Bus Eireann routes 109/109A Changes

sydneybound

Commuter109 wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/dublin-needs-second-bus-station-1.1500319

Might be of interest. Agree with your point re busaras and its getting worse. Was on a bus last week that took 7 or 8 minutes to even get out the gate the yard was so congested.

Agree with most of those points. The toilets in the place are some of worst I've ever seen. The last time I was there they looked like a drugs den and to think they used to charge passengers to use them!

tom23

Fiskar wrote: »

Anyone notice that the buses on the 109 of late are delayed due to door issues. Don't know how many times the drivers of late have had to open and close the door for it to work closed fully at each and every stop

Commuter109 wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/dublin-needs-second-bus-station-1.1500319

Might be of interest. Agree with your point re busaras and its getting worse. Was on a bus last week that took 7 or 8 minutes to even get out the gate the yard was so congested.

Interesting article alright. I think a trick might have been missed during the construction of luas down beside bus Aras. Maybe at that stage the station could have been extended. Regardless, it's taking its longer and longer to depart and get out onto the main thoroughfare.

tom23

I wish there was a better system in place for buses departing. Twice the bus went to depart and was stopped dead in its tracks with commuters not arriving on time. The same commuters who pay cash and then fumble around in their bag looking for their wallet. Might sound harsh but bus was delayed by four minutes departing. Why can't it be like Dublin bus and just go when the doors are shut.

tom23

I would love for this to be answered, why is it that there is now more bus stops between navan and dun shaughlin and yet the same guy for the last ten years gets picked up outside his front garden every morning? Where's the fairness where 99% of other commuters have to make their way to a stop?

horseburger

tom23 wrote: »

I wish there was a better system in place for buses departing. Twice the bus went to depart and was stopped dead in its tracks with commuters not arriving on time. The same commuters who pay cash and then fumble around in their bag looking for their wallet. Might sound harsh but bus was delayed by four minutes departing. Why can't it be like Dublin bus and just go when the doors are shut.

The difference would be that with Dublin Bus, it is less inconvenient to the passenger if they run up to a bus and miss it as it pulls out when the doors are shut, because there will be another number Dublin Bus arriving shortly going in the same general direction.

For example at O'Connell Street, the pick up points for the number 9 and 16 buses, are near each other so if you miss one, on the way to Dame Street, Aungier St or Camden St, you can then look at the real time display and generally see that you won't be waiting more than 7 or 8 minutes for the next bus to arrive to pick up.

The 122 which also goes up Dame Street, George's St and Camden St also picks up further down on O'Connell St, so there are more options with different bus routes, if heading to a particular location, with Dublin Bus services.

Another example is that the number 140 and 46A pick up at the same stop on O'Connell Street and both head in the direction of Nassau Street and Leeson Street area, so if a passenger is heading that way, if they miss either bus, they can see in the display when the other bus is due.

But if you miss the 109 at Navan Market Square or at the Ardboyne or any of the other additional stops, you could be waiting at least 30 minutes for the next bus.

I'm sure the passengers were genuinely delayed, if they did not have their payment ready and had to get their cash once they got on the bus, so I would think the driver was being very helpful and accommodating by waiting for them.

Fiskar

Service from Market Square in Navan Co Meath at 7.50 am today was nothing but appalling. I have registered a complaint with Bus Eireann.

I boarded this service which left the square at 7.52 am.. It stopped at 7.58 am at the Ardboyne to pick up passenger's. At this stop the driver got into a heated discussions with a boarding passenger and left the bus with at least 50 passengers on board to continue a discussion of sorts with the passenger.
The journey restarted at 8.12 am. I got off the service at 9.30am , late for work and wrecked from a journey that took one hour and forty minutes. The service is slow enough without this drivers carry on.
Hopefully other passengers Will also register a complaint as it will put me off the service if it happens again,

sofireland

Fiskar wrote: »

Service from Market Square in Navan Co Meath at 7.50 am today was nothing but appalling. I have registered a complaint with Bus Eireann.

