Dublin Bus strike from Sunday 04/08 [called off - service resumes 07/08]

Vahevala

What about people who have no way of getting to work because of these buses not being driven?

What about the people who are afraid if they can't get to work, their job is in jeopardy and are not on as much money or have as many benefits as these drivers have? Not everyone can afford to take taxis to work. At times like this, I wish I had a car

miller50841

Vahevala wrote: »

What about people who have no way of getting to work because of these buses not being driven?

What about the people who are afraid if they can't get to work, their job is in jeopardy and are not on as much money or have as many benefits as these drivers have? Not everyone can afford to take taxis to work. At times like this, I wish I had a car

Fully understand your point but there are options also I understand they may not suit everybody but here is a few.

Lots of parts of town are free parking on Sunday's or between 14.00 and 18.00 you have to pay.
Cycle if that's an option.
Workers could car pool instead of driving 1 car each or ask around and see if someone could give a lift.
Use your parents if possible.
Walk if a suitable distance to make it in.
Trains should be ok for now and Luas also.
Civil Defence have volunteers who may be able to help with any serious problems elderly may have in getting to hospital appointments get in contact with them.
Hitch hike you never know it may work if you have a cut out which reads your destination.

Amirani

miller50841 wrote: »

It's not only Drivers that are going on strike.

Inspectors, Clerical and Maintenance staff are walking off the job also.

Please everybody read into things better and stop attacking just the Drivers.

I've zero sympathy for them either. Happy?

Amirani

miller50841 wrote: »

Fully understand your point but there are options also I understand they may not suit everybody but here is a few.

Lots of parts of town are free parking on Sunday's or between 14.00 and 18.00 you have to pay.
Cycle if that's an option.
Workers could car pool instead of driving 1 car each or ask around and see if someone could give a lift.
Use your parents if possible.
Walk if a suitable distance to make it in.
Trains should be ok for now and Luas also.
Civil Defence have volunteers who may be able to help with any serious problems elderly may have in getting to hospital appointments get in contact with them.
Hitch hike you never know it may work if you have a cut out which reads your destination.

Complete rubbish. People shouldn't have to do this and they wouldn't if we didn't have such a dysfunctionally run public bus service. A private bus market in Dublin wouldn't give rise to what will happen tomorrow.

Dublin Bus workers are shooting themselves in the foot with this action tomorrow. The public pressure for privatisation is going to grow even greater. Private operators won't take half of this rubbish, particularly when they're making the sorts of losses that DB make year-on-year. Staff that refuse to accept economic realities will end up losing their jobs.

miller50841

NiallSparky wrote: »

I've zero sympathy for them either. Happy?

A bit better but then if it makes you feel better they probably wouldn't have any sympathy for the likes of you if you were in the same situation so try and see from there side what is really happening.

The management are looking for the easiest way which will not work and I believe the management will be back in a few months saying things are worse then they thought and because they agreed to all these cuts so easy we will hit them again.

They will not put everything back in 19months time they will keep going for more cuts.

But sure lets bring back the 80's and let the rich get richer and the poor poorer oh wait:rolleyes: that's whats happening.

devnull

The clerical staff who are on a 35 hour week, are going on strike because they don't want to work a full week of 39 hours, there is suggestion however they may settle for 37 hours.

The fact is the overall cost of labour and salaries in Dublin Bus is too high and it needs to be addressed. Now what grades are earning what is impossible to tell from the verified figures in the public domain, but the wage bill has to come down and all grades need to take a cut.

Infini

Lifelike wrote: »

DB have confirmed on their twitter and facebook that no Nitelinks will operate tonight, and that services are unlikely to operate tomorrow. I think it's safe to say that Westmoreland st and D'Olier st will be no-go areas tonight :pac:

I can see this going the same way as the BÉ dispute, 2 or 3 days of disruption and then the strike shall be 'suspended' while talks resume.

