Dublin bus driver here, ask questions.

ordinary_girl

liger wrote: »

So whats the bigger inconveince? left standing on the road waiting or putting up with a bad smell?

Tbh it's not even the bad smell that's the issue, you don't know if someone's been sick because of a dodgy takeaway or it could be something viral like a bug, in which case it's not sanitary to keep that bus in service.

Victor

Alexidium wrote: »

Stop being a moany little prick MR.PERFECT

No need to be abusive.

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AdMMM

I know I'm a bit late to the party but I've always wondered why sometimes a bus driver will turn off the ignition and restart the bus at some stops or in traffic lights before setting off again? There isn't a driver change or anything either.

Bazzer2

AdMMM wrote: »

I know I'm a bit late to the party but I've always wondered why sometimes a bus driver will turn off the ignition and restart the bus at some stops or in traffic lights before setting off again? There isn't a driver change or anything either.

Sometimes tickets get snarled up in the old-style magnetic validator. Turning off the electrics on the bus will re-set the machine and the card will pop out again. A side effect is that the engine will also stop during the re-setting process.

Qualitymark

There are a couple of other threads talking about cycling and bus drivers. From one of these, I quote, for the information of bus drivers, the 2012 amendation to the statute book on cyclists using contraflow bus lanes:

The section referring to contra-flow bus lanes is here:

Bus Lanes

....

(b) A contra-flow bus lane shall be indicated by means of traffic sign number RUS 030 used in association with traffic sign number RRM 024.

(2) A person shall not enter a bus lane with a vehicle other than a large public service vehicle or a pedal cycle during the period of operation of the bus lane indicated on an information plate.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2012/en/si/0332.html

Bikes have been specifically included.

Terrontress

Qualitymark wrote: »

There are a couple of other threads talking about cycling and bus drivers. From one of these, I quote, for the information of bus drivers, the 2012 amendation to the statute book on cyclists using contraflow bus lanes:

What about taxis?

.jacksparrow.

Why is it that its impossible to get on the bus in the mornings mostly during the summer because after 3 stops before mine its full.now have to resort to getting the train.can the bus driver not radio to head office that extra buses would be useful?

Qualitymark

Terrontress wrote: »

What about taxis?

No, only "large public service vehicles" (that is, buses) and bicycles. No taxis, no motorcycles, no mopeds.

schemingbohemia

.jacksparrow. wrote: »

Why is it that its impossible to get on the bus in the mornings mostly during the summer because after 3 stops before mine its full.now have to resort to getting the train.can the bus driver not radio to head office that extra buses would be useful?

It's not summer now, is it still a problem?

If it's Dublin Bus they've no spare buses to run extra services if some are full.

What route are you using? How do you know it's specifically full 3 stops before yours?

Qualitymark

schemingbohemia wrote: »

It's not summer now, is it still a problem?

If it's Dublin Bus they've no spare buses to run extra services if some are full.

What route are you using? How do you know it's specifically full 3 stops before yours?

A perfect illustration of why we need competition.

LXFlyer

Why?

It is no company's interests to have vast fleets of buses/drivers sitting around idle on the offchance that they might be needed. Those days are long gone as it costs too much.

What's needed in most cases is a recast of the timetable to address demand issues, and running time issues where buses are arriving early/late at termini or crew handover points.

Jawgap

lxflyer wrote: »

Why?

It is no company's interests to have vast fleets of buses/drivers sitting around idle on the offchance that they might be needed. Those days are long gone as it costs too much.

What's needed in most cases is a recast of the timetable to address demand issues, and running time issues where buses are arriving early/late at termini or crew handover points.

Most mornings I roll down Marlborough Street at about 8-00am - without fail there at least seven buses sitting idle - not droppping passengers, but idle, engine off, doors closed, lights off, parked and empty. I assume that the drivers are on breaks in the canteen there?

It always seems bizarre to me that so many buses would be laid up at what must be a time of peak demand.