I boarded this service which left the square at 7.52 am.. It stopped at 7.58 am at the Ardboyne to pick up passenger's. At this stop the driver got into a heated discussions with a boarding passenger and left the bus with at least 50 passengers on board to continue a discussion of sorts with the passenger.
The journey restarted at 8.12 am. I got off the service at 9.30am , late for work and wrecked from a journey that took one hour and forty minutes. The service is slow enough without this drivers carry on.
Hopefully other passengers Will also register a complaint as it will put me off the service if it happens again,

Was wondering why it was still at the ardboyne stop. To top it off the heating was on full blast upstairs. I too complained about that for all the good it will do.

Prodgey

sofireland wrote: »

Was wondering why it was still at the ardboyne stop. To top it off the heating was on full blast upstairs. I too complained about that for all the good it will do.

Was the same last week, sauna upstairs!

sofireland

Prodgey wrote: »

Was the same last week, sauna upstairs!

It is actually a sick joke. Was in double digits temperature wise today. Why was it on in the first place. Went down asked nicely he said yeah no bother. Nearly melted by dunshaughlin and went down again and more or less said "its saying its on what can I do" well mr I hardly came back down the stairs for a laugh.

sydneybound

The 109 must be one of the worst services on the Bus Eireann rota.

Without a competitor like a rail route or private bus company it has the market all sewn up and the route is acting like a cash cow or bus eireann. I'd say complaints fall on deaf ears.

horseburger

Fiskar wrote: »

Service from Market Square in Navan Co Meath at 7.50 am today was nothing but appalling. I have registered a complaint with Bus Eireann.

I boarded this service which left the square at 7.52 am.. It stopped at 7.58 am at the Ardboyne to pick up passenger's. At this stop the driver got into a heated discussions with a boarding passenger and left the bus with at least 50 passengers on board to continue a discussion of sorts with the passenger.
The journey restarted at 8.12 am. I got off the service at 9.30am , late for work and wrecked from a journey that took one hour and forty minutes. The service is slow enough without this drivers carry on.
Hopefully other passengers Will also register a complaint as it will put me off the service if it happens again,

I'm wondering, what was the discussion was about?

Fiskar

horseburger wrote: »

I'm wondering, what was the discussion was about?

Appearantly the driver got into a conflab with school kids who attempted to get onto the earlier bus to Dunshauglin. They duly got the next bus which arrived because num nuts couldn't' walk away. That bus passed us out as num nuts had to stop and pick up passengers and got to Dunshaghlin before us.

sofireland

sydneybound wrote: »

The 109 must be one of the worst services on the Bus Eireann rota.

Without a competitor like a rail route or private bus company it has the market all sewn up and the route is acting like a cash cow or bus eireann. I'd say complaints fall on deaf ears.

They dont acknowledge complaints. The treat their customers with disdain cos they know they've no real competition on the route.

horseburger

sydneybound wrote: »

The 109 must be one of the worst services on the Bus Eireann rota.

Without a competitor like a rail route or private bus company it has the market all sewn up and the route is acting like a cash cow or bus eireann. I'd say complaints fall on deaf ears.

sofireland wrote: »

They dont acknowledge complaints. The treat their customers with disdain cos they know they've no real competition on the route.

Do you not think that 99% of the time the 109 is a very reliable and regular service? as is the 109A?

They have hourly 109 buses from Cavan and also every 30 minutes from Navan and Kells.

I know that every so often a bus due may not arrive in Navan at the time scheduled, but I found that there were other factors that caused this, like an accident or other traffic delays.

Often at Navan Square people are waiting, expecting the buses that leave from Cavan on the hour to be at the bus stop at exactly 5 past the next hour, as it states on the timetable, but isn't always possible. I find that the buses from Cavan arrive in Navan no later than about 10 past the hour, or sometimes 15 minutes past the hour.

I find that the 109 buses that leave Kells at 15 minutes past the hour are in Navan on time to leave at 35 past the hour as scheduled, as this route is not as long from Kells into Navan, and there's less likely to be a traffic delay.

There are also 109 buses to Dublin that cover Johnstown, the first from Navan Square at 8.55am.

These buses that are set to leave Navan at five to the hour that go up through Johnstown, sometimes do not leave Navan Square till around the hour mark. I understand that these buses leave Dublin for Navan 90 minutes earlier, so that would explain the occasional five minute delay.

For example, the 109 bus that is set to leave Navan Square at 2.55pm Monday to Friday, leaves Dublin at 1.30pm to go to Navan and do a return trip and sometimes it arrives in Navan from Dublin at 3pm to do the return trip.

http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1318429077-109.pdf

And if anyone was to miss these 5 to the hour buses to Dublin can get another bus 5-10 minutes later, so they won't be waiting too long for another bus.

