. Went on to ticketmaster and that does work - I went through the steps to book a monthly from Laytown (starting 1st Sept) and it brought me all the way through to payment details. Of course this option does not give you tax saving but if you go on now should be enough time for ticket to get to you in the post.

So, looks as if all options are open to you. Only one which is closed off is buying a single journey ticket or return to Connolly as the timetable search has been updated to show that no services are available on www.irishrail.ie so you cant locate a service and then take buy ticket option. Dont think that the absence of this option will hold you back though.

urbeau

Unshelved wrote: »

Seconded! Was on a 33X that left Skerries at about 6.50 this morning - an extra one? I don't know.

Anyway on Amiens St it took a right up Buckingham Street. We got off there because we thought it was going to do a huge loop around Gardiner Street before it got to Tara St and it would be quicker for us to walk.

Anyone got any ideas?

Based on what people are saying about 33 I think I would abandon it full stop. I am from Laytown but using the Balbriggan bus. Getting train from Laytown and then bus and of course you have a similar option.

Balb bus took only 32 mins to get to Connolly this morning leaving at 7.00 and arrive 7.32 and expect that later buses will be making good time also. You might have noticed another poster indicating where there is free parking in Balb and it appears that several hundred spaces are available within about 8 mins walk so another option for you. I expect that you could get door to door from Skerries to Connolly in maybe an hour if you get the Balb bus route working for you and sure this must beat the 33 and other bus options out of Skerries.

Bluetonic

urbeau wrote: »

This is good info and much appreciated, I had thought that all of the town had been "got to" for paid parking but then again I dont go there too often and only the main street and a few side streets would be familiar to me and they all seem to be metered. Walking up to 800 metres for me is absolutely no problem so this does open up the option of drive to Balbriggan each day and use bus.

Again thanks.

The Church car park also has CCTV and would be as secure as you can get parking in a public place.

Bluetonic

KC61 wrote: »

I would be very surprised if the road via Baldungan were suitable for double deck buses. I don't recall at any stage Dublin Bus (or indeed the GNR) using any route to get to/from Skerries other than via Rush or Balbriggan.

I can't see how it would be an issue for double deckers. It's the sign posted route for single deckers and HGVs - their are no height restrictions on that route.

yknaa

Skerries could do with splitting the route where some single decker 'bendy' buses take the direct route to town via the tunnel and take some time off the commute and free up some seats and space for Loughshinny/Rush commuters on the remaining DD buses.

KC61

Bluetonic wrote: »

I can't see how it would be an issue for double deckers. It's the sign posted route for single deckers and HGVs - their are no height restrictions on that route.

That may be but as I say you have to remember that there are a finite number of buses/drivers available and by operating Skerries-Rush-Lusk DB are maximising the loadings on the buses that are available and offering a service to all three locations.

Bluetonic

KC61 wrote: »

That may be but as I say you have to remember that there are a finite number of buses/drivers available and by operating Skerries-Rush-Lusk DB are maximising the loadings on the buses that are available and offering a service to all three locations.

I know nothing of the number of buses only the routes where it's possible they can travel, my comments are in relation to that matter only. If a bus if full leaving Skerries and it's an express there is no point in it going via Rush as it frustrates customers along the route, the Baldungan or Balbriggan routes under these circumstances would be a better option.