Queens Visit - Disruptions to bus/train/luas

alameda

Well folks,

I have a friend arriving in Heuston station at around 6 this evening and they need to get to Harold cross bridge. Would the best bet be for them to grab a taxi?..or are there any restrictions that would stop them from doing so?

IntoTheAshtray

Folks,
How'll I be for getting from Heuston to the Aviva at 18:20ish?
We're actually going to get a cab, buddy's planned it out already.
Cheers

BostonB

Have to say I think its all a bit much to be honest. Why do they need so many barriers and Cops. They are standing around in groups of 4 and 8. Barriers all over so you can't get into shops, or cross the road. Even where you are no where near the Queen.

I get that the risk is high, and in fairness they are really pulling out all the stops to do everything they possibly can.

Why all the road closures for the Match tonight?

DWCommuter

BostonB wrote: »

Have to say I think its all a bit much to be honest. Why do they need so many barriers and Cops. They are standing around in groups of 4 and 8. Barriers all over so you can't get into shops, or cross the road. Even where you are no where near the Queen.

I get that the risk is high, and in fairness they are really pulling out all the stops to do everything they possibly can.

Why all the road closures for the Match tonight?

You know the answer already.

P_1

Just looking down on the scene at Cook Street, it's currently closed off on the Western side due to the guards finding a 'suspicious device', I don't know if they're still diverting the buses there tomorrow but this may be an issue in the morning.

Niles

pithater1 wrote: »

I don't know if they're still diverting the buses there tomorrow but this may be an issue in the morning.

Some of the buses are being diverted there after 15:00, hmmm...

Misticles

When is she due to the convention centre?

LXFlyer

The evening peak period tonight is going to be very difficult for Dublin Bus, and I think people will need to be patient. There are going to be widespread road closures. I would expect severe delays as buses and indeed drivers will be stuck trying to get to where they are supposed to be, with inevitable knock on effects to other services. That's what happened yesterday I believe with buses stuck in traffic with the result that the schedule went out the window.

From the garda website:

From 12:00hrs road closures will be implemented in the North Inner City.
•North Wall Quay
•Guild Street
•Samuel Beckett Bridge

From 17:15hrs – 20:30hrs road closures will be put in place on the following routes and adjacent streets:
•Phoenix Park
•Parkgate Street
•North Quays
•South Quays

From 17:30hrs – 20:30hrs Cross traffic on the above routes will be restricted at various times.

Losty Dublin

pithater1 wrote: »

Just looking down on the scene at Cook Street, it's currently closed off on the Western side due to the guards finding a 'suspicious device', I don't know if they're still diverting the buses there tomorrow but this may be an issue in the morning.

In that part of town, a suspicious package could well be a pay cheque

gurramok

I need like many others to get home this evening on cross city journeys. What do they mean the "North and South Quays", is that every crossing the entire length of the Liffey closed bar the East Link?

If so, why are we been forced to pay a toll to use the East Link?

LXFlyer

gurramok wrote: »

I need like many others to get home this evening on cross city journeys. What do they mean the "North and South Quays", is that every crossing the entire length of the Liffey closed bar the East Link?

If so, why are we been forced to pay a toll to use the East Link?

Presumably yes there will be temporary closures of the bridges across the Liffey from Heuston eastward as the Queen moves from the Phoenix Park to the Convention Centre and later on the return journey.

mprgst78

it's a bloody disgrace the way town was shut down this week. the visit should have been scheduled for a weekend.

droidus

Why aren't the guards advising people that not even pedestrians will be able to cross the river when the queen is due? I was stuck at the quays for an hour yesterday with hundreds of pedestrians. No way across the river from Heuston station to Tara St. No way east across Parliament st. I was told Id have to cycle round the phoenix park to get across!

Is that whats happening again tonight from 5:30-8:30?

LXFlyer

droidus wrote: »

Why aren't the guards advising people that not even pedestrians will be able to cross the river when the queen is due? I was stuck at the quays for an hour yesterday with hundreds of pedestrians. No way across the river from Heuston station to Tara St. No way east across Parliament st. I was told Id have to cycle round the phoenix park to get across!



