Bus Eireann Sligo to Dublin Bus has no toilet on it!

schemingbohemia

Jem72 wrote: »

An express train from Sligo would be a sure-fire way of killing the line. Roughly 90% of the traffic on the line is from Longford and points closer and the bread and butter of the whole line is Longford and Mullingar commuters.

An express would perhaps save 15 minutes and for this would bypass 90% of the market. No way does a town the size of Sligo justify this. Now if you were talking about a better bus service, an express or very limited stops service from Sligo is justifiable and would probably do pretty well.

It is a huge pity that there is nobody like Aircoach or Dublin Coach running to Sligo with a high-frequency express coach service. I guess the lack of motorway makes their business model non-viable. Because if there was, it would force Irish Rail to up their game considerably. I have noticed that the new tri-axle Bus Eireann coaches are making a much more frequent appearance in Longford on Ballina and Sligo services so it does appear that better coaches are trickling town onto the routes to the north-west.

You and the OP are talking like Sligo is some huge bustling metropolis! Hate to break it to you lads, but it isn't.
Why would any company provide an express non-stop high frequency service unless they deliberately want to lose money?

Andy From Sligo

chicken and egg situation? - cant help thinking if there was a decent faster service if maybe then more people would use it - we are always being told to save the environment and use public transport, but you have to make the public transport more appealing for the public to use to make them think its better to use say a bus/coach than the car to Dublin.

Say if I were driving up to Dublin. Id certainly get up there quicker than a bus. id be able to stop wherever I want for toilets/refreshments and for however long I wanted not 5 mins only for the bus driver to hurry you up. - can have me own tunes on the radio/cd - dont have to share care with strangers.

Crumbs868

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

chicken and egg situation? - cant help thinking if there was a decent faster service if maybe then more people would use it - we are always being told to save the environment and use public transport, but you have to make the public transport more appealing for the public to use to make them think its better to use say a bus/coach than the car to Dublin.

Say if I were driving up to Dublin. Id certainly get up there quicker than a bus. id be able to stop wherever I want for toilets/refreshments and for however long I wanted not 5 mins only for the bus driver to hurry you up. - can have me own tunes on the radio/cd - dont have to share care with strangers.

Sounds like it would take a lot to convince you from your car. And your request for longer than a 5min stop might be the very think that drives people away from buses.

foggy_lad

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

chicken and egg situation? - cant help thinking if there was a decent faster service if maybe then more people would use it - we are always being told to save the environment and use public transport, but you have to make the public transport more appealing for the public to use to make them think its better to use say a bus/coach than the car to Dublin.

Say if I were driving up to Dublin. Id certainly get up there quicker than a bus. id be able to stop wherever I want for toilets/refreshments and for however long I wanted not 5 mins only for the bus driver to hurry you up. - can have me own tunes on the radio/cd - dont have to share care with strangers.

As per the timetables it is a 5 minute comfort stop in Longford and If a passenger needs to use a toilet badly along the route a stop can be arranged in some village or dark stretch of the road with lots of bushes.

As for the chicken and egg, that omelette was well and truly scrambled by the western rail failure! no bus company is going to invest in services with a vague chance of enough people being coaxed away from their comfortable faster cleaner and miles more flexible cars for only a small saving.

schemingbohemia

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

chicken and egg situation? - cant help thinking if there was a decent faster service if maybe then more people would use it - we are always being told to save the environment and use public transport, but you have to make the public transport more appealing for the public to use to make them think its better to use say a bus/coach than the car to Dublin.

Say if I were driving up to Dublin. Id certainly get up there quicker than a bus. id be able to stop wherever I want for toilets/refreshments and for however long I wanted not 5 mins only for the bus driver to hurry you up. - can have me own tunes on the radio/cd - dont have to share care with strangers.

5 pages in and you still haven't said what's wrong with the TRAIN THAT HAS A TOILET ON IT!!

Book in advance if you want a cheaper fare.

Andy From Sligo

schemingbohemia wrote: »

5 pages in and you still haven't said what's wrong with the TRAIN THAT HAS A TOILET ON IT!!

