Bus Reliability

Harps

Hey, I'm starting work in the city next week and hoping to get by without a car if I can. Just wondering if buses are frequent enough to rely on to get to work? I'll be living around Rahoon and working in the city centre so it'll be too far to walk if the weather isn't good.

Thanks

snubbleste

Get a bicycle and some light rain gear.
Save money & keeps you relatively fit.

Iwannahurl

It's a very easy bike commute, time and distance wise, that's for sure. You'd just have to decide which route you'd prefer, eg via Seamus Quirke Road or Taylor's Hill.

There are now three bus routes into the city centre from the Rahoon area.

Bus Eireann #405 goes from just inside the entrance to the Galway West District Centre/Retail Park (Dunnes Stores, B&Q etc) off the Western Distributor Road.

City Direct has two bus routes, the 411 via the Rahoon Road and SQR, and the 412 via the Western Distributor Road and SQR.

To be honest I couldn't give you a definite opinion on their current reliability, but the frequency is meant to be every 15 minutes or thereabouts. Perhaps more frequent if the three routes complement each other.

Best of luck with your new job.

Harps

Thanks, I'm considering cycling as well but I've never cycled in a city before and the cycling thread doesn't exactly fill me with confidence!

I'm not really familiar with the area yet but looking at google earth I think the 402 would be my closest route, I'll be working down by the docks so if it stops at Eyre Square I'd only have a 5 minute walk. Reliability is the only issue then, I know even in London buses get delayed regularly so I'm not sure if I can rely on it daily

Mrs OBumble

Many, many people (including me) rely on Galway's buses.

I'm the first to admit that there are issues - and it's a shame if the 402 is closer to you, because IMHO the 405 is more reliable. That's not to say 402 is too unreliable to use (unless you've a super control freak boss ... and then a car wouldn't be much more help, 'cos of the traffic problems).

But the service is adequate for the most part (and brilliant in a few parts ... unfortunately not your-to-be part of the city).


And a few links you might find helpful:

• All ciity bus company routes summary map
• 405-Rahoon route in Google Maps
• 402-Seacrest route in Google maps
• Taylors Hill neighbourhood map
• Rahoon/Westside neighbourhood map

Enjoy Galway, it's a great place to live.

Harps

Thanks for the links, I actually meant 405, not sure where I got 402 from, the retail park would be my nearest stop I think

Would you/anyone know roughly how long it takes the bus to get from the retail park to Eyre Square in the morning? Obviously depends on traffic but just so I have an idea & don't show up half an hour late on my first day

galwaycyclist

Harps wrote: »

Thanks for the links, I actually meant 405, not sure where I got 402 from, the retail park would be my nearest stop I think

Would you/anyone know roughly how long it takes the bus to get from the retail park to Eyre Square in the morning? Obviously depends on traffic but just so I have an idea & don't show up half an hour late on my first day

I'm not sure of the time it.takes but the 405 now runs every 20 minutes from 8am on - which is quite high frequency for Galway. The new bus lanes om the Seamus Quirke Road mean that it will get you within a short walk of the city centre - even if the bus itself gets stuck in traffic closer to town.

galwaycyclist

Harps wrote: »

Thanks, I'm considering cycling as well but I've never cycled in a city before and the cycling thread doesn't exactly fill me with confidence!

Your research efforts suggest that you have the right attitude "informed caution" and should be fine cycling in Galway. Particularly if your route is from Rahoon to the city centre. It would be no harm to bring your bike.

When you get settled here send me a private message and I can post you out a cycling skills leaflet. We could even organise a quick tutorial - main rule is don't be afraid to get off and walk any.point while you're figuring out how the traffic works.

Iwannahurl

JustMary wrote: »

Many, many people (including me) rely on Galway's buses.

I'm the first to admit that there are issues - and it's a shame if the 402 is closer to you, because IMHO the 405 is more reliable. That's not to say 402 is too unreliable to use ...

But the service is adequate for the most part (and brilliant in a few parts ... unfortunately not your-to-be part of the city).

Enjoy Galway, it's a great place to live.

You wait years for a bus service, and then three come at once.

The OP reckons the retail park would be the nearest stop.

Bus Eireann 405 and City Direct 412 both go along the WDR from this point.

City Direct 411 runs along Rahoon Road, which means it's just a 600 metre walk or dash from the location above, according to Google Maps.

