Disruption to Dublin Bus services

Dyr

Maybe? They never came back for some people. Funny to see the columns of out of service buses managing to make it up the same streets that had their routes pulled though. :rolleyes:

Be interesting to see if other transport companies gave up the ghost in the manner that dublin bus did. God forbid that this city ever have a real catastrophe

tesslab

Adverse weather conditions developed early this afternoon which made bus operation extremely difficult. Dublin Bus attempted to continue to operate services during the evening peak. Unfortunately operating conditions have deteriorated and in the interests of safety Dublin Bus will be unable to continue to provide a service this evening. Dublin Bus has been informed that a heavy programme of gritting is planned for tonight and therefore expects to be able to restore services tomorrow morning.
Dublinbus.ie and news bulletins will be updated as services resume tomorrow morning and our Customer Service line on 01-8734222 will be available from 07:00hrs.
Dublin Bus apologises to customers for the inconvenience caused by this service disruption.
Last updated 19:00 6th January.

Agent J

Buses are back off again...

lord lucan

Bambi wrote: »

Maybe? They never came back for some people. Funny to see the columns of out of service buses managing to make it up the same streets that had their routes pulled though. :rolleyes:

Be interesting to see if other transport companies gave up the ghost in the manner that dublin bus did. God forbid that this city ever have a real catastrophe

If it's not safe to drive then they have to pull them imo. They have to get the buses back to the garages to be cleaned/fueled. The liability of operating in these conditions with passengers on board just isn't worth it. Can you imagine if a bus went off on black ice,"50 injured in bus smash" the tabloids would scream and 100 "Dublin bus are eejits for running buses in them conditions" threads would start.

I know it's a pain in the arse for those trying to get home but these are unusually tough conditions we're experiencing right now.

gurramok

I can confirm that for the last hour a continuous stream of buses are heading to bed at Ringsend garage for the night!!

The noise of them roaring past my apt at crawling speed with 'Out Of Service' signs on them is quite a sight

d31b0y

Thankfully they got the Dart running again after the breakdown scare. Caused a delay of about 45 minutes (me stuck in the Dart behind the train) but AFAIK they are back running as normal again now.

Any longer a delay would have been unthinkable. Safe home everyone.

one2one

For when the website is down, someone at DB had the bright idea of setting a bebo account up. http://www.bebo.com/wwwdublinbusie/

spoonface

It's all over for today. Dublin Bus has confirmed no more buses will run today but will resume tomorrow after gritting tonight.All routes affected.

one2one

one2one wrote: »

For when the website is down, someone at DB had the bright idea of setting a bebo account up. http://www.bebo.com/wwwdublinbusie/

/facepalm

Jip

gurramok wrote: »

The noise of them roaring past my apt at crawling speed with 'Out Of Service' signs on them is quite a sight

Cabin fever setting in there gurramok ?

one2one

Why the /facepalm? i thought it was a pretty good idea!!

howiya

If it's unsafe to operate buses then that's fine.

However the lack of information coming from Dublin Bus earlier today was astonishing. Several people have cited the website not being updated from 12.45

Even Dublin Bus admit that their website failed. Pathetic

one2one

one2one wrote: »

Why the /facepalm? i thought it was a pretty good idea!!

They have it private, so you can only see if it your a friend, not much use unless they have someone constantly accepting friend requests!

one2one

Im not a friend and I get on fine?

one2one

one2one wrote: »

Im not a friend and I get on fine?

won't let me on

Says I need to be a friend. Odd.

Ginny

Luckily I grabbed one of the last 145s into town, lovely Lady driver who insisted on getting us to St. Stephens green when all the other buses were unloading everyone at Donnybrook.
Had to walk through town and it was lethal, especially on O'Connell bridge.
Funny I actually rang Dublin Bus customer care at 2pm, the phone rang out, I then rang Harristown who said there was no expected disruption to service today, and yes it had been snowing most of the morning out there,so you'd think they'd have an idea of the plan going forward.
I'm assuming as usual the site won't be updated before 7am, which is useless if people are looking for alternative transport.

KC61

howiya wrote: »

If it's unsafe to operate buses then that's fine.

However the lack of information coming from Dublin Bus earlier today was astonishing. Several people have cited the website not being updated from 12.45

Even Dublin Bus admit that their website failed. Pathetic

While I'm not defending it, even www.aaroadwatch.ie has failed on occasion, including this afternoon!!!

