Disruption to Dublin Bus services

AlekSmart

Probably best to ring the garage and check before leaving home

Good advice Howiya,at least up until Mid December it was......

Since then however,Dublin Bus has operated a new central control system which reduced the numbers of Garage Supervisory Staff substantially.
This now means that at times like this the individual Garages simply do not have anybody there to answer YOUR Phone Call.

Simultaneously it (Dublin Bus) appears to have forgotten that to compensate for that a much improved Head Office Information line is required...Oh well maybe next year sigh .......

Whippersnapper

The 45 stops at Woodbrook supposedly. Is that Woodbrook outside Bray? Near the boys' school? Why can the 84 make it into the train station yet the 45 can't even get into the town itself? The 145 is going to Bray but doesn't say what part.

devnull

AlekSmart wrote: »

Good advice Howiya,at least up until Mid December it was......

Since then however,Dublin Bus has operated a new central control system which reduced the numbers of Garage Supervisory Staff substantially.
This now means that at times like this the individual Garages simply do not have anybody there to answer YOUR Phone Call.

Simultaneously it (Dublin Bus) appears to have forgotten that to compensate for that a much improved Head Office Information line is required...Oh well maybe next year sigh .......

Unfortunately I've been caught up in this change a couple of times in recent weeks, it has become apparent that the people in the central control room have nowhere near the amount of knowledge that is required to operate the routes to the level that they previously were operating at, cue a driver on his radio last week telling the controller a road was blocked, only for the controller to ask him lots of questions as he never heard of the place before.

And unfortunately the people in HQ answering the phones are just as bad with very little knowledge of areas and routes other than what they read on their own website. the better thing with the garages answering phones is they tended to know exactly what they were talking about during disruption, whereas HQ very often you'd call just before or after the garages and they'd say something completely different. Of course in all cases HQ tended to be totally wrong and the garages right.

D.R cowboy

any news on the buses for sunday

Ham'nd'egger

D.R cowboy wrote: »

any news on the buses for sunday

From www.dublinbus.ie

Dublin Bus wishes to advise customers that bus services are operating from all garages. However, where there are still poor conditions in housing estates and high level areas the below curtailments are currently in place.

Dublin Bus are closely monitoring weather conditions, please check back here regularly for further updates or phone our customer service line from 08:00hrs to 18:00hrs and from 09:30hrs to 14:00hrs on Sunday 3rd January.

Dublin Bus apologises for any inconvenience caused.

Little they can do until they know how good/bad the roads will be on the day.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

howiya

Sunday 3rd January 2010
Dublin Bus wishes to advise customers that bus services are operating from all garages. However, where there are still poor conditions in housing estates and high level areas the below curtailments are currently in place.

Dublin Bus are closely monitoring weather conditions, please check back here regularly for further updates or phone our customer service line from 09:30hrs to 14:00hrs.

Dublin Bus apologises for any inconvenience caused.

Last Updated 10:00hrs.

Curtailments currently in place;

3 - to Ringsend Garage only

7 - to Cherrywood not serving Loughlinstown

11 - not serving Wadelai

14/a - to Broadford Roundabout

15 - to Spawell Roundabout only

17 - currently no service

18 - from Cherry Orchard Hospital to Sandymount

19 - not serving Tolka Estate

27 - to Malahide Road only

27b - not serving Castletimon

29a - not serving St. Annes

32 - not serving Abbey Park

37 - not serving Blackhorse Avenue

40d - not serving Rosemount

42 - not serving Yellow Walls

42b - only serving main roads

43 - no service

44 - to Dundrum

45 - to Bray DART Station

49 - to Spawell Roundabout

50 - to Citywest via Tallaght Bypass

51b/c - not serving Dutch Village and Cherrywood using Monastery Road

53 - not serving East Wall staying on main roads

54a - to the Square via Tallaght Bypass not serving fortfield Road

56a - to Walkinstown Roundabout

59 - no service

63 - no service

65 - to City West only

66 - not serving Lucan

66a - terminating at 66b terminus

70 - currently no service

74 - to Spawell Roundabout

75 - via Barton Road to the Square

76 - Ballyfermot Road only

77/a - to Molly Heffernans Pub via Greenhills Road and Tallaght Bypass

78a - to Neilstown/Ronanstown

79a - not serving Dieces Road and Spiddal Park, terminating at Cherry Orchard Hospital