If you happen to live in this area, and if the routes complement each other (by accident or design) then I would imagine the frequency would be quite good. If you miss one bus, or it's late, then there are another two services to choose from. After a while you get to know the characteristics of each service (as do those regular users who know every ESB pole, rock and tree stump the City Direct bus stops at ).

Stevolende

Talking about bus reliability I'm wondering if I can rely on the unreliability of the 409 on certain days. Like wondering about Friday afternoon travel, 2 buses not turning up in a row and then getting a single decker to mop up the crowds waiting for buses. Was just wondering if there was a time that this is most likely to happen since I think I have encountered it a few times between 4 & 5pm & not sure if therefore trying to avoid that time of day would avoid the problem also Tuesdays around 6pm.

Thought it was talked of as the best service in town but does seem to skip buses quite frequently.

Also wondering if there is a problem with crossing the bypass coming back in from Parkmore since buses seem to go off in that direction and then not come back. While the service from town seems to be constant & I'd expect there to be more hassle with traffic blockage coming from that direction.

Mrs OBumble

Stevolende wrote: »

Talking about bus reliability I'm wondering if I can rely on the unreliability of the 409 on certain days. Like wondering about Friday afternoon travel, 2 buses not turning up in a row and then getting a single decker to mop up the crowds waiting for buses. Was just wondering if there was a time that this is most likely to happen since I think I have encountered it a few times between 4 & 5pm & not sure if therefore trying to avoid that time of day would avoid the problem also Tuesdays around 6pm.

Thought it was talked of as the best service in town but does seem to skip buses quite frequently.

Yes, you can rely on unreliability between 4-something and 5-something on that route, Mon - Fri inclusive: at one stage, I did a lot of temping in Parkmore finishing at 5pm. Learned pretty quickly to not even bother expecting a bus at 5:15pm - better to stay in the warm dry office 'til the 5:30 or even 5:45pm.

The problems is basically traffic delays: BÉ allocate enough buses to the route to provide a service every 15 minutes assuming that each trip takes 30 mins out and 30 back. But at peak time, traffic makes the journey time longer, and the passenger volumes make loading take longer - so they don't have a hope of keeping to the timetable.

A commercial operator would know this, and put a couple of extra buses into the system at peak times to provide capacity to meet the promised service level. A state-owned operator doesn't have access to the extra buses to do anything this sensible / commercially smart.

Stevolende

Funny, I think there have been extra buses run on that service a couple of times. Been at Eyre Square when there's been a crowd and I think they filled 2 Double deckers and had them go at about the same time. Or at least they had one taht was getting filled and then had people getting on the 2nd including me. & that bus took off about the scheduled time.

What they really need to do is make sure they have Double deckers running at peak hours & not single ones. I thought they were getting rid of singles on that route anyway.

what_traffic

FYI
Unlimited Bus Travel for €5.89 Per Week

http://www.galwaycity.ie/GeneralNews/021012_01.html#English

City Council doing a Bus Promo

The GTU are asking for feedback - so here's a chance to voice concerns.

One thing I have noticed is that the bus shelter roof's leak on the SQR. Need to have some kind of sealant installed between the roof panels

Stevolende

I wonder if something like that might be used by something like FAS for all its education schemes. Only thing would be that it probably isn't permanent and budgeting might get caught out if tried. & I guess the weekly travel allowance for Galway residents on courses is below that anyway.

Would be nice if they did lay on a similar type of deal for students there though. Maybe that kind of thought is a thing of the past though.

Stevolende

what_traffic wrote: »

One thing I have noticed is that the bus shelter roof's leak on the SQR. Need to have some kind of sealant installed between the roof panels

most of the shelters I've seen are far more open plan than that would suggest. Rain coming straight in down at least one side, more if the plastic sheet/walls have disappeared.

Mrs OBumble

what_traffic wrote: »

FYI
Unlimited Bus Travel for €5.89 Per Week

http://www.galwaycity.ie/GeneralNews/021012_01.html#English

City Council doing a Bus Promo

The council are simply promoting the TaxSaver.ie scheme. So it's nothing new, and not unique to Galway.

It's also only available to people who are working (sorry about that, students) for a company that is willing to register with and administer the scheme. Not all companies will do this, even though it saves them a little bit of cash on PRSI.

What did interest me is this statement: "Note: employees can also avail of the cash bonus or benefit in kind options available via the TaxSaver Scheme by checking out the above websites for further information" Anyone know what it means?

what_traffic

JustMary wrote: »

The council are simply promoting the TaxSaver.ie scheme. So it's nothing new, and not unique to Galway.