Is that whats happening again tonight from 5:30-8:30?

I would have thought that much would be fairly obvious given the security cordons.

I doubt the bridges will be closed for the whole three hours but there there will be periodic closures of the bridges reading that press release from the garda. How long they will be for is anyone's guess.

droidus

Shouldn't they be telling people that pedestrians are going to be so seriously affected? All of their announcements refer solely to 'traffic'.

gurramok

So the only solution to get home is to wait until 9pm on the hope of a cross city opening somewhere along the closed bridges or use the East Link which will obviously be at a standstill if it is everyone else's only choice?

LXFlyer

gurramok wrote: »

So the only solution to get home is to wait until 9pm on the hope of a cross city opening somewhere along the closed bridges or use the East Link which will obviously be at a standstill if it is everyone else's only choice?

The bridges are not going to be closed for three hours - only before and after the convoy moves from the Phoenix Park to the Convention Centre (and on the return journey later), but as to how long before or after I don't know. In other words temporary closures rather than completely closed like the quays.

But it's fairly obvious that there will be serious knock-on effects to the bus service as a result during that period.

BrianD

mprgst78 wrote: »

it's a bloody disgrace the way town was shut down this week. the visit should have been scheduled for a weekend.

Absolutely not. Dublin is a capital city - you should expect this kind of thing. The visit and road closures were well flagged in advance.

Washout

had no problems getting to the mater for my chemo yesterday. but getting a taxi back to heuston was a a nightmare.. taxi driver tried every route to no avail. he even asked a couple of cops to help maybe get my a garda car as i am disabled. eventually he had to drop me 15 minutes away from the station. which for me is a 30 minute walk with my crutches.


taxi driver was great though..he reduced the fare on the meter and wouldnt take a tip. even though i did my best to give him one.

BostonB

BrianD wrote: »

Absolutely not. Dublin is a capital city - you should expect this kind of thing. The visit and road closures were well flagged in advance.

They didn't stick to the times, and it wasn't clear if it was just cars, or also pedestrians and bicycles. I got caught out twice. Once when they closed earlier than scheduled, and 2nd when a road was closed for bicycles which wasn't mentioned. I dunno what being a capital city has got to do with it. I don't remember this ever happening before. How would I expect it. I'm lucky in I have choices. I'm sure some people are well and truly stuck. Fair enough its a big event. TBH they should just have made it a public holiday and then there would have been much less problem for people.

Baron de Robeck

I was told by a Dublin Bus inspector yesterday that twice during the day there had been unadvertised road closures that stranded large numbers of buses. He also said that a number of peak time services weren't running because a number of buses were taken off to provide transport for Gardai.

The Dublin Bus website had errors in it so my bus wasn't leaving from where it said it was.

Luckily I had an alternative bus route which worked out fine for me in spite of one road closing nearly an hour before it was advertised to.

Misticles

I was waiting an hour for a bus yesterday!

I had tweeted dublin bus regarding thr route and diversions - they said to be outside Ringsend garage for my 12.05 bus and that would be fine.

Left work at 11.45 due to a meeting in Santry at 3!

Bus never came due to severe gridlock in the centre and then when it was gone they never sent the 12.05 bus at all - they sent the following one which was 45 minutes later!

Got on the bus at 1, didnt get home to Tallaght untill 2.15! The bus driver was having nice casual chats with everyone getting on and off the bus!!

LXFlyer

To be fair to Dublin Bus, they and the other transport companies are at the mercy of the gardai and if the roads are closed unexpectedly (as they were yesterday) the situation can change dramatically, with buses getting trapped, and even seemingly live information being superseded by events.

The transport companies are doing their best, and DB in particular have been very busy on their new facebook and twitter pages trying to keep everyone up to date.

I do think people need to be patient with them.

Misticles

lxflyer wrote: »

To be fair to Dublin Bus, they and the other transport companies are at the mercy of the gardai and if the roads are closed unexpectedly (as they were yesterday) the situation can change dramatically, with buses getting trapped, and even seemingly live information being superseded by events.