I was at Bus Aras one night recently getting the 30 Donegal bus at midnight to Kells and I met a guy going to Cavan trying to get into the station.

He didn't know it was locked up so I informed him that he could take the midnight number 30 bus from the Store St side of the bus station.

He proceeded to tell me he didn't think there was a good service from Dublin to Cavan.

I found this a ridiculous comment and responded by saying that there are hourly buses from Cavan to Dublin throughout the day and that these have to do a return trip back to Cavan.

I also mentioned that the last 109 to Cavan is 10.30pm, Monday to Saturday, and that he also has the option of taking the number 30 Donegal bus throughout the day to Cavan and at midnight every night. There are nine daily Donegal buses from Dublin, all stopping in Cavan.

http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1360750243-030.pdf

How could he say there wasn't a good service from Bus Aras to Cavan?

sofireland

The frequency of the service is not what I or most people complain about. That aspect is fantastic.

Its the numerous other incidents that are all too common that infuriate us. We all pay for the privilege of public transport is it too much to expect comfort on a very modern fleet on a regular basis. Again the heat was on this morning. Dont get me wrong its not as warm but its not cold enough to justify using the heating yet.

There are one or two drivers that daily commuters will know are not people people and sadly there is no other choice where you could vote with your feet too.

munchkin_utd

horseburger wrote: »

<snip>
I was at Bus Aras one night recently getting the 30 Donegal bus at midnight to Kells and I met a guy going to Cavan trying to get into the station.

He didn't know it was locked up so I informed him that he could take the midnight number 30 bus from the Store St side of the bus station.

He proceeded to tell me he didn't think there was a good service from Dublin to Cavan.

I found this a ridiculous comment and responded by saying that there are hourly buses from Cavan to Dublin throughout the day and that these have to do a return trip back to Cavan.

I also mentioned that last 109 to Cavan is 10.30pm, Monday to Saturday, and he also has the option of taking the number 30 Donegal bus throughout the day to Cavan and at midnight every night. There are eight daily Donegal buses from Dublin, all stopping in Cavan.

http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1360750243-030.pdf

How could he say there wasn't a good service from Bus Aras to Cavan?

Mother of god.
The service now from Cavan to Dublin is light years from what it used to be.

The even with the 109 and 30 combined there wasn't a bus an hour and the last bus from Dublin was at 6pm so useless for anyone on a Friday evening who had to work.
Ok, the current bus takes an age to get out of Dublin when traffic is busy, but thats always been the case - and I can remember back to before the blanchardstown dual carraigeway was built and the traffic snaking along past Bradys garage and the farm machinery depot!

tom23

Fiskar wrote: »

Service from Market Square in Navan Co Meath at 7.50 am today was nothing but appalling. I have registered a complaint with Bus Eireann.

I boarded this service which left the square at 7.52 am.. It stopped at 7.58 am at the Ardboyne to pick up passenger's. At this stop the driver got into a heated discussions with a boarding passenger and left the bus with at least 50 passengers on board to continue a discussion of sorts with the passenger.
The journey restarted at 8.12 am. I got off the service at 9.30am , late for work and wrecked from a journey that took one hour and forty minutes. The service is slow enough without this drivers carry on.
Hopefully other passengers Will also register a complaint as it will put me off the service if it happens again,

A quite word is needed in that particular drivers ear. I find him very defensive. I too was late for work and complained to bus eireann but I don't expect to hear back from them. In totall it took 24 minutes to get out of navan between the overreaction of the driver at ard boyne and last minute commuters.

07:20 departure is a template for success. One could set their watch by it. Commuters from navan deserve more of this.

Fiskar

tom23 wrote: »

A quite word is needed in that particular drivers ear. I find him very defensive. I too was late for work and complained to bus eireann but I don't expect to hear back from them. In totall it took 24 minutes to get out of navan between the overreaction of the driver at ard boyne and last minute commuters.

07:20 departure is a template for success. One could set their watch by it. Commuters from navan deserve more of this.

By way of an update: I got an apology from BE for the incident which they are taking seriously and will take action. I cannot divulge the content as the incident is in hand.