84 - to Bray Station only

102 - not serving Seabury or River Valley

104 - stopping at 17a terminus

120 - to Ratoath Road only

122 - terminating at Halfway House pub

123 - via Philipsburgh Avenue

145 - to Kilmacanogue

150 - to Wellington Roundabout not serving Rossmore

151 - to Grange Castle only

184 - no service

185 - no service

howiya

Captain Morgan wrote: »

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Never understood why Dublin Bus run services to the likes of Dunboyne, Blessington etc

Mimikyu

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howiya

Captain Morgan wrote: »

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Just the name really ie Dublin Bus. Maybe a Meath Bus would have better served ye over the last few days

Mimikyu

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Ham'nd'egger

howiya wrote: »

Never understood why Dublin Bus run services to the likes of Dunboyne, Blessington etc

It's a throwback to the mid 1930's when private companies were bought out by the then Dublin United Tramways Company; they were the forerunner to what we know as Dublin Bus. Many of these companies held route licences to far flung corners such as Newtownmountkenneddy, Donard, Dunboyne and Maynooth, licences which still are honoured to this day. Private services to other towns like Ashbourne and Naas would have been subsumed into different companies, hence they being with what is now Bus Eireann.

Mimikyu

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MiniD

I know the weather conditions have been unpredictable and severe, but the customer information from Dublin Bus has been pretty poor these past few days.

The Dublin Bus website seems to think putting the name of a pub as a terminus point is acceptable.

3 - terminating at Vicount Pub

7 - to Graduate pub

25a - terminating at Penny Hill Pub

77/a - to Molly Heffernans Pub

122 - terminating at Halfway House pub

For anybody unfamiliar with pubs in Dublin, this information is useless. At least put the name of the road or area (with the pub name in brackets). In the case of the Halfway House Pub, this could mean either end of the 122 route, as there are pubs of the same name in Ashtown and Drimnagh. The 77A has never run as far as Fortunestown, so I'm assuming this diversion only applies to Route 77.

There are many more examples where the information given has been misleading.

25a - not serving Superquinn (where is this Superquinn?)

104 - stopping at 17a terminus (doesn't state where that is)

66a - terminating at 66b terminus (doesn't state where this is)

With another few days of snow forecast for this week I hope Dublin Bus puts a bit more effort in getting more detailed information to passengers. Many passengers rely on correct and clear information before making journeys in bad weather. I'm assuming whoever is updating the website at Dublin Bus has basic information like street names of their routes, so just pass it on to the passengers.

markpb

MiniD wrote: »

I know the weather conditions have been unpredictable and severe, but the customer information from Dublin Bus has been pretty poor.

Fixed that for you - you can leave out "these last few days"

104 - stopping at 17a terminus (doesn't state where that is)

Or, for that matter, which terminus. Most bus routes have two!

KC61

sheepshagger wrote: »

Great to see Dublin Bus using their Twitter profile to keep people informed. . . it was last updated in September :rolleyes:

That was not an official Dublin Bus site.

richardjjd

KC61 wrote: »

That was not an official Dublin Bus site.

Shouldn't public service providers should use all appropriate means at their disposal to communicate with their clients / customers / audience? Shouldn't they communicate using channels that their customers use and not just the ones they find convenient?

KC61

richardjjd wrote: »

Shouldn't public service providers should use all appropriate means at their disposal to communicate with their clients / customers / audience? Shouldn't they communicate using channels that their customers use and not just the ones they find convenient?

I'm not disagreeing with that - however I am just pointing out that the twitter site referred to was bogus - it was not an official Dublin Bus site.

The Dublin Bus website page is being updated every half-hour from what I can see.

http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/News-Centre/Travel-News/Bad-Weather/

richardjjd

KC61 wrote: »

however I am just pointing out that the twitter site referred to was bogus

Apologies, I misunderstood.

howiya

Seems bus drivers are taking it on themselves to decide how their route should be curtailed.

Tried to board a bus this morning. Driver asks where I was going. His response was Oh I'm not going that way. Decided to walk instead as assumed every other bus would be the same. Only for 3 buses to pass me while I was between stops

KC61

howiya wrote: »

Seems bus drivers are taking it on themselves to decide how their route should be curtailed.