LXFlyer

Let's explain this simply. In order to operate a bus service reliably the schedule will usually include what's known as recovery time - i.e. additional time to cope with unforeseen traffic delays. Bizarrely enough we live in an imperfect world and you will find that on different days it can take the same bus journey different amounts of time to travel from one terminus to the other (even at 7am). Driver breaks do not kick in until after 9am.

Typically you would expect this "recovery time" to be 7-10 minutes at most. Hence you will see buses parked at termini - otherwise the schedule would just collapse.

Marlborough Street is a bus stand for a large number of routes (27b, 29a, 31/a/b, 32/a/b, 42, 43 and 130) and those buses are awaiting their next departure.

Some may have come from the depot to enter service and could be waiting on their official departure time.

That is completely different from what "qualitymark" is advocating - i.e. having drivers and busses sitting in the depot purely to cover potential breakdowns/extra loads.

On a typical Monday to Friday during the morning peak the entire fleet (except for maintenance cover) is on the road.

Qualitymark

lxflyer wrote: »

That is completely different from what "qualitymark" is advocating - i.e. having drivers and busses sitting in the depot purely to cover potential breakdowns/extra loads.

I doubt they'd be sitting idle, considering the number of times scheduled buses have failed to turn up.

A couple of years ago I had a job in town with shifts starting at 4.30pm. I was very often kept late by the 54, 16, 49, 83, 65 buses not turning up in time. It only occurred to me recently that I should have simply bought a fold-up bike and cycled in, and packed it into the taxi the employer provided to get home, and forgotten about using buses altogether.

LXFlyer

Unless you were at the terminus it is very difficult to know if a specific bus is late unless you have downloaded the only recently made available PDF stop by stop timetables from the TfI Journey Planner, given DB only publish terminus times. Even these stop by stop timetables are not totally gospel, as driver running boards only show departure times and handover times. I can only assume that you mean that there were long gaps in the service.

However, there may well have been valid reasons for individual buses being delayed such as unexpected traffic congestion, accidents or breakdowns. To get a replacement bus out requires that bus to travel from the appropriate depot to the location where the first bus broke down does actually take time surprisingly enough! Where there are delays, it could take longer to get from the depot than it does for the delayed bus to arrive. They don't have wings.

Qualitymark

lxflyer wrote: »

Unless you were at the terminus it is very difficult to know if a specific bus is late unless you have downloaded

Rang the garage, asked where the 4.15 was; the guy said he'd radio and find out, and came back and said:

a) He's at x (clearly not, as I was standing at x)
b) Oh, that bus isn't running today
b1) because the driver rang in sick
b2) because the engine broke down
c) I can't raise him at all, I don't know where the fellow's gone to at all at all
d) Sure it went off early and you missed it

Losty Dublin

Qualitymark wrote: »

Rang the garage, asked where the 4.15 was; the guy said he'd radio and find out, and came back and said:

a) He's at x (clearly not, as I was standing at x)
b) Oh, that bus isn't running today
b1) because the driver rang in sick
b2) because the engine broke down
c) I can't raise him at all, I don't know where the fellow's gone to at all at all
d) Sure it went off early and you missed it

He gave you 6 excuses, one after another? :rolleyes:

Qualitymark

These are the excuses I and others have collected for late buses.

Edit: I mostly cycle now.

LXFlyer

I am not really sure what your point is. Buses do on occasion break down, and drivers do occasionally call in sick at the last minute.

It isn't ideal but it does happen from time to time.

dfx-

Not excuses, maybe reasons. I was on a bus, AV207, that broke down after going over a ramp. All manner of things can go wrong. It does happen.

Qualitymark wrote: »

A perfect illustration of why we need competition.

To have three different companies scavenging for the packed service and 3 hour gaps inbetween to let the demand pick up again?

Qualitymark

lxflyer wrote: »

I am not really sure what your point is. Buses do on occasion break down, and drivers do occasionally call in sick at the last minute.

It isn't ideal but it does happen from time to time.

Yeah, this wasn't an occasional breakdown; the buses were constantly late or missing. I came to the conclusion that there must be a shift change or a tea break around 4pm and the drivers and schedulers were too inefficient to stagger it so the routes were covered, as it seemed to affect all routes.