Today was quite unprecendented in my 20 years travelling to/from work by bus. I have never seen roads like it - the city centre was horrific, with ice covered and untreated streets, and as for the suburbs well everything was at a standstill and the roads like ice rinks. There have been several bus crashes apparently and I really cannot condemn DB for withdrawing the service. It is a nightmare out there.

The local authorities need to get their act together and provide a safe working environment on the main routes for a bus service to operate tomorrow.

I find some of the posts here really rather pathetic (and I am not referring to the website crash). Please try and remember that the company has an obligation to provide a safe working environment for its drivers and for the passengers. If that is rendered impossible by local authority inaction, then what are they to do?

I am at home now after a marathon 3 hour 50 minute Walk/Train/LUAS/Walk (Slide)/LUAS/Walk trip.

Not looking forward to tomorrow!

Corruptedmorals

Absolutely disgusted that the last update was 12:45 and there was none between then and when I left my house for my bus at 14:15. The 14:00 66 from Maynooth got to leixlip at 14:40- kinda funny really. For some reason it went through Lucan- most 66's skipping it- and eventually pulled in at the big blue building before the liffey valley sliproad and we all had to get out. So I might have made it into work if the site had been updated- could have got the train!:mad: Have been getting busses from last Saturday and they've all been fine so assumed this would be fine too since that's what the website said..

Dyr

I'm stuck in work..tempted to stay here too...

Ham'nd'egger

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

Absolutely disgusted that the last update was 12:45 and there was none between then and when I left my house for my bus at 14:15.

PFrom what we can see today, the roads went from safe to unsafe literally in minutes and with probably tens of 000's of people on it all day at any one time. Now fair enough, it wasn't up when we most needed it but unless you think it should be updated every minute for your convenience....:rolleyes:

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

The 14:00 66 from Maynooth got to leixlip at 14:40- kinda funny really. For some reason it went through Lucan- most 66's skipping it- and eventually pulled in at the big blue building before the liffey valley sliproad and we all had to get out. So I might have made it into work if the site had been updated- could have got the train!:mad: Have been getting busses from last Saturday and they've all been fine so assumed this would be fine too since that's what the website said..

Nobody stopped you getting the train, did they?:D

howiya

KC61 wrote: »

While I'm not defending it, even www.aaroadwatch.ie has failed on occasion.

Bus passengers will logically turn to Dublin Bus' own website for information. When this failed they may have gone to secondary sources like RTE, the AA etc.

We're in the age of information. If a plane crashed on the other side of the world we'd know about it. There is no excuse for Dublin Bus failing to inform it's customers of the lack of services.

KC61 wrote: »

I find some of the posts here really rather pathetic. Please try and remember that the company has an obligation to provide a safe working environment for its drivers and for the passengers. If that is rendered impossible by local authority inaction, then what are they to do?

Yes it is ultimately the responsibility of the local authorities although gritting is obviously less effective when gritting in traffic. The company has many obligations to its passengers and while safety is top of the pyramid they failed their customers in other ways today. In relation to providing a safe working environment for its drivers I fail to see how drivers driving empty out of service buses around Dublin conforms to this.

howiya

Hamndegger wrote: »

PFrom what we can see today, the roads went from safe to unsafe literally in minutes and with probably tens of 000's of people on it all day at any one time. Now fair enough, it wasn't up when we most needed it but unless you think it should be updated every minute for your convenience....:rolleyes:

That is a pathetic comment. Dublin Bus were updating their own website at least every half 45 minutes. Then all of a sudden they stop when as you point out people needed information.

Nobody is suggesting it should be updated every minute even though many cities manage to provide real time information about public transport.

Dublin Bus failed the public today with the disappearance of their updates which until this afternoon had been quite good and informative

DDigital

While the information side of things from DB was poor, (based on reports here) there was no way in hell it was safe to operate the service on the roads. From my own experience, it was the most terrifying drive Ive ever made. All clear in Sandyford at 12pm. I headed to Enniskerry, where it was like the Alps in winter. By the time I got back down to Sanyford the damage had been done there too. From 1.30pm onwards it deterioated rapidly. I can't possible see how buses would manage it safely. All the way across south Dublin to west Dublin was very dangerous.

So I can fully understand why buses were pulled.

one2one

Disapperance caused by over 8'000 people trying to access the site at one time! Seriously give it a rest, they had it up & running as fast as they could. AAroadwatch went down at the same time!

howiya

one2one wrote: »

Disapperance caused by over 8'000 people trying to access the site at one time! Seriously give it a rest, they had it up & running as fast as they could. AAroadwatch went down at the same time!