Tried to board a bus this morning. Driver asks where I was going. His response was Oh I'm not going that way. Decided to walk instead as assumed every other bus would be the same. Only for 3 buses to pass me while I was between stops

The situation is constantly changing as can be seen from the Dublin Bus website. It could well be that the instructions changed after that bus left.

From my observations, the Dublin Bus website is being updated every 30/45 minutes as necessary.

http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/News-Centre/Travel-News/Bad-Weather/

dub_commuter

Unfortunately it now seems that someone in Dublin Bus or a group of people are now looking for excuses to not run services into certain parts.

I was on a route yesterday where we were driving through a road that was fully clear of ice or snow, and the driver was radioed to ask about the conditions from Central Control. The driver said the road was clear and perfectly driveable, however control then told him they really really want to pull out of the area, so is he sure and trying to pressure him to go out despite there is nothing wrong with the roads.

It's a similar story in Ballycoolin Industrial Estate this morning, the road was clear last night, no further snow has fallen and I actually came in on that road this morning and it was still clean and not slippy, yet now I see that they have also withdrawn services from there due to bad conditions no doubt it will save a bit of fuel and wear and tear.

I spoke to an inspector at the garage in question and he told me that Dublin Bus services are now controlled in a central control room via each garage, and therefore they no longer have any say in what happens and decisions are now made by people who largly do not know more about a lot of route than what they read on the website.

Thie was perfectly illustrated when I called them about an error in the diversion section in their website. It wasn't anything to do with the diversions directly, it was due to them clearly not knowing the route they were talking about as the information they provided was both unclear and incorrect. I got called a liar because "The Website is right" sadly before a quick call to the garage would clarrify things, but now they've kicked the staff out and are forwarding calls to HQ, it's absloutely useless.

You also have the problem of many drivers of the same route doing different diversions at any one time because of the complete lack of communication in the new useless central control situation. I was on one bus where the driver radioed to control as he wanted them to send a message out about the diversions due to conflicting information - nothing was sent out leaving hundreds of pax freezing, so the drivers resorted to stopping alongside fellow buses to help their colleagues out as that was the only way to get any information.

Whilst the conditions are still not good, it's nearly 6 days on and there is absloutely no need for as many cutbacks going on that there are. Yes there are roads that are dangerous out there but a lot of the things being avoided are perfectly driveable as long as people drive sensible and they have a bus in good working order. The fact that despite conditions are improving in some areas, yet diversions seem to be increasing, there are perfectly clear roads which are now being avoided, that is a disgrace to a PUBLIC SERVICE.

KC61

The central control centre at Broadstone is part of the AVLC rollout - what it has delivered is largely real time website updates to diversions. The Dublin Bus website has never been updated this regularly before.

With any major change like this there are going to be hiccups but the eventual benefits will be significant in that the person responsible for updating the website will be on site and aware of what is happening rather than having to ring around 9 different depots.

While there are some initial shortcomings, by and large the benefits will win out.

dub_commuter

Oh I agree, but the issue we generally have is the people in Broadstone do not have knowledge of a lot of the routes they are posting about which leads to people spouting off a lot of stuff which makes absloutely zero sense to people who actually use the routes they are refering to.

At least with the Garages when you called them you had someone who if you asked about a particular route they would know the route and the stops and know what you are refering to, whereas if you phone HQ or a driver phones central control they seem to just read from the website which in a lot of cases is incorrect.

It's frustrating as a regular user to have to phone HQ now asking for information only to be called a liar, told I am incorrect and to stop arguing with them when the fact is they have never used such a route in their lifetime and have no idea about it other than what they read, whereas I use it every day and they seem to think I am wrong as the website says otherwise.

Whilst a central control may work, it needs to work in such a way that the people who are updating it have WORKING knowledge of the WHOLE network from travelling on and running routes not just certain parts, otherwise it leads to incorrect and misleading information to customers. Whilst phoning all the garages may have been time consuming, it would have lead to a lot more accurate information.

The kind of thing that could be done in the future for such diversions is to use the google bus stop maps they have, and name for each route the stops that would be missed out, this is a foolproof way and would be of great help to passengers.

angel01

If Central control works so well as some will say, why can't we ring them rather than the HQ as when I ring up HQ, I get the wrong information, they claim I am wrong and then get told "sorry I don't know the route". I would like to speak to someone who actually knows the route and can give me accurate information.