Book in advance if you want a cheaper fare.

nope nothing at all wrong with the train, lovely the 'new' ones are -

only minuses, the extortionate price now and no I dint want to have to book in advance to get it cheaper it should be just a fairer price all round and could still get lumbered with commuter stock from Sligo to Dublin which is just wrong, the clue is in the name 3hrs journey is not a 'commuter journey' its supposed to be an intercity service! - still get held up stopping at every bloody station going! there should be no more stops after Longford to connolly I reckon, let their commuter trains service that area, i know it wont knock much of the time but still, every little helps and it would make for more seats on the train as well , how chocka does it get when the train pulls out of connolly station with people just going to stops between connolly and longford when people going to Sligo have to get on the train early in connolly station to get a seat they want?

- and I dont like the waiting it has to do for train coming other way on the 'Single track' and stopping for 10 mins to let people get off for a 'smoke' and come back on train reeking of stale cigarette smoke! - of course the odd delays they still get in this day and age for one reason or other with people stuck on a train at a delay of an hour - the expensive refreshments, ropey of non existent wifi signal, it all takes away the appealingness of travelling by train.

LXFlyer

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

nope nothing at all wrong with the train, lovely the 'new' ones are -

only minuses, the extortionate price now and no I dint want to have to book in advance to get it cheaper it should be just a fairer price all round and could still get lumbered with commuter stock from Sligo to Dublin which is just wrong, the clue is in the name 3hrs journey is not a 'commuter journey' its supposed to be an intercity service! - still get held up stopping at every bloody station going! there should be no more stops after Longford to connolly I reckon, let their commuter trains service that area, i know it wont knock much of the time but still, every little helps and it would make for more seats on the train as well , how chocka does it get when the train pulls out of connolly station with people just going to stops between connolly and longford when people going to Sligo have to get on the train early in connolly station to get a seat they want?

- and I dont like the waiting it has to do for train coming other way on the 'Single track' and stopping for 10 mins to let people get off for a 'smoke' and come back on train reeking of stale cigarette smoke! - of course the odd delays they still get in this day and age for one reason or other with people stuck on a train at a delay of an hour - the expensive refreshments, ropey of non existent wifi signal, it all takes away the appealingness of travelling by train.

The only trains that are operated by commuter trains are on Sundays, which is to cope with the extra loads:

09:00 Dublin Connolly/Sligo
18:00 Sligo/Dublin Connolly

Everything else to/from Sligo is ICR operated.

Book online and you get cheaper fares (from €19.99 one way) and a seat reservation.

Do you really think that passenger numbers would justify non-stop Longford-Dublin, and not stopping at Mullingar, one of the bigger towns on the route, or Maynooth where there is considerable patronage to/from the University??

You seem to have a very Sligo-centric mentality. I hate to break it to you, but the vast majority of passengers are travelling to/from the stations between Longford and Dublin. That's the meat and drink on the route. That will dictate the stopping pattern, as will the fact that it is a single track railway and has to pass other trains at passing loops.

How often do delays of the magnitude you suggest happen? Hardly ever. Let's not blow things out of proportion.

Really, I think you're going over the top on this and coming up with every excuse under the sun.

Andy From Sligo

lxflyer wrote: »

The only trains that are operated by commuter trains are on Sundays, which is to cope with the extra loads:

09:00 Dublin Connolly/Sligo
18:00 Sligo/Dublin Connolly

Everything else to/from Sligo is ICR operated.

Book online and you get cheaper fares (from €19.99 one way) and a seat reservation.

Do you really think that passenger numbers would justify non-stop Longford-Dublin, and not stopping at Mullingar, one of the bigger towns on the route, or Maynooth where there is considerable patronage to/from the University??

You seem to have a very Sligo-centric mentality. I hate to break it to you, but the vast majority of passengers are travelling to/from the stations between Longford and Dublin. That's the meat and drink on the route. That will dictate the stopping pattern, as will the fact that it is a single track railway and has to pass other trains at passing loops.

How often do delays of the magnitude you suggest happen? Hardly ever. Let's not blow things out of proportion.

Really, I think you're going over the top on this and coming up with every excuse under the sun.

no, im almost sure they run commuter in the weekdays too on the sligo/dublin line - remember getting on one in the weekday and people saying they are still being run.

Well I dont think im blowing it all out of proportion, i think i am just highlighting facts ... as well as my own opinion of course as well

LXFlyer

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

no, im almost sure they run commuter in the weekdays too on the sligo/dublin line - remember getting on one in the weekday and people saying they are still being run.

Well I dont think im blowing it all out of proportion, i think i am just highlighting facts ... as well as my own opinion of course as well

No they don't.

The only two commuter trains that operate to Sligo are the ones on Sundays that I listed above (unless there was a failure).