LXFlyer

There are shift changes throughout the day across all routes. That should not and in my experience does not mean that all buses are constantly late. I take a minimum of 4 buses every working day, and while there can be occasional problems due to breakdowns, staff shortage etc, it's certainly not as frequent as you suggest.

Having said that there did appear to be a staffing shortage during the summer with inadequate cover for annual leave, which frankly is unacceptable.

Qualitymark

This was a couple of years ago; I was getting in to my shifts, trying to get to work in time, not helped by Dublin Bus.

LXFlyer

Well frankly - discussing something from several years back is rather irrelevant I would suggest, particularly given the recent initiatives of on street and mobile RTPI, together with the AVLC system for controlling the fleet.

.jacksparrow.

schemingbohemia wrote: »

It's not summer now, is it still a problem?

If it's Dublin Bus they've no spare buses to run extra services if some are full.

What route are you using? How do you know it's specifically full 3 stops before yours?

The 27,43 pretty much every bus which goes the malahide route from Clare hall.I talk to people who get the bus at Clare hall who say it gets full once it hits Clare hall,even though its only two stops done on its route.in fairness it happend a lot more in the summer when Spanish students were over,but still happens nowadays,had to get a taxi last week because 5 buses went past full.

Qualitymark

Ah, I hadn't realised (having almost stopped using the buses and taken to cycling) that Dublin Bus vehicles now adhere to their schedules.

At the time I had that particular shift work I'd been visiting Japan, where if you are late for work due to a bus being late, the driver must provide a handwritten letter of apology for you to hand to your employer.

Qualitymark

Incidentally, someone has built a map of Dublin Transport - as it would be if it worked:

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/10/confusing-and-nonsensical-grandeur-dublin-transport/3657/

foggy_lad

Qualitymark wrote: »

Yeah, this wasn't an occasional breakdown; the buses were constantly late or missing. I came to the conclusion that there must be a shift change or a tea break around 4pm and the drivers and schedulers were too inefficient to stagger it so the routes were covered, as it seemed to affect all routes.

When traffic gets heavy and more people use the buses at peak hours the buses get bunched up together on their routes and some drivers will be passed by a bus that started 10 or even 30 minutes after them. This leads to some buses being early on the road and it then appears that they are missing/not running.

Qualitymark

foggy_lad wrote: »

When traffic gets heavy and more people use the buses at peak hours the buses get bunched up together on their routes and some drivers will be passed by a bus that started 10 or even 30 minutes after them. This leads to some buses being early on the road and it then appears that they are missing/not running.

I understand this, but for this to happen *every day* seems unintelligent. It's like the housewife who constantly leaves out food exposed overnight, and then goes "D'oh - mice again!"

If the schedulers and controllers know that this is going to happen, and they're in radio contact with the drivers, surely they should be able to control this effect. (Perhaps the introduction of GPS may have helped?)

I often get the impression that the bus company thinks of itself as kindly providing a fleet to get people from one place to another - without realising that for many people, these journeys are not just a convenience but vital to their livelihood or their life.

foggy_lad

Qualitymark wrote: »

I understand this, but for this to happen *every day* seems unintelligent. It's like the housewife who constantly leaves out food exposed overnight, and then goes "D'oh - mice again!"

If the schedulers and controllers know that this is going to happen, and they're in radio contact with the drivers, surely they should be able to control this effect. (Perhaps the introduction of GPS may have helped?)

I often get the impression that the bus company thinks of itself as kindly providing a fleet to get people from one place to another - without realising that for many people, these journeys are not just a convenience but vital to their livelihood or their life.

The problem with city traffic is the sheer unpredictability of it and how one tiny traffic collision on the quays at say 4pm can have a ripple affect and cause bedlam for hours.

When buses are used it becomes even more unpredictable as while we can say roughly how many will be waiting at each stop we can't say how heavy the traffic will be or how many car drivers will cut across and slow down the bus or even park in the bus lane.

We also don't know how long those passengers waiting at the stops are going to take when boarding as something as simple as a ticket dropped can delay a bus by minutes which has a knock on affect as all stops after that will have more passengers waiting from that extra couple of minutes.