When we rang the garage in the past, we got told exactly what was happening.

KC61

The new central control centre has only just started operating - I think people need to have a little bit of patience. It is unfortunate that just at the same time as it is being rolled out we have had the worst snowfall in years in the city.

From what I can see, the level of information being provided to the customer is far greater on this occasion than ever before - and by and large from my experience it has been correct.

I'd have to say that getting into arguments with people doesn't help anyone. I can only imagine that they are working in a stressful situation too as the road conditions are constantly changing.

dub_commuter

Trouble is when you've beem waiting for the freezing cold for 45 minutes because someone in Dublin Bus can't put something in plain simple English then what else are you supposed to do?

EG, One well known problem yesterday is that the 40D has been saying for ages that it is "terminating at shops on main road at Tyrellstown Estate."

Several issues with this
- It has no information on the stops it is missing out or the diversion, just where it terminated.
- The normal routing outbound after Blanchardstown Corporate Park is Tyrrelstown Main Road, Tyrrelstown Estate (5 Stops), Shops in Tyrrelstown Town Centre (Not on the main Road)
- Terminating at shops on Main Road gives you the impression it is running up until this stop. The Shops are the second but last stop, so it would give most sane people the impression it was only missing the last stop
- Actually it's missing out the whole estate and after the main road, it's going to the shops which is in the far side of the estate which is not on the main road.

By using the words at the estate, on the main road and the shops, it confuses the hell out of everyone because it's very unspecific. It creates an even bigger issue on outbound which has different stops rather than across the road. does it start on the main road (Six stops from normal start) Through the Estate, Or the old Outbound stop which hasn't been used in over a year near the shops.

The issues caused were today we had people sitting at many of these stops not knowing where to wait for a bus. Yesterday I got through to the garage and they managed to get the information changed as they agreed it was confusing, only for someone to change it back again.

All it needs is a common sense approach to wording it:
Normal until Tyrrelstown Main Road, bypassing/serving Estate and terminating at the shops.
Inbound: Starting from Main road, not serving Tyrrelstown Estate

angel01

I am afraid, I can't agree that they are doing a good job, I have had this problem for quite a long time. When I ring up, they clearly do not know the route, obviously reading from a book or website and cannot tell me exact details.

The information they give is basic and does not tell me exactly where I should go. The last person told me "I do not know the exact route so I can't tell you more information", well that is great :eek:

Yesterday, I missed the first bus because of the information on the website wasn't updated and the phone line doesn't open until 7am. Bit late for me when I want to catch a bus at 6.35 :rolleyes:

The website keeps telling you where the bus terminates, but it doesn't state where the bus starts from. In not all cases, will they be the same stop.

angel01

richardjjd wrote: »

Shouldn't public service providers should use all appropriate means at their disposal to communicate with their clients / customers / audience? Shouldn't they communicate using channels that their customers use and not just the ones they find convenient?

Oh yes, I would agree with this. Dublin Bus are not good at the PR front.

angel01

KC61 wrote: »

I'm not disagreeing with that - however I am just pointing out that the twitter site referred to was bogus - it was not an official Dublin Bus site.

The Dublin Bus website page is being updated every half-hour from what I can see.

http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/News-Centre/Travel-News/Bad-Weather/

It is being updated alright... with useless information which is as clear as mud :eek:

KC61

Don't shoot the messenger - I don't work for DB. However I can say that the examples that I've experienced involving route updates have actually been quite good, for example the 16 was not serving Grange Road for some time yesterday and that's what the website said. Similarly the 78A was not serving Neilstown or Fonthill for a period and that's what the website said.

I fully agree that there are some examples of insufficient information being issued, but the point that I'm making is that it is actually still an improvement on previous efforts. There is still some way to go.

To suggest that all of the updates are useless is being disengenuous in the extreme.

The depots should by and large still be aware of what is happening - is that not still the case?

KC61

angel01 wrote: »

Yesterday, I missed the first bus because of the information on the website wasn't updated and the phone line doesn't open until 7am. Bit late for me when I want to catch a bus at 6.35 :rolleyes:

Did you try ringing the garage?

dub_commuter

The garages inspector numbers have been been having their calls forwarded for the past few days to HQ, so it's not really a goer anymore like it used to be.