It's also only available to people who are working (sorry about that, students) for a company that is willing to register with and administer the scheme. Not all companies will do this, even though it saves them a little bit of cash on PRSI.

What did interest me is this statement: "Note: employees can also avail of the cash bonus or benefit in kind options available via the TaxSaver Scheme by checking out the above websites for further information" Anyone know what it means?

Oh ya its old news these tax saver tickets - was thinking more along the lines of using this opportunity to voice other concerns. i.e Timetables, Access onto SQR/BOD for pedestrians/bus user's and cyclists, etc etc
Not 100% sure re the "cash bonus" - I think what they mean is that you can purchase as part of a bonus plan your company may have?
See:
http://www.taxsaver.ie/FAQs/Is-sacrificing-salary-the-only-way-for-an-employee-to-get-a-TaxSaver-Commuter-Ticket-/
"
Q:Is sacrificing salary the only way for an employee to get a TaxSaver Commuter Ticket?

A:No. The ticket can also be provided in lieu of a cash bonus, for example as a Christmas bonus, and because the ticket is tax free, it provides much better value than a cash bonus.
"

Harps

To give an update on this, service has been perfect so far, I got the 8.20 bus (405) every morning this week and it dropped me in Eyre Square within 25 minutes every day. The bus lanes on Seamus Quirke Road make a massive difference in reliability

ErnieBert

I use the 402 occasionally. It is always on time.

Stevolende

Just wondering where to put this,

I noticed a lot of variation in the displays on bus fronts recently, like the way the number was depicted in height/width etc. Almost like the drivers had a font option they could set, which doesn't seem so far fetched since I'm coming across it a lot in computer studies I'm doing at the moment . It also seems to have been something that has been introduced in other computer/device interfaces a lot over the last few years.

I even noticed a 406 bus heading to Rahoon Park the other day, so wondered exactly how much leeway the driver had in setting things.

But what triggered my thinking about this today was that I was on a bus earlier where I'd pressed the stop button after noticing it was already lit up on the sign in the middle of the bus. I moved to the front of the bus pressing through a bunch of other passengers only to find the driver sailing past the bus stop that had been hailed. There were people at the bus stop so when I got let off a few hundred yards down I asked them if they'd tried to hail the bus, I recognised one of the 2 people there from her mnormallly getting on th ebus as I got off. They said that the bus had a 'Bus Full' sign on the front.
So I'm wondering if the set up in the cab is such that the 'bus full' message switch is right next to the hailing switch -the 'bus stopping' sign half way down the bus body. So that the driver might have knocked on 'bus stopping' by mistake when he turned the 'Bus Full' sign on.

I could see that they might be totally different areas of the cab but that 'bus stopping' sign definitely was on after we left the previous stop & I was the only one who got off when I got the bus to stop.

snubbleste

You write to the bus company involved. Let us know what their response is.

ben.schlomo

Stevolende wrote: »

Just wondering where to put this,

I noticed a lot of variation in the displays on bus fronts recently, like the way the number was depicted in height/width etc. Almost like the drivers had a font option they could set, which doesn't seem so far fetched since I'm coming across it a lot in computer studies I'm doing at the moment . It also seems to have been something that has been introduced in other computer/device interfaces a lot over the last few years.

I even noticed a 406 bus heading to Rahoon Park the other day, so wondered exactly how much leeway the driver had in setting things.

But what triggered my thinking about this today was that I was on a bus earlier where I'd pressed the stop button after noticing it was already lit up on the sign in the middle of the bus. I moved to the front of the bus pressing through a bunch of other passengers only to find the driver sailing past the bus stop that had been hailed. There were people at the bus stop so when I got let off a few hundred yards down I asked them if they'd tried to hail the bus, I recognised one of the 2 people there from her mnormallly getting on th ebus as I got off. They said that the bus had a 'Bus Full' sign on the front.
So I'm wondering if the set up in the cab is such that the 'bus full' message switch is right next to the hailing switch -the 'bus stopping' sign half way down the bus body. So that the driver might have knocked on 'bus stopping' by mistake when he turned the 'Bus Full' sign on.

I could see that they might be totally different areas of the cab but that 'bus stopping' sign definitely was on after we left the previous stop & I was the only one who got off when I got the bus to stop.

I've been on some buses where the bell just randomly goes off a few times in a row at times. Could have been a malfunction.