Fiskar

Regarding the service of late, I have had to resort to the earlier bus but as luck would have it, on Monday I was on it for 1 hour 50 mins from Navan to Stephens Green. Boy was I not happy. The 7.35 am hobbled it's way to Stephens Green for 9.25am!
This morning and possibly due to customer complaints the bus was recorded timewise at the stop after the Fairyhouse turn-off by two Bus Eireann staff. They appeared to be recording the time of arrival at the stop.
At the Clonnee stop the driver kicked off the Blanchardstown stoppers onto a waiting double decker. He then avoided that stop at Blanchardstown but still the traffic of late is killing the bus from completing its journey in a reasonable time.

AlekSmart

Fiskar wrote: »

Regarding the service of late, I have had to resort to the earlier bus but as luck would have it, on Monday I was on it for 1 hour 50 mins from Navan to Stephens Green. Boy was I not happy. The 7.35 am hobbled it's way to Stephens Green for 9.25am!
This morning and possibly due to customer complaints the bus was recorded timewise at the stop after the Fairyhouse turn-off by two Bus Eireann staff. They appeared to be recording the time of arrival at the stop.
At the Clonnee stop the driver kicked off the Blanchardstown stoppers onto a waiting double decker. He then avoided that stop at Blanchardstown but still the traffic of late is killing the bus from completing its journey in a reasonable time.

Bus Eireann staff can record all they like Fiskar,but they are powerless to do anything other than tinker at the edges.

Your observations are more comprehensively detailed in this recent NTA document,which for Route 109 Customers makes for sobering reading....

http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2013/08/draft-intergrated-implemation-plan-2013-2018.pdf

Page 13,Fig 5 has some quite scary graphs and stats including this nugget...

Meath has the highest levels of car ownership with rates that are well ahead of the national average.
However it is clear from the graph that levels of car ownership in Meath are now approaching saturation levels
(i.e. where every person legally entitled to drive owns a car)

:eek: :eek: :eek:

For ANY public transport operator,those statistics are frightening :eek:

Noel Dempsey sure helped the SIMI's salesmen in the Royal County,thats for sure

Now however,the crunch is here....what do we do about the effects those Saturation Drivers are having upon the plainer people who sit (immobile) on that Bus/Coach in the belief that they are being responsible and worthwhile in their commuting choice.....

tom23

AlekSmart wrote: »

Bus Eireann staff can record all they like Fiskar,but they are powerless to do anything other than tinker at the edges.

Your observations are more comprehensively detailed in this recent NTA document,which for Route 109 Customers makes for sobering reading....

http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2013/08/draft-intergrated-implemation-plan-2013-2018.pdf

Page 13,Fig 5 has some quite scary graphs and stats including this nugget...



:eek: :eek: :eek:

For ANY public transport operator,those statistics are frightening :eek:

Noel Dempsey sure helped the SIMI's salesmen in the Royal County,thats for sure

Now however,the crunch is here....what do we do about the effects those Saturation Drivers are having upon the plainer people who sit (immobile) on that Bus/Coach in the belief that they are being responsible and worthwhile in their commuting choice.....

Well alek, if I had a choice I would drive. No debate. I have nearly twenty years of commuting, a third of that spent 'immobile' while experts sit in their ivory towers making decisions based on their own agenda, ideology or resources. The very fact that car ownership is so high in Meath shows that Department of Transport, Bus Eireann, NTA and its predecessors before them have failed dramatically in their public transport policies.

While there has been improvements in the actual vehicles (massive improvements) and small improvements on the web information side of things, the extended time it takes to get from Navan to Dublin on regular routes is simply shocking. The M3, M1 and Port Tunnell is under utilised. And you have one official body blaming the others policies.

If they want people out of cars, its simple, provide fast, reliable and reasonably cheap Public Transport during peak hour commute. What does not work is having to stand in the pissing's of rain in Market Square for Buses thats going to take at least the guts of two hours to get you to work.