The transport companies are doing their best, and DB in particular have been very busy on their new facebook and twitter pages trying to keep everyone up to date.

I do think people need to be patient with them.

I was very patient with them but I can understand why people wouldnt be! it just annoyed me when dublin bus tweeted me saying my bus had just left ringsend when clearly it hadnt as I was outside.

Also, seeing about 20 or more buses go into Ringsend garage and not leave and if they did - they were out of service.

droidus

lxflyer wrote: »

I would have thought that much would be fairly obvious given the security cordons.

I doubt the bridges will be closed for the whole three hours but there there will be periodic closures of the bridges reading that press release from the garda. How long they will be for is anyone's guess.

:rolleyes: Yes, when I arrived there after cycling through another 3 sets of barriers, it was obvious.

I guess it should also have been obvious through psychic deduction seeing as it wasn't mentioned on any website that there'd be a total lockdown on pedestrians crossing the river, not just traffic.

The quays were closed for at least an hour to facilitate her drive from the park to Dublin castle. If its like that tonight Id say they could be totally closed between 5:30-6:30 and 7:30-8:30+

angel01

lxflyer wrote: »

To be fair to Dublin Bus, they and the other transport companies are at the mercy of the gardai and if the roads are closed unexpectedly (as they were yesterday) the situation can change dramatically, with buses getting trapped, and even seemingly live information being superseded by events.

The transport companies are doing their best, and DB in particular have been very busy on their new facebook and twitter pages trying to keep everyone up to date.

I do think people need to be patient with them.

Do you ever say anything negative about them? (out of interest)

BostonB

Could have got the dart over it. Only thought of that now.

LXFlyer

angel01 wrote: »

Do you ever say anything negative about them? (out of interest)

Yes I do where it is warranted - such as the ludicrous length of time that it took to sort out the various running time problems that caused mayhem when phase 1 of Network Direct was implemented.

But many people blame the bus companies for things that are simply outside of their control.

My comment was aimed at all of the transport companies (public and private).

This is a situation where all the transport companies (be it public or private) are literally trying to keep a service going when there are very short notice changes (such as road closures).

Trying to get drivers and buses back to where they ought to be in these circumstances in order to keep the service going is a logistical nightmare and people do not often appreciate that.

I don't think that giving Dublin Bus praise for using the twitter/facebook media is unwarranted - the service is probably long overdue but it is welcome nevertheless.

Perhaps you might like to suggest what is wrong with that?

KD345

I think Dublin Bus have been great these last few days keeping people up to date. Their website is being constantly updated.

I can only imagine the hassle it must be trying to keep some sort of service in operation when large chunks of the city are closed, and the roads you thought were open then had to be shut because of protesters or a bomb scare. At one stage yesterday the 25s were running through Dolphins Barn and Cork Street just to try get passengers close to town. It's impossible to keep a timetable in place with this type of diversion.

LXFlyer

droidus wrote: »

:rolleyes: Yes, when I arrived there after cycling through another 3 sets of barriers, it was obvious.

I guess it should also have been obvious through psychic deduction seeing as it wasn't mentioned on any website that there'd be a total lockdown on pedestrians crossing the river, not just traffic.

The quays were closed for at least an hour to facilitate her drive from the park to Dublin castle. If its like that tonight Id say they could be totally closed between 5:30-6:30 and 7:30-8:30+

Well I would say it would not take Einstein to realise that they are not going to let anyone on foot or on a car across the route that the Queen is going to travel along immediately before or afterwards, given the state of security that is in place in Dublin.

droidus

lxflyer wrote: »

Well I would say it would not take Einstein to realise that they are not going to let anyone on foot or on a car across the route that the Queen is going to travel along immediately before or afterwards, given the state of security that is in place in Dublin.

'Immediately before or afterwards' does not constitute 30 mins on either side of her journey from wherever she may be to wherever she may be going. If they're going to close every bridge in the city to pedestrians at least an hour, they could at least have the decency to mention it in advance. If they'd posted a warning that there would no north/south traffic across the river for anyone, car, bus or foot, I would have seen it and made plans.