When the normal number is rung I've had a driver answer that they're not sure what is going on as garage staff are telling them one thing and central control are ordering another, and nobody is communicating with the drivers at all via radio, just by terminus and at base.

As stated previously yesterday a driver told central control to send a message out to clarrify things as people were doing various different diversions, they didn't do this so the confusion continued. In the old days the driver would just ring up on the radio and a message would be issued straight away.

The drivers seemed to only know what was on the website when either a stance inspector told them at a terminus or a passenger - they were clearly not being informed by central control.

Although looking outside it's going to be far worse tonight!

angel01

KC61 wrote: »

Did you try ringing the garage?

Yes and I got no answer and then when I did get an answer, it was being forwarded elsewhere.

Just looked out the window, It is not looking good here :eek:

KC61

This is odd.

Having done some checking, as far as I know the only bus route currently controlled from the central unit is the 123.

All other routes remain controlled from the respective depots, until the next rollout of the AVLC.

The website is being updated at Head Office, but they do rely on the information supplied by the garages.

angel01

KC61 wrote: »

This is odd.

Having done some checking, as far as I know the only bus route currently controlled from the central unit is the 123.

All other routes remain controlled from the respective depots, until the next rollout of the AVLC.

The website is being updated at Head Office, but they do rely on the information supplied by the garages.

I just rang the garage at lunch time who gave me the Broadstone number and says they are unable to take my call regarding the route I am inquiring about.

markpb

angel01 wrote: »

I just rang the garage at lunch time who gave me the Broadstone number and says they are unable to take my call regarding the route I am inquiring about.

That has happened me for two different H'town routes.

dub_commuter

They told me the same that they are not allowed to deal with calls about their routes as they are now simply a base with buses and are managed from Broadstone rather than managed locally. He apologised and did not sound very happy with it but the order had come from above.

It's a sad sad day when people who have done one hell of a job in the past are pushed out for people who have no idea. It seems to be however a good job people do in DB, they will always be hung out to dry by the clueless top level management.

angel01

The website hasn't been updated since 12:45, this is ridiculous, when people want to know the latest as it has been snowing heavily.

Surely when the snow is actually falling is when the updates are needed but suddenly they go quiet....is that because they actually have to inspect the routes rather than just pick an area and target it to be pulled out regardless??

Whippersnapper

I was on the bus in to work this morning and the drivers were giving radio updates on conditions to the garages as they were driving along the route.

thomasj

Buses are suspended in the blanchardstown area. Drivers have been told to stop and wait for further instruction from the garage.

LostinBlanch

Moncrieff on Newstalk saying that they have confirmation from DB that all Dublin busses have been pulled in on the side of the roads until the roads are gritted. Whenever that is. :rolleyes:

EDIT: According to Moncrieff, the roads aren't getting gritted until between 3 & 5 tomorrow morning! So you might want to take note.
I heard that a bus skidded in Drumcondra so that could be the reason. The roads are like glass to be fair.

Passengers have been asked to get off busses and apparently they have been cancelled for the rest of the day.

Can't access their site to see if this is true.

Whippersnapper

I've been told that they may not be back at all today.

Agent J

Just been announced on Newstalk.

All Dublin buses are pulling in now. All will be offline.

Also no road gritting will be taking place until tomorrow morning either.

dub_commuter

Oh Jesus christ, it's nowhere near bad enough to pull the whole network in, some areas yes whole network no.

Afraid this is a massive FAIL.

The Black Oil

Last Updated 12:45

Sort it out, DB.

Agent J

dub_commuter wrote: »

Afraid this is a massive FAIL.

Its Dublin bus.
What else do you expect?

dub_commuter

No update on the Dublin Bus website, total massive fail, come on time for the government to break this companhy up, it is clearly right to withdraw buses from effected areas, but a friend of mine has just spoke to a driver who is VERY ANGRY at the decision as his roads are clear and he wants to operate.

The maangement over the last few days are clearly out of their depth and changes need to be made sooner rather than later.

whosedaddy?

from aaroadwatch...

** DO NOT MAKE ANY UNNECESSARY JOURNEYS AROUND DUBLIN.**Very heavy traffic around the city centre most major routes. Anyone travelling today is advised to use the train, DART or Luas.** * All Dublin Bus services are temporarily grounded. * Red Line Luas services are running from Tallaght to Abbey St only.