Dont be so sure. I've heard that the Dublin Bus crew are far more militant simply because they cant take anymore cuts (many are regular joes tryin to provide for their families not richly paid like some assume) since they took them in 2009 and also because of various "sellout" introduced charges like the "wankerbanker/householdcharge tax" and such.

One thing to remember though is while it COULD simply last a couple of days there a chance it could get worse I've already heard rumors that if it lasts beyond a week that Irish Rail could go on strike as well since many of the lads over there are in the same boat as many of the DB crew and at the end of their rope. Should remember they targeted BE first because they were the softest the other 2 companies are alot more hardened expecially as back in the eighties the pay was so bad many had to work 7 days at a time to make ends meet. Noone is gonna go back to them days.

miller50841

NiallSparky wrote: »

Complete rubbish. People shouldn't have to do this and they wouldn't if we didn't have such a dysfunctionally run public bus service. A private bus market in Dublin wouldn't give rise to what will happen tomorrow.

Dublin Bus workers are shooting themselves in the foot with this action tomorrow. The public pressure for privatisation is going to grow even greater. Private operators won't take half of this rubbish, particularly when they're making the sorts of losses that DB make year-on-year. Staff that refuse to accept economic realities will end up losing their jobs.

When France has a strike or Germany or Spain and many others when one sector goes out the rest follow as support.

For example when Train Drivers strike so do Bus Drivers and also most office staff and so on as support and also it effects all companies private or public so it works there.

Wish that's how it worked here and worker's united and not be stupidly put against each other by the Media and Government.

Amirani

miller50841 wrote: »

A bit better but then if it makes you feel better they probably wouldn't have any sympathy for the likes of you if you were in the same situation so try and see from there side what is really happening.

Their taxes aren't paying my wages so it makes very little difference whether they have any sympathy. Pissing-off taxpayers is a very silly thing for Dublin Bus staff to do, particularly in light of moves to privatise certain parts of the network.

Infini

devnull wrote: »

The clerical staff who are on a 35 hour week, are going on strike because they don't want to work a full week of 39 hours, there is suggestion however they may settle for 37 hours.

The fact is the overall cost of labour and salaries in Dublin Bus is too high and it needs to be addressed. Now what grades are earning what is impossible to tell from the verified figures in the public domain, but the wage bill has to come down and all grades need to take a cut.

Not all grades tbh. You say that to the person barely above water trying to pay for their morgage and provide for their family they'd politely tell you to shove it because they cant afford anymore cuts. Theres an old saying "Too many Chiefs not enough Indians" and thats whats happening here. Theres too many managers in all 3 companies and they expect the lads at the bottom to take cuts they cant afford.

Infini

NiallSparky wrote: »

Their taxes aren't paying my wages so it makes very little difference whether they have any sympathy. Pissing-off taxpayers is a very silly thing for Dublin Bus staff to do, particularly in light of moves to privatise certain parts of the network.

Staff aint gonna roll over and take cuts just because its an inconvenience to you. Honestly this probably wouldnt be happening to anyone if the entire country had more backbone and had told the politicians where to shove their "bank guarantee" years ago.

Joshycat

miller50841 wrote: »

It's not only Drivers that are going on strike.

Inspectors, Clerical and Maintenance staff are walking off the job also.

Please everybody read into things better and stop attacking just the Drivers.

There is no way that Dublin Bus drivers are on those wages any more my father worked back in the eighties where the wages were buttons and no perks or benefits.

He and many others fought long and hard for what the drivers have today and obviously there would be drivers from that era still working there.

It's not all sugar and spice.

I love the comments of all the ones saying how the people on the dole and out of work would jump at the chance to be a driver, well Im sorry but these would have been and may still be the type that look down upon the Drivers as uneducated and just plain stupid.

There are a lot of people in that job that have all sorts of education and skills but due to the way this country goes there was no work for most that came out of college or their jobs dried up.