Fiskar

Well that day has finally arrived. Today's 7.50am service took the scenic route at Blanchardstown and stopped off at Stephens Green at 9.43am' simply shocking inconsistent service. Going to drive to M3 Parkway and take a consistent train service, no choice because of this. Going to take the 7.20 am and see what that's like now until my train ticket comes through.

tom23

Fiskar wrote: »

Well that day has finally arrived. Today's 7.50am service took the scenic route at Blanchardstown and stopped off at Stephens Green at 9.43am' simply shocking inconsistent service. Going to drive to M3 Parkway and take a consistent train service, no choice because of this. Going to take the 7.20 am and see what that's like now until my train ticket comes through.

07:20 will get you up to the green at 08:30 latest.

On another note its shocking that they (NTA / BE) think its acceptable to spend nearly two hours commuting on a bus to work while one of the most expensive roads in the country is not been used.

Fiskar

Got the 7.20 , arrived Stephens Green at 8.23 am! Unreal the difference 15 min later service does not bring. 7.35 would be 9.25 am, 7.50 am would be 9.45 am.

BE need more M3 services or they will lose passengers by the bucket load.
Anyway train beckons from October.

sofireland

I get the 735 service but I usually get off at college green. Gets me there usually at 855 at the latest. Can it take 30 minutes to get to ssg or is that the time you get to your desk?

Fiskar

sofireland wrote: »

I get the 735 service but I usually get off at college green. Gets me there usually at 855 at the latest. Can it take 30 minutes to get to ssg or is that the time you get to your desk?

You would be doing well of late to get to SSG for 8.55 am. More like 915 to 9.25 am and no earlier.

tom23

Does anybody know what happened to the private operator this morning? Two years and that's the first time he was a no show.

chocksaway

Worst bus route in the country. Was waiting an hour for a bus at the county club. 3 just drove by

Commuter109

7.20 service from Navan this morning was a disgrace. Didn't leave ardboyne until 7.35. 15 minutes to get out Navan, and this system that BE have of have of buying your weekly ticket online is a joke. The driver appears to have to key in about 20 digits to print the ticket. Only BE could have a cashless option which is more laborious than paying cash, and you cant blame people for using it as I believe there is a discount by buying your ticket online. The second, (what I can only assume was the) 7.20 express was parked down the main street in Navan and didn't appear at the bus stop until circa 7.30, I can only assume under BE orders as the guys who drive the private 7.20 buses in the morning usually get to the stop well early and leave a little early to service Johnstown stop.

Vic_08

Commuter109 wrote: »

7.20 service from Navan this morning was a disgrace. Didn't leave ardboyne until 7.35. 15 minutes to get out Navan, and this system that BE have of have of buying your weekly ticket online is a joke. The driver appears to have to key in about 20 digits to print the ticket. Only BE could have a cashless option which is more laborious than paying cash, and you cant blame people for using it as I believe there is a discount by buying your ticket online. The second, (what I can only assume was the) 7.20 express was parked down the main street in Navan and didn't appear at the bus stop until circa 7.30, I can only assume under BE orders as the guys who drive the private 7.20 buses in the morning usually get to the stop well early and leave a little early to service Johnstown stop.

If the 07.20 is always a hire-in then it is very unlikely that the BE coach was covering that run, we don't have enough buses or drivers to cover all our own duties never mind fill in for missing privates.

Sounds like the regular 07.20 was missing and the BE coach was waiting to load a later service and was called up when the 07.20 didn't show. If I am driving a stopper at the same time or close after an express I will hold back because if I go up to the stop it just causes mass confusion and a bucketload of grief as I have to tell dozens of people individually that it is not the bus they want.

Note I have no idea what exactly happened this morning as I was nowhere near thankfully. I do know that even one bus missing or late or even worse a visiting inspector who decides to re-arrange things on the spot can within the space of a few minutes create chaos on the 109.

You are entirely correct about the internet tickets, they are considerably slower to deal with than cash and the most annoying thing is that the newer ticket machines are far slower and clumsier than the old ones.

The old wayfarer 3 machines may be ancient but they are very quick and reliable and can be used mostly by touch.

The Newer TGX150 yokes are very slow and need to be read as they go by menus with each page loading slowly you have to wait for the page before pressing the next button as if you just bang out the sequence it will not register every press and go into the wrong menu or even worse issue the wrong ticket. They also reset to showing Adult Single fares after a set amount of activity or after certain actions such as issuing an internet ticket. That means the entire sequence needs to be repeated for every one.

