BusConnects Dublin - Bus Network Changes Discussion

dublinman1990

There's no announcement made yet about the changes to the 102 as I'm looking at Go-Ahead Ireland's website or on their official twitter account this evening. I'm disappointed with that tbh. You should expect, if you're a paying passenger using their service at least, to have that bit of ground work done already to inform the public of the impending changes to their affected routes under this project when TFI & Dublin Bus have already done the ground work for announcing Phase 1 of it.

devnull

dublinman1990 wrote: »

There's no announcement made yet about the changes to the 102 as I'm looking at Go-Ahead Ireland's website so far. I'm disappointed with that tbh. You should expect, if you're a paying passenger using their service at least, to have that bit of ground work done already to inform the public of the impending changes to their affected routes under this project when TFI & Dublin Bus have already done the ground work for announcing Phase 1 of it.

Agree that Go-Ahead should have information up but the changes on their side are smaller in comparison to the changes that are being made to the services that are/will be operated by Dublin Bus. This is something that needs to be sorted next week. It should have been up today in my opinion.

I wouldn't be so quick to praise Dublin Bus for their information either though. Compared to the information on the TFI site, the DB info is very vague and very brief. They need to have a lot more info there before launch in terms of maps, route information and timetables. Hopefully it's just still work in progress and will be up next week.

Even the TFI information could be better. Whilst it's far more comprehensive than the wafer thin info published by Dublin Bus, the timetables are not laid out in a very neat way and it looks like it was a bit of a rush job to get it out. With the dates being known for a while, you have to ask why, unless things went very much down to the wire in terms of timetables because of issues with rosters as described upthread.

Generally whilst it's good to have all the info out there now, this project is going to live or die based on the ability of the operators and the NTA to communicate the changes in an effective manner. The jury is very much out on whether they will be able to do that, since the initial signs are very much pointing to 'should do better'.

dublinman1990

Yep. Sure routes like the 1 currently going from Sandymount to Santry is to be drastically altered in October by going from Santry to Parnell Square only along with the launch of Spine C from this October. Dublin Bus will definitely be there on hand with the NTA to be communicating that type of change to the public when it happens at that point. That information has already been leaked by unofficial sources here & by the Dublin Commuter Coliation some time ago.

The passengers that are using the 1 by now should know that these changes being made to it are coming and coming fast within 4 months away.

However; GAI are operating 10% of the ODMA routes with public subvention funding being given from the NTA. If they want to be seen to communicate any sort of change to any of their routes, either big or small to give way to the newer BusConnects routes, they need to mention these changes to members of the public in a quick and timely manner. They need to do this as a way to avoid getting a potentially large number of complaints which will come from any of their passengers in the future. If GAI have a different strategy in place in how they communcate these types of changes to the public; they could do this by putting up paper notices along the affected bus stops of each route along with communicating on the website & on social media; the NTA may have given them permission to do that. But we haven't heard type of talk coming from the NTA as of yet. They may have given them the go-ahead, pardon the pun, to do it this way or not.

Either way; it's going to be very interesting in how the official launches of each phase are going to pan out in time. Onwards and upwards.

cgcsb

"Fares will remain the same"? Hmmm

ax586

This is from DB internal social media

Transport for Ireland launches H Spine campaign
On Monday morning, Transport for Ireland will launch its marketing campaign for the upcoming introduction of the H Spine. The campaign will include print and radio advertising.

tom1ie

What’s the point of doing these new routes without the new bus lane infrastructure in place first?

These new routes won’t be able to deliver a largely improved service without the infrastructure which provides bus priority.
It seems like a mess tbh.

cgcsb

tom1ie wrote: »

What’s the point of doing these new routes without the new bus lane infrastructure in place first?

These new routes won’t be able to deliver a largely improved service without the infrastructure which provides bus priority.
It seems like a mess tbh.

The H spine won't have any new bus lane infrastructure under the busconnects plan.

The c spine later this year also won't have any new sections of bus lane although there are plans to improve cycling along the route.

AngryLips

This is essentially just a renumbering exercise at the moment

Peregrine

The H1 will no longer terminate in Clongriffin as envisaged in the final report but will instead terminate at Baldoyle like the 29a.

So, for the H spine at least, it's now pretty much the existing network. All this is is a rebrand, minor change in direction at Howth and, importantly, an increase in overall service.

Peregrine

cgcsb wrote: »

"Fares will remain the same"? Hmmm

Yeah, the 90 minute fare won't be ready until the autumn. Initially they were going to do the 90 minute fare in two phases with a confusing phase 1 in March but, now that the H spine is only starting at the end of June anyway, they seem to have cancelled that and are just doing the 90 minute fare all at once with the C spine in October. I prefer it that way. The last thing BusConnects needs is another stepwise change.

AngryLips

Peregrine wrote: »

The H1 will no longer terminate in Clongriffin as envisaged in the final report but will instead terminate at Baldoyle like the 29a.

Perhaps it'll get extended once the other elements of BusConnects are implemented for Clongriffin, specifically, the D route and the N8

TheChrisD

Peregrine wrote: »

The H1 will no longer terminate in Clongriffin as envisaged in the final report but will instead terminate at Baldoyle like the 29a.

tbf, the infrastructure still isn't in place to accommodate a terminus at Clongriffin via Red Arches.

punisher5112

So basically all this could have been done as is just add a couple more runs....

Bizarre to be honest

Peregrine

punisher5112 wrote: »

So basically all this could have been done as is just add a couple more runs....

Bizarre to be honest

The H spine, yes, but the H spine isn't a real spine like the others and is just tidying up what's already there. It's still phase 1 out of 11 for the project and the later phases are much more complicated (except the G spine).

Sam Russell

The benefit of this is to at least get something actually done - even if it's baby steps.

Dyr

Back in the city centre there and couldnt help but notice that the NTA and the Council have further vandalised O'Connell street with those god awful bus stop designs and their JC Decaux LCD adverts. The design skills of the Eastern bloc combined with the civic mindedness of Gordon Gecko

Brutal altogether.

punisher5112

Bambi wrote: »

Back in the city centre there and couldnt help but notice that the NTA and the Council have further vandalised O'Connell street with those god awful bus stop designs and their JC Decaux LCD adverts. The design