Just look at the bigger picture before you comment.

A friend of mine works for Dublin Bus maintenance and they are not 'walking' off the job he told me when drivers strike that maintenance are laid off by Dublin Bus and are entitled to claim the dole however they must wait a few weeks before being able to claim it and the strike is unlikely to go on for that long

Infini

NiallSparky wrote: »

The sooner the privatisation of Dublin Bus routes start, the better. I'm extremely pissed at having to go without a Bus service tomorrow and I know many others are the same. I'll be championing the inevitable breakup of the company, and I say that as someone with a lot of family ties to CIE. Zero sympathy for drivers that strike tomorrow.

Privatisation doesnt get you anywhere period. Look at what happened when they privatised in England did it make it better? NO. Best thing to do is fire management and rebuild the companies from the ground up.

devnull

miller50841 wrote: »

I believe the management will be back in a few months saying things are worse then they thought and because they agreed to all these cuts so easy we will hit them again.

Have you ever thought why this is? If the company loses income, or doesn't cut costs, then the company continues to lose money.

For every day you strike, the company loses more money. This means that this money needs to be made up for elsewhere, because it plunges them even further into the red than they are already. This money then needs to be recovered, since it reduces the income of the company.

If the current cuts are watered down and they only save 75% of the money they wanted to, this means that they fall short of the money they need to make the company viable and trading on an even keel. This means there is still a deficient since they have not saved enough money to bridge it.

So some basic economics for you, if you strike for 5 days, two weekend days and Three weekdays, lets say the figures in the press are wrong which say it's 200k for a weekend and 600k for a weekday. We'll say it's 150k for a weekend day and 500k for a weekday.

500,000 x 3 = €1,500,000.
150,000 x 2 = €300,000
Total = €1,800,000

Now lets say we water down the cuts like staff are asking for, and we only make cuts of €8.4m instead of €11.4m, to lessen the burden on the staff as many are saying on here the cuts are unfair. Seeing as people are saying they can't afford them.

So you then start with a figure of €11.4m, you take €3m out of it because of a settlement, you then add the costs of the dispute on the revenue, and you're left with a company who has saved just €6.6m of the €11.4m they aimed to at the start of the process, leaving a hole of €4.8m in the company finances, if everything stages the same as it is with passenger numbers and does not go down.

Then of course the company then still have a hole in their finances that needs to be plugged by further cuts, not helped by the workers who went on strike which cost the company a large amount of revenue, and the fact the cuts were watered down which means the companies financial performance was still not good enough.

The fact is until the cost base in the company is brought under control to a sustainable level, the vicious circle will go on, since every time staff withdraw services, the company runs up further losses, and the more losses a company make, the less money there is to go around and the more cuts that will need to be made.

That is why strikes don't work in a company losing money. If Dublin Bus were heavily profit making and wanted to attack your wage and conditions I'd have every sympathy with staff members, but they're losing money, and carrying on regardless is not an option.

devnull

Infini2 wrote: »

Not all grades tbh. You say that to the person barely above water trying to pay for their morgage and provide for their family they'd politely tell you to shove it because they cant afford anymore cuts. Theres an old saying "Too many Chiefs not enough Indians" and thats whats happening here. Theres too many managers in all 3 companies and they expect the lads at the bottom to take cuts they cant afford.

I agree management are being paid too much, but no cost cutting of management only will raise the amount of money that needs to be raised, there simply isn't enough of them. even if there are 100 managers who take a 10k pay cut each, that still only raises €1m out of the €11.4m needed.

The pay in Dublin Bus is not low for a bus driver by European standards.

devnull

Infini2 wrote: »

Privatisation doesnt get you anywhere period. Look at what happened when they privatised in England did it make it better? NO. Best thing to do is fire management and rebuild the companies from the ground up.

Actually in some areas it has, in others I agree it has not, but I don't think anyone is calling all out for private services, the fact is that a monopoly, be it public or private, is not good in any industry for the consumer.