8,000 people is that all? makes it even more ridiculous

DDigital

one2one wrote: »

Disapperance caused by over 8'000 people trying to access the site at one time! Seriously give it a rest, they had it up & running as fast as they could. AAroadwatch went down at the same time!

Very true.

Realistically (and Im no expert) surely the major problem here is the complete lack of preparation. This weather was predicted and yet no grit was put anywhere across the city before the snow storm unleashed itself. DB are just victims of a higher force that can't seem to do its job. Web site updates/crashes would be less inconvenient if some attempt was made to treat the roads and prepare the city for the weather.

howiya

DDigital wrote: »

Very true.

Realistically (and Im no expert) surely the major problem here is the complete lack of preparation. This weather was predicted and yet no grit was put anywhere across the city before the snow storm unleashed itself. DB are just victims of a higher force that can't seem to do its job. Web site updates/crashes would be less inconvenient if some attempt was made to treat the roads and prepare the city for the weather.

The roads were obviously gritted overnight. Otherwise there wouldn't have been Dublin Bus services to withdraw.

Jeanious

i don't know if anyone has mentioned it but the dublin bus website was completely offline from about 12:45 to 1:15....why, just why?!

ian_m

Whats the story with buses first thing in the morning??

Standard Toaster

My bro's a bus driver and his cie bus broke down out in Blach today. Dead as a dodo.
That was before 3pm today. He's still out there with the bus at 9pm as he can't leave it alone. Disaster of a day all round!

howiya

coyle wrote: »

i don't know if anyone has mentioned it but the dublin bus website was completely offline from about 12:45 to 1:15....why, just why?!

Apparently there were 8,000 people trying to access it and it couldn't manage. Why bother having a website at all

howiya

ian_m wrote: »

Whats the story with buses first thing in the morning??

They're hoping to restore services in the morning as local authorities have promised an extensive gritting program. Bizarrely though their customer service line doesn't open till 07:00 despite buses being scheduled to run before this

richardjjd

KC61 wrote: »

Please try and remember that the company has an obligation to provide a safe working environment for its drivers and for the passengers. If that is rendered impossible by local authority inaction, then what are they to do?

I agree absolutely.

However, the company also has an obligation to try and communicate with its passengers. Their website was out of date for a critical couple of hours (nothing to do with it crashing); they have never embraced alternative channels (a previous poster mentioned bebo, twitter, facebook, boards.ie).

Aditionally, DB seem to consider that their customers have access to the web during working hours. Some / most / many don't.

I walked from Camden St to Connolly to get a train (a new experience for me). There were dozens of buses parked at the side of the road, but drivers didn't know what was going on and inspectors were nowhere to be seen.

Safety, of course, comes first. But it was a bad day for DB customer care.

DDigital

howiya wrote: »

The roads were obviously gritted overnight. Otherwise there wouldn't have been Dublin Bus services to withdraw.

The main arteries were fine this morning on my travels. Housing estates were bad, but we already knew that from last week. What Im suggesting is that overnight gritting was futile and that given we knew this snow was hitting the city by lunchtime gritting should have been ongoing all morning to prepare for it on major routes. Not all freaky weather hits when we are asleep in bed. Right? I just think that gritting directly ahead of forecast snowfall makes a difference. Its just something I learned from living in "snowy" countries. Gritters treat roads based on forecasts.

shltter

coyle wrote: »

i don't know if anyone has mentioned it but the dublin bus website was completely offline from about 12:45 to 1:15....why, just why?!

More people trying to access it than it was able to handle basically. All websites will crash if more people try to access it than it is designed to handle.
Could the site be improved so it could handle more requests yes of course but with any site you design it for what you think will be normal usage with some spare capacity not for the one day when multiples of the normal usage try to access it.

howiya

DDigital wrote: »

The main arteries were fine this morning on my travels. Housing estates were bad, but we already knew that from last week. What Im suggesting is that overnight gritting was futile and that given we knew this snow was hitting the city by lunchtime gritting should have been ongoing all morning to prepare for it on major routes. Not all freaky weather hits when we are asleep in bed. Right? I just think that gritting directly ahead of forecast snowfall makes a difference. Its just something I learned from living in "snowy" countries. Gritters treat roads based on forecasts.