It doesnt take einstein to add a single line of text to a website with this message. Most of the traffic restrictions have not affected pedestrians, so it was not unreasonable to assume that this would continue.

123balltv

waited 2 hours for a bus home yesterday
have no probs with the Queen coming but surely Dublinbus could have operated from say Cork street instead of ringsend to Tallaght plus all other destinations

LXFlyer

droidus wrote: »

'Immediately before or afterwards' does not constitute 30 mins on either side of her journey from wherever she may be to wherever she may be going. If they're going to close every bridge in the city to pedestrians at least an hour, they could at least have the decency to mention it in advance. If they'd posted a warning that there would no north/south traffic across the river for anyone, car, bus or foot, I would have seen it and made plans.

It doesnt take einstein to add a single line of text to a website with this message. Most of the traffic restrictions have not affected pedestrians, so it was not unreasonable to assume that this would continue.

I don't disagree that they should be making that clearer.

That's why I put my initial post up here today to highlight that people ought to expect serious disruption tonight in the evening peak.

chewed

I went onto the Bus Eireann website to see if there were any updates for buses leaving Busaras! Guess what? Nothing on the website! If there are no delays, then at least say it on the site.

LXFlyer

Just to add the disruption to Irish Rail services:

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=1103

Thursday 19th May:

Full services will operate across DART, Commuter & Intercity, with the following alterations:

There will be some brief suspension of services between Connolly and Pearse at the request of Gardaí for security reasons, at the following times:

17.30hrs-18.15hrs, 19.45hrs-20.15hrs

During these times, northside services will operate from Howth / Malahide and Drogheda to and from Connolly Station; and Southside services will operate from Bray and Greystones to and from Pearse Station

Delays of 5-10 minutes can be expected.

DART services

Northside DART services will operate to and from Connolly Station.

Southside DART services will operate to and from Pearse Station.

Please note: 17.22hrs Dun Laoghaire/Howth service will commence from Connolly Station at 17.47hrs

Maynooth services

17.00hrs Maynooth to Wexford will commence from Pearse at 17.41hrs.

17.10hrs Maynooth to Pearse service will terminate in Connolly.

17.00hrs Bray to Maynooth service will commence from Connolly station at 17.44hrs

Drogheda/Dundalk services

14.30hrs Drogheda to Bray service will terminate in Connolly

16.00hrs and 18.45hrs Drogheda/Pearse services will terminate in Connolly

17.55hrs Pearse/Dundalk will commence from Connolly at 18.03hrs.

18.15hrs Pearse/Dundalk will commence from Connolly at 18.30hrs.

I would imagine that the bus, car and pedestrian access across bridges over the river will be restricted during the same periods (17.30hrs-18.15hrs, 19.45hrs-20.15hrs).

KD345

123balltv wrote: »

waited 2 hours for a bus home yesterday
have no probs with the Queen coming but surely Dublinbus could have operated from say Cork street instead of ringsend to Tallaght plus all other destinations

The problem was with the unexpected closure of Pearse Street which resulted in long delays for buses trying to get back on route. When you have a load of buses stuck in Ringsend and Pearse Street there is instantly a gap in service. Buses coming inbound were also caught at the various restrictions. Dublin Bus were notifying passengers as best they could through twitter and Facebook. Even though I wasn't using this service yesterday, I was aware there was problems with the 50 and 77.

From Dublin Bus Facebook News:

Due to the closure of Pearse St., during yesterday afternoon the Tallaght buses were delayed going from the City Centre and this had a knock on effect for buses leaving Tallaght. When we did get buses moving there were delays on a number of services, apologies.

There really is little you can do when a major road is suddenly closed.

gaius c

Chaos around Naas with the traffic restrictions and despite the gards saying that the N7 wouldn't be closed, it appears to be closed after all.

LXFlyer

I would assume for today and tomorrow that every road that the royal party will travel along will be closed temporarily in advance of their travelling along it.