The largest problem in the companies is the cost base, and I agree management are overpaid, but they are far from the only problem.

devnull

Infini2 wrote: »

Staff aint gonna roll over and take cuts just because its an inconvenience to you. Honestly this probably wouldnt be happening to anyone if the entire country had more backbone and had told the politicians where to shove their "bank guarantee" years ago.

In the private sector, if a company is losing money, and gets into the red and the workers don't take a pay cut whilst the business is losing money, the business ceases to be and closes down because they are trading insolvent, and the administrators/examiners are called in by the creditors.

The recession was caused by a number of factors, and of course the decisions taken in the past were questionable, but they were taken and unfortunately that is history now. So we have to deal with the current situation the country is in.

If a company cannot afford to pay wages since their outgoings are bigger than the incomings something has to give, else the company ceases to exist, but people in the public companies don't get a grip on the reality of this since they expect the state to bail them out.

I had to take a pay cut in the past, since else we'd all be out of a job and that wasn't just the company saying that, I saw the accounts with my own eyes. The workers took a pay cut by 5% and lost a couple of perks, but the company was turned around, survived and we're all still in jobs. Or would it have been better for us to refuse cuts, wait till a creditor called in examiners etc and we all lost our jobs because the company could no longer legally continue trading.

I'm all for peoples rights when they are having their benefits and pay cut in a company which is profitable that can afford to continue paying them, but if a company can't afford them something has to give.

Pixel Eater

It can't just be me but I think people are missing a very obvious point here; mainly that Dublin Bus is loss making because it is a terrible service. It has a glut of windy, indirect routes, some routes with huge gaps in their schedule, a lack of clear information and an incomprehensible system of costing the length of your journey.  

Apart from the Luas and limited rail options, both of which cover a narrow area of the city, Dublin Bus provides the bulk of public transport in Dublin. Combined with the fact that it has very little private competition, Dublin Bus has a virtual monopoly. The fact that they are making a loss under these conditions just shows how inadequate the service truly is.

Clíodhna Ní Fhátharta (Dublin Bus spokesperson) says they have “exhausted all avenues". Providing an efficient and reliable service people might actually want to use and it'll soon return to profitability.

LXFlyer

Pixel Eater wrote: »

It can't just be me but I think people are missing a very obvious point here; mainly that Dublin Bus is loss making because it is a terrible service. It has a glut of windy, indirect routes, some routes with huge gaps in their schedule, a lack of clear information and an incomprehensible system of costing the length of your journey.  

Apart from the Luas and limited rail options, both of which cover a narrow area of the city, Dublin Bus provides the bulk of public transport in Dublin. Combined with the fact that it has very little private competition, Dublin Bus has a virtual monopoly. The fact that they are making a loss under these conditions just shows how inadequate the service truly is.

Clíodhna Ní Fhátharta (Dublin Bus spokesperson) says they have “exhausted all avenues". Providing an efficient and reliable service people might actually want to use and it'll soon return to profitability.

Would you care to outline what this "glut" of windy indirect routes are, and which routes have huge and unnecessary gaps in the schedule?

Pixel Eater

lxflyer wrote: »

Would you care to outline what this "glut" of windy indirect routes are, and which routes have huge and unnecessary gaps in the schedule?

Well the number 18 route I was on recently took a fairly twisting course and therefore took an inordinate amount of time to reach it's destinstion. There was 45 mins to 1 hour between buses too. Same with the 17 I used to get. I looked up 2 random routes Dublin Bus' website: 47 and 63. Again both were fairly winedy and had between 45 mins to 1 hour between buses. If a bus gets delayed because of traffic or some other rason then that could be a massive gap in the schedule; utterly pointless for a city service. I suspect that the vast majority of routes are in the same vain.

It would be much better to have fewer routes that are more direct and higher in frequency thus more reliable. Dublin Bus did recently attempt to do something like this under the guise of 'Network Direct' but I suspect that had more to do with cutting staff and buses than actual true reform.