It is not correct to refer to them as new at this stage either as they were introduced in 1999, nearly 15 year old technology and it shows. IMO we would be better scrapping them (they haven't even rolled them out to all the garages across the country yet) and buying some modern kit with the ability to deal with images stored on phones or some other easy to use (for both passenger and driver) electronic system. There are plenty of different types available, the mistake I believe was sticking with wayfarer who seem to have been left behind. The TGX are just about okay for city use with limited available options but not for our routes, fares and network.

Add to that our ones seem to regularly jam on printing leaving passengers with half printed tickets or the driver to annul it and issue another one, all of which wastes more time.

FYI the changes that were mentioned on the thread a while ago are still in the pipeline, like everything with BE management it is taking a very long time, new draft rosters went out to some drivers some time ago but it seems that a different set are now being done up. they will no doubt then be looked over by us and sent back for changes and then the differences be hashed out.

As it is at the stage of duty rosters being made up then timetable changes are already more or less fixed, I should point out that many drivers have been vocal about the nonsense of sending bus after bus away from the M/N3 particularly but from experience our opinions are rarely taken on board to any great degree. I do hope a lot of passengers including those moaning on this thread took a few minutes to put their opinions to BE and more importantly the NTA whose show it really is these days.

I have heard things that SUGGEST there will be more proper expresses and a solution to the Blanch/Sheaf of Wheat nonsense at least in the peaks but haven't seen anything concrete as of yet. We live in hope and I can tell you sitting in unnecessary traffic jams pisses us off too, we are going home on many of those evening runs too, many after some very long days.

Commuter109

"I do hope a lot of passengers including those moaning on this thread took a few minutes to put their opinions to BE and more importantly the NTA whose show it really is these days."

Couldn't agree more, I have made my feelings re lack of expresses, M3/DPT/ blanch/ Sheaf of wheat known to BE and NTA, and if changes havent been finalised just yet, I think others who are affected by the above mentioned should do likewise.

tom23

05:30 express delayed by ten minutes because a bus decided to park in the exit to let passengers (a whole queue) on. No inspector to help for at least 9 minutes. With all the resources pumped into this city we have a bus station that really is not fit for purpose and is antiquated.

foggy_lad

tom23 wrote: »

05:30 express delayed by ten minutes because a bus decided to park in the exit to let passengers (a whole queue) on. No inspector to help for at least 9 minutes. With all the resources pumped into this city we have a bus station that really is not fit for purpose and is antiquated.

Was this at Busaras? sounds like the 5.30pm 004 service to Waterford which regularly has to board passengers in the middle of the road at or near gate 16.

Fiskar

Five more days left to get away from this monumental cock up of a service. Two major cock ups this week, one left people sitting in the stairwells. M3 parkway beckons!

foggy_lad

Fiskar wrote: »

Five more days left to get away from this monumental cock up of a service. Two major cock ups this week, one left people sitting in the stairwells. M3 parkway beckons!

Standing on Bus Éireann Expressway/commuter coaches is not permitted, there is a sign near the door which states no standees, only the city buses allow people to stand. You should report that to the NTA as well as to Bus Éireann and the Gardai.

Fiskar

foggy_lad wrote: »

Standing on Bus Éireann Expressway/commuter coaches is not permitted, there is a sign near the door which states no standees, only the city buses allow people to stand. You should report that to the NTA as well as to Bus Éireann and the Gardai.

I know but get real, if one needs to get to work or college they will do what is necessary to be there on time.

haro124

06.45 from kells to UCD arrive at 07.05. Not only were we not allowed on, the driver had to get people off the bus because too many had been let on!

shannon82

What's new there until the 2nd bus is put on from Virginia you don't have a hope of getting on the bus Mon/tues. the people standing were most likely from Carnaross and would be waiting for another hour for a bus if he didn't take them

haro124

shannon82 wrote: »

What's new there until the 2nd bus is put on from Virginia you don't have a hope of getting on the bus Mon/tues. the people standing were most likely from Carnaross and would be waiting for another hour for a bus if he didn't take them

Thanks for the heads up ! I only started taking the bus 2 weeks ago ( out of necessity). Found it quite easy to get on the other days though ! But I suppose now that all the colleges are back it'll only be busier

Commuter109

Did anyone, get any of the express buses this morning fom Navan ? I arrived at 7.10 and there was a double decker bus three quarter full, so either the 7.05 was late or the 7.20 was very very early. I suspect it was the former!

tom23

Only one 07:20 express this morning. No private bus again. All the commuters at the ard boyne where left there. I hope like two weeks ago this is a once of.