Therefore tomorrow the N7, M7 and M8 are likely to have temporary closures.

I am assuming that they are not blatantly saying this for security reasons.

zuutroy

Is driving from Cork to Dublin at 5pm going to be a nightmare?

droidus

Once again, the info has changed. Just got this from the Gardai on Twitter in response to an inquiry about pedestrian access to the bridges:

"Beckett Bridge is closed and rolling restrictions will be carried out on the North&South quays for a short period of time from 5pm"

Not 5:15/5:30 and still no specifics. I guess my 2 year old will have to fend for himself if they close the quays for an hour again.

gurramok

RTE's advice is contradicting the Garda advice

RTE - update 1500- A reminder that the north and south quays in Dublin will close at 1630 until 2000

Garda - update 16:30- From 17:15hrs – 20:30hrs road closures will be put in place on the following routes and adjacent streets:

Phoenix Park
Parkgate Street
North Quays
South Quays

Who to believe for this evening?

LXFlyer

droidus wrote: »

Once again, the info has changed. Just got this from the Gardai on Twitter in response to an inquiry about pedestrian access to the bridges:

"Beckett Bridge is closed and rolling restrictions will be carried out on the North&South quays for a short period of time from 5pm"

Not 5:15/5:30 and still no specifics. I guess my 2 year old will have to fend for himself if they close the quays for an hour again.

They are simply not giving any specifics on this, I would imagine, due to the security implications - not good for you (or indeed anyone else in the city) I know, but I can understand why.

LXFlyer

zuutroy wrote: »

Is driving from Cork to Dublin at 5pm going to be a nightmare?

Today? No.

Tomorrow? No - as by that time the Queen will have left.

zuutroy

Oh I thought she was heading for Cashel this evening. Should be grand so, bar the one lane for 10km stretch.

Misticles

So is the Beckett bridge closed from 5 for pedestrians? when i she arriving?

LXFlyer

Misticles wrote: »

So is the Beckett bridge closed from 5 for pedestrians? when i she arriving?

They are not telling us.

That's the real problem - for security reasons they are giving window periods rather than specific times!

I would imagine that the Beckett bridge will be closed full stop to everyone until after the function ends.

LXFlyer

Per the Garda twitter site @gardatraffic

URGENT UPDATES: Eastlink Toll Bridge free both ways this pm from 5.30 to 7.30

URGENT UPDATE: Port Tunnel N.bound is toll free from 4pm to 9pm this evening

Stheno

busses are not able to cross the liffey at the moment o'connell bridge is closed and there is a bit of a jam approaching it from trinity

gurramok

I chanced it coming home southbound from Gardiner st, traffic(very little) was able to cross at CHQ unimpeded to the southside onto Pearse st but obviously hundreds of Garda around in that you cannot stop.

However northbound traffic was blocked as far back as Ringsend from Pearse st with no access allowed, is that not a bit OTT?

sdanseo

I have no problem with the Queen visiting, in fact looking back through my posts you'll see I was moved by her speech.

However, whoever is responsible for this over-the-top reaction and traffic measures, public transport disruption etc should be instantly sacked.

The idea that it is acceptable to close the quays and EVERY BRIDGE IN DUBLIN for two hours around rush hour on a workday is utterly, utterly stupid and heads must roll.

No head of state is important enough to warrant this sort of disruption and it is only likely to incite many grievances towads the queen. But let this much be said, the disruption is not her fault - it is solely the fault of the UK security services and Gardaí who arranged it. It is over the top in the extreme. How in the name of all that's holy can a person on the LUAS at Connolly be expected to pose a threat to a convoy on the quays? How could passengers on the loopline pose a threat, what are they going to do, pull the brake cord on the bridge at the exact moment her Majesty drives underneath and whip out a cunningly-camouflaged RPG? And as for how the hell permission was given to close the liffey bridges, ALL of them, at 5pm...there is no possible excuse.

This was meant to be a celebration of Irish culture...but tonight has caused hours of delays to about a million people. NOT GOOD ENOUGH.