Do you actually use Dublin Bus? I find it had to believe I would need to explain the inadequacies of the service to a regular user.

Infini

devnull wrote: »

In the private sector, if a company is losing money, and gets into the red and the workers don't take a pay cut whilst the business is losing money, the business ceases to be and closes down because they are trading insolvent, and the administrators/examiners are called in by the creditors.

The recession was caused by a number of factors, and of course the decisions taken in the past were questionable, but they were taken and unfortunately that is history now. So we have to deal with the current situation the country is in.

If a company cannot afford to pay wages since their outgoings are bigger than the incomings something has to give, else the company ceases to exist, but people in the public companies don't get a grip on the reality of this since they expect the state to bail them out.

I had to take a pay cut in the past, since else we'd all be out of a job and that wasn't just the company saying that, I saw the accounts with my own eyes. The workers took a pay cut by 5% and lost a couple of perks, but the company was turned around, survived and we're all still in jobs. Or would it have been better for us to refuse cuts, wait till a creditor called in examiners etc and we all lost our jobs because the company could no longer legally continue trading.

I'm all for peoples rights when they are having their benefits and pay cut in a company which is profitable that can afford to continue paying them, but if a company can't afford them something has to give.

Except one thing is missing here. Dublin Bus, Irish Rail and Bus Eirann have to provide for multiple routes including ones that dont make a profit. If they were private companies you'd see services as well as staff cut back across the board leaving many people cut off or with a rather weak service.

Remember that theyre looking for pay cuts again on top of pay cuts already agreed in the past. People fought to get the jobs from bottom of the barrel, no life, crap pay, working overtime to make ends meet to something more reasonable today you cant expect them to take cuts to the point its better to be unemployed than to work.

Theres also the waste with the whole free pass scheme with 1/3rd of the country getting on for free and the companies get a flat amount regardless of how many people travel. The private sector ran for the hills when they were asked if they would accomodate it considering its so open to abuse so if this were a private company expect that to be dropped first. Going any further on this is more or less another seperate thread entirely.

Hilly Bill

I fully support the Dublin Bus staff. Its about time someone in this country stood up to the government and say enough is enough. Leo Varadkar said that he wants Dublin Bus to go back into profit, when was the last time Dublin Bus was in profit?

the_syco

devnull wrote: »

If a company cannot afford to pay wages since their outgoings are bigger than the incomings something has to give, else the company ceases to exist, but people in the public companies don't get a grip on the reality of this since they expect the state to bail them out.

If it were a private company, it would have stopped all it's services to Finglas and a few other areas after the buses were continually hit by stones. A large portion of small towns would only get one bus each day, and some would be totally cut out.

LXFlyer

Pixel Eater wrote: »

Well the number 18 route I was on recently took a fairly twisting course and therefore took an inordinate amount of time to reach it's destinstion. There was 45 mins to 1 hour between buses too. Same with the 17 I used to get. I looked up 2 random routes Dublin Bus' website: 47 and 63. Again both were fairly winedy and had between 45 mins to 1 hour between buses. If a bus gets delayed because of traffic or some other rason then that could be a massive gap in the schedule; utterly pointless for a city service. I suspect that the vast majority of routes are in the same vain.

It would be much better to have fewer routes that are more direct and higher in frequency thus more reliable. Dublin Bus did recently attempt to do something like this under the guise of 'Network Direct' but I suspect that had more to do with cutting staff and buses than actual true reform.

Do you actually use Dublin Bus? I find it had to believe I would need to explain the inadequacies of the service to a regular user.

First of all - I do use multiple Dublin buses every day, so I do know exactly how well or not the network works, and bizarrely enough, with some exceptions (such as route 40 which has consistent bunching issues), I find that the buses do by and large actually run when they are supposed to. I also use the Dublin Bus app as an invaluable tool when out and about to plan my journeys.