I can tell you that is fact.

MGWR

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

My lad who travels every now and again tells me that the Bus eireann route 23 with a 4 Hour journey from sligo to Dublin has no toilet on it! - just a 5 minute stop at Longford railway station - Absolute crazy! - I couldnt cross me legs all that time lol :eek:

My heart doth bleed for thee. I grew up in an era when no provincial bus (as they were called back then) had toilet facilities on board, not even Expressway; this was when all the buses were Leyland Leopards, some re-engined with Detroit Diesels.

Andy From Sligo

lxflyer wrote: »

No they don't.

The only two commuter trains that operate to Sligo are the ones on Sundays that I listed above (unless there was a failure).

I can tell you that is fact.

ok then - i concede to your greater knowledge - mainly because i havent used the train for ages .... did i mention it was too expensive? lol

LXFlyer

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

ok then - i concede to your greater knowledge - mainly because i havent used the train for ages .... did i mention it was too expensive? lol

Is €19.99 each way that much?


Or €9.99 during their sale periods?

Andy From Sligo

lxflyer wrote: »

Is €19.99 each way that much?


Or €9.99 during their sale periods?

not interested in their 'book in advance' online auctions ... if i have a spare of the moment desire to travel up to Dublin its 42euro or whatever it is -

LXFlyer

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

not interested in their 'book in advance' online auctions ... if i have a spare of the moment desire to travel up to Dublin its 42euro or whatever it is -

Well frankly if you're not prepared to try to book cheaper options then don't expect much sympathy.

The walk-up fares are set by the NTA and previously the Department of Transport.

Andy From Sligo

lxflyer wrote: »

Well frankly if you're not prepared to try to book cheaper options then don't expect much sympathy.

The walk-up fares are set by the NTA and previously the Department of Transport.

its ok there im not looking for any sympathy or expect any either just saying what i think, dont expect others to agree - be a boring world if we all agreed on everything ....

foggy_lad

The differences between fares on train and bus are really quite striking especially the Family return fares €138 V €55



Tickets From Dublin Connolly to Sligo (MacDiarmada)
Ticket Price
Adult Single €38.05
Adult Day Return €40.25
Adult Open Return €53.65
Student Single €19.00
Student Return €24.00
16-25 Railcard Single €25.00
16-25 Railcard Return €36.00
Family Day Return €74.00
Family Open Return €138.00

Banjoxed

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

ok then - i concede to your greater knowledge - mainly because i havent used the train for ages .... did i mention it was too expensive? lol

Train yup, bus when there's a train alternative: put it this way lads, you could have a feckin' commode under every seat and you wouldn't entice me onto it.

It says a hell of a lot about long distance buses when the main topic of conversations about them are do they have a jax, and how long the comfort stop is.

Andy From Sligo

foggy_lad wrote: »

The differences between fares on train and bus are really quite striking especially the Family return fares €138 V €55

yes, huge difference - needs closing up .... on Irnrod Eaireann's part! - both services/transport run on Diesel - presumably same type/cost?

Losty Dublin

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

yes, huge difference - needs closing up .... on Irnrod Eaireann's part! - both services/transport run on Diesel - presumably same type/cost?

Bus fuel is subject to duty whereas rail fuel isn't. On the other hand rail has to partially renew and maintain it's infrastructure from income, an expense buses aren't borne with to the same extent.

lucernarian

My tuppence worth, I think Bus Eireann ought to move towards having toilets on board for distances like that. I know the comfort stop exists but I think modern conveniences should apply on buses that are well over 2 hours end-to-end. I've even used 20-year old buses in Thailand that had toilets on board. For a bit less than 4 hour journey and it had a comfort stop after 2.5 hours. Granted, there was a plastic garbage bin filled with water and a ladle for flushing but it was a toilet at least!

And for the majority of the bus route (from Pattaya onwards), there was a train route in parallel to the bus route. I don't particularly see the relevance of what the train offers, it's a completely different kind of service and "in-advance" fares are not a solution for everybody. It's relevant as such but not particularly to the thread topic.

spacetweek

Lot of silly responses on this thread. Please don't be apologists for Bus Eireann.

It's expected nowadays that any bus covering a route longer than a couple of hours must have a toilet.

n97 mini

The 23 stops at Longford train station for a 5 minute toilet break, no?

BuffyBot

1) Pointless thread bump
2) People with differing opinions are not automatically "apologists". Don't use such lazy generalisations on this forum.