Commuter109

Nightmare. I'll start by saying, Credit where credit is due, the 6.30 express yesterday evening made the Ardboyne in 49 minutes which was fantastic. I got a 7.05 this morning, there were two buses at the square, both left at the same time, one single and one double decker. As the single decker pulled out first the double decker didnt stop at the ardboyne, but off course the single decker filled up leaving people still standing there. The double decker wasnt full, but I can only asume the unfortunates left standing there had to wait for the 7.20 depsite the fact that a) they were in plenty of time for the 7.05 and b) there was ample capacity on the buses for all passengers.

foggy_lad

Are there no inspectors driving around in cars to sort this out? Maybe a boycott of the services might wake the NTA and Bus Éireann up

tom23

Commuter109 wrote: »

Nightmare. I'll start by saying, Credit where credit is due, the 6.30 express yesterday evening made the Ardboyne in 49 minutes which was fantastic. I got a 7.05 this morning, there were two buses at the square, both left at the same time, one single and one double decker. As the single decker pulled out first the double decker didnt stop at the ardboyne, but off course the single decker filled up leaving people still standing there. The double decker wasnt full, but I can only asume the unfortunates left standing there had to wait for the 7.20 depsite the fact that a) they were in plenty of time for the 7.05 and b) there was ample capacity on the buses for all passengers.

The ard boyne looked like a disaster this morning. I have never seen a queue as long. I think the single decker let about 5 people on. Did anyone complain?

haro124

tom23 wrote: »

The ard boyne looked like a disaster this morning. I have never seen a queue as long. I think the single decker let about 5 people on. Did anyone complain?

I was on the 7.00 from Kells and counted more than 40 queueing at the Ardboyne

Fiskar

Got the 7.35 which was the single decker that does the 7.20 at the Square. I asked him was he late, he said he was pulled onto the route as a bus broke down.
Today was my last day on the route,, cancelled my tax saver ticket and am driving to the M3 parkway. Service is more reliable. With the Be fleet serving Navan having so many breakdowns and considering the buses are 5 - 6 year old the service will only get worse. Not to mention traffic disruption due to Luas works (already) and you have a recipe for disaster.
Adios amigos!

tom23

Fiskar wrote: »

Got the 7.35 which was the single decker that does the 7.20 at the Square. I asked him was he late, he said he was pulled onto the route as a bus broke down.
Today was my last day on the route,, cancelled my tax saver ticket and am driving to the M3 parkway. Service is more reliable. With the Be fleet serving Navan having so many breakdowns and considering the buses are 5 - 6 year old the service will only get worse. Not to mention traffic disruption due to Luas works (already) and you have a recipe for disaster.
Adios amigos!

Keep in touch and let people know how you get on as other people might think its an option for them.

Fiskar

Will do Tom23

Fiskar

As somewhat predicted, 111 BE service broke down this morning at the M3 Roundabout before Sheaf of Wheat. BE driver frantically trying to flag down a 109 service that I passed in my car on the way to the Train!
Need I say more! It was an 08 double decker. So even these are starting to break down

Commuter109

Got the 8.20 today, havent gone the old road in a long time. Interestingly according to the timetable 8.20am gets to Dunslaughlin at 8.40 and arrives in bus aras at 9.25.

Granted it was a Monday etc.. but it took 20 minutes to get out of Navan alone (i.e market square, Johnston and Kilcarne stops) and the numbers getting on weren't big, circa 30 people I'd say, but the dreaded online tickets/ cash held the whole show up.

Eventually got to O connell Street at 9.45. (which probabaly meant it was at least 9.50 getting into Bus Aras)

Two interesting things I noted, one being that the Navan Town service bus went by us and if my eyes werent mistaken, it has leap card functionality?

Secondly is the number of recently added stops on the old N3, being serious there appears to new stops probabaly less that a kilometer apart in some cases, and stops, in some cases which seem to have been put in, to service what appears to be a very small number of houses.

Does anyone know how BE/ NTA decides on where to position official stops, or is a case that if you make a nuisance of yourself or have the right people contact them they'll stick a personal stop wherever you request?