Secondly, I also read the Deloitte Report (the independent consultants' report) which was the basis for the Network Direct project in its entirety, which clearly you have not, hence I asked the question, as I guessed you were being extremely selective in your examples. You have quoted 4 routes out of a total of over 100, and you've picked specific examples that really do not support your claims as they are all local services.

When the network was redesigned, most of the core routes were straightened out (such as the 46a being removed from Monkstown Farm and Stillorgan Village). They were then replaced in those areas by local services, that do still serve local areas and do take longer routes such as the 63 serving Monkstown Farm and Clonkeen Road. They are supposed to do exactly that. The 47 provides a link between Sandymount, Sydney Parade, and UCD and Stillorgan while also serving Sandyford and Belarmine. It is designed as a local service and does exactly that.

Demand for these routes would be nowhere near the levels of the core routes such as the 4, 7 , 46a, 16, 41 etc., but they are necessary social routes. That's why they tend to take longer and have a lower frequency.

The other two routes are inner orbital routes. The only point at which the 18 "twists inordinately" or doubles back on itself is between Sundrive Road and Crumlin Hospital, and that is to serve Crumlin Village, which is a major traffic generators for the bus route in both directions, i.e. somewhere that generates customers. It couldn't get out onto the Crumlin Road any other way while still serving Crumlin Village.

The 17 serves UCD and then Dundrum, Churchtown, Rathfarnham, Terenure, KCR, Crumlin Village, and Dolphin's Barn before terminating at Rialto. All of these locations are major traffic generators, be it local traffic or people going to/from UCD. Straightening the 17 out frankly would mean many people along the route losing the link that it provides to/from the university.

The key to a bus network is having a mixture of high frequency core routes that operate directly along each QBC, and then lower frequency local routes that serve local communities - that is what Network Direct by and large delivered. It did cut quite a few services back where there was over capacity in terms of frequency, and unnecessary duplication. This was the first wholescale review of the route network in over 50 years!! Of course there were efficiencies to be gained, and that in itself helped cut costs.

No transport network should remain cast in stone for ever - it should be dynamic and changed to meet demand.

hatrickpatrick

lxflyer wrote: »

Would you care to outline what this "glut" of windy indirect routes are, and which routes have huge and unnecessary gaps in the schedule?

The 7 is a good example, for a major bus route that's supposed to mirror the DART, I missed mine at 10 yesterday and the real time yoke said there wasn't another one for 35 minutes. On a Friday night that's feckin' ridiculous, and it was even worse during school when we used to get the 7 to Dun Laoghaire from Ballsbridge, the bus stop became a hangout zone for us simply because it always took so long to get one!

Esoteric_

Seems some drivers decided to start the strike early. No buses in swords for over an hour, with five due in that time, and when one eventually showed up, some kids asked was another number coming and the driver shouted at them that he didn't know, and decided to close the doors on top of someone at the next stop. If it was all done by the book, I'd have respect for staff for sticking to their guns, but behaviour like that just discredits the good staff as well as the bad.

Pixel Eater

lxflyer wrote: »

First of all - I do use multiple Dublin buses every day, so I do know exactly how well or not the network works, and bizarrely enough, with some exceptions (such as route 40 which has consistent bunching issues), I find that the buses do by and large actually run when they are supposed to. I also use the Dublin Bus app as an invaluable tool when out and about to plan my journeys.

Secondly, I also read the Deloitte Report (the independent consultants' report) which was the basis for the Network Direct project in its entirety, which clearly you have not, hence I asked the question, as I guessed you were being extremely selective in your examples. You have quoted 4 routes out of a total of over 100, and you've picked specific examples that really do not support your claims as they are all local services.