Gritters stuck in rush hour traffic. That'll fix it

ian_m

howiya wrote: »

They're hoping to restore services in the morning as local authorities have promised an extensive gritting program. Bizarrely though their customer service line doesn't open till 07:00 despite buses being scheduled to run before this

Cheers. I noticed that. Was hoping someone could shed some light on the potential of just being able to get to work or not.

shltter

howiya wrote: »

Apparently there were 8,000 people trying to access it and it couldn't manage. Why bother having a website at all

If normal usage is say 2000 requests at any one time then you allow for say 4000 requests that will cope 99.9% of the time you don't design and pay for capacity you will only use 0.1% of the time that is the same for any site or service.
That is why mobile phone services collapse after a disaster because everyone tries to use the service at the one time and the system is not designed for everyone to use it at the one time.

shltter

People need to remember that this is not normal weather for Dublin ( maybe it will become normal but that is a different discussion)
Systems, equipment and procedures are not designed to deal with freak conditions if this happened every year in Dublin then we would have the systems and equipment to deal with it as other cities do.

That said I agree that Dublin Bus was definitely deficient in getting information out to passengers and their own staff.

KC61

ian_m wrote: »

Cheers. I noticed that. Was hoping someone could shed some light on the potential of just being able to get to work or not.

Until inspectors and bus drivers get out in the morning and see what the state of the roads is, then we're unlikely to know.

I would however, expect a service on each of the major corridors, provided the roads are gritted.

howiya

shltter wrote: »

That said I agree that Dublin Bus was definitely deficient in getting information out to passengers and their own staff.

That's all people are saying here. Don't think you'll find too many disagreeing with their safety first approach but it does need to be communicated better

shltter

one2one wrote: »

Im not a friend and I get on fine?

Someone copped it at DB presumably when the link went up first you needed a bebo account to view it.

shltter

KC61 wrote: »

Until inspectors and bus drivers get out in the morning and see what the state of the roads is, then we're unlikely to know.

I would however, expect a service on each of the major corridors, provided the roads are gritted.

Agreed no one knows at this stage what conditions will be like in the morning. It may be a case of playing it by ear and curtailing services as the first drivers report the conditions they meet. If the services go out at all !!

MiniD

There is no doubt that it was unsafe to operate buses this evening and I think the majority of posters here would agree the right decision was made.

As others pointed out, it's the poor customer service from Dublin Bus which really lets itself down. Even tonight, when thousands of bus passengers are wondering how they'll get to work tomorrow, Dublin Bus say they'll have an update and phone line operating from 7am. Personally, I was expecting a bit more. Considering bus services start in the city from 5.30, many people will already have started their journey by 7am.

I'm not sure how many people work in the Dublin Bus customer service team, but this is a time when every staff member should be working, overtime if necessary, with a proper plan of action. At a time when your customers want to know how you plan to do business, you really should make sure you have every area covered. Considering their website collapsed today, this would suggest a large number of passengers are turning to the web for information. Have any moves been made to create a Twitter account to update passengers on the move?

As I said, nobody blames Dublin Bus for canceling their service. Their operations manager gave a great overview of the situation on Radio 1 this evening. Passengers just get frustrated when information is patchy, misleading or non existent.

spongeman

ian_m wrote: »

Whats the story with buses first thing in the morning??

God knows. Probably too cold for them.

Public will be thrown to the wolves. Again.

shltter

howiya wrote: »

That's all people are saying here. Don't think you'll find too many disagreeing with their safety first approach but it does need to be communicated better

I agree and I understand why the website went down and in fairness I would not criticise DB for that really if every member of this site all went for the same page at the same time the site would more than likely crash as well.
But there are other options like twitter, bebo etc etc to get information out, I think part of the problem is that DB did not know what was happening never mind passing the information on.

KC61

howiya wrote: »

That's all people are saying here. Don't think you'll find too many disagreeing with their safety first approach but it does need to be communicated better

No one will argue with that.

However one poster in particular did not think that the safety first approach was correct. THAT is what I have a serious problem with.

howiya

spongeman wrote: »

God knows. Probably too cold for them.

Public will be thrown to the wolves. Again.

I'd rather be thrown to the wolves than be a victim in an accident that could have been avoided

stop

Safety first, of course.

No updates between 12:45 and 15:45 (and claiming the 15:45 was posted at 15:00) is atrocious. I think that's what sensible people are annoyed about, rather than the cancellations itself.

spongeman

stop wrote: »

Safety first, of course.

No updates between 12:45 and 15:45 (and claiming the 15:45 was posted at 15:00) is atrocious. I think that's what sensible people are annoyed about, rather than the cancellations itself.

Good ould Dublin Bus and the Council.

Making a balls out of everything. Getting stuck in a few cms of snow.