When the network was redesigned, most of the core routes were straightened out (such as the 46a being removed from Monkstown Farm and Stillorgan Village). They were then replaced in those areas by local services, that do still serve local areas and do take longer routes such as the 63 serving Monkstown Farm and Clonkeen Road. They are supposed to do exactly that. The 47 provides a link between Sandymount, Sydney Parade, and UCD and Stillorgan while also serving Sandyford and Belarmine. It is designed as a local service and does exactly that.

Demand for these routes would be nowhere near the levels of the core routes such as the 4, 7 , 46a, 16, 41 etc., but they are necessary social routes. That's why they tend to take longer and have a lower frequency.

The other two routes are inner orbital routes. The only point at which the 18 "twists inordinately" or doubles back on itself is between Sundrive Road and Crumlin Hospital, and that is to serve Crumlin Village, which is a major traffic generators for the bus route in both directions, i.e. somewhere that generates customers. It couldn't get out onto the Crumlin Road any other way while still serving Crumlin Village.

The 17 serves UCD and then Dundrum, Churchtown, Rathfarnham, Terenure, KCR, Crumlin Village, and Dolphin's Barn before terminating at Rialto. All of these locations are major traffic generators, be it local traffic or people going to/from UCD. Straightening the 17 out frankly would mean many people along the route losing the link that it provides to/from the university.

The key to a bus network is having a mixture of high frequency core routes that operate directly along each QBC, and then lower frequency local routes that serve local communities - that is what Network Direct by and large delivered. It did cut quite a few services back where there was over capacity in terms of frequency, and unnecessary duplication. This was the first wholescale review of the route network in over 50 years!! Of course there were efficiencies to be gained, and that in itself helped cut costs.

No transport network should remain cast in stone for ever - it should be dynamic and changed to meet demand.

We're actually singing of the same hymn sheet here, although we may disagree on a few lyrics.

I agree that a bus service should have a mixture of core high frequency and localised routes. I essentially agree with what Network Direct is tying to achieve but disagree that it has been wholly successful. It's improved things somewhat but it hasn't gone far enough. The fact that it's been the first review in over 50 years explains how it's failed to provide an efficient service for a radically changed city.

But the route network is only one of the failing that Dublin Bus has. You walk to a bus stop and are presented with a myriad of figures: basically the times that the bus leaves the terminus. Meaningless if you're a few miles down the route. It may inform you the final destination of the bus but you won't know the exact route since no map is provided. It has an ambiguous 'stage' system meaning you probably won't know how much to pay in any case. There is far too many stops also, often every few 100 metres.

So a passenger gets in; has to ask the driver where the buses goes and how much, fumbles around for change slowing the whole bus down. The the same thing is likely to happen again a minute or two until the next stop.

Create between 15 to 20 core, high frequency routes, at least one of which would be orbital, that use the QBC and cross the city, not just stop in the city centre. Make them prepaid ticket only, provide a map and have fewer stops.

Dublin Bus should even be looking towards a BRT style system (it has been proposed) for the future.

strandroad

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

The 7 is a good example, for a major bus route that's supposed to mirror the DART, I missed mine at 10 yesterday and the real time yoke said there wasn't another one for 35 minutes.

The 4/7/8 route is well known for how these buses show up in packs and then you're left waiting for ages if you miss one. For this reason I mostly cycle there now (one annual ticket lost DB...) and it's ridiculous how often they all go together.

Gatling

Been people are blaming the government ,bailout yada yada, yada

When's the last time Dublin bus actually made an operating profit without government handouts

miller50841

mhge wrote: »

The 4/7/8 route is well known for how these buses show up in packs and then you're left waiting for ages if you miss one. For this reason I mostly cycle there now (one annual ticket lost DB...) and it's ridiculous how often they all go together.

If you want buses to come split what will happen and what they are trying to get in will be buses pulling in at stops and waiting for 2 minutes or more to space them out.

Now from what I have seen on the net and what one of my friends has told me about changing drivers in service in town some have a huge problem and do be up giving the driver grief for just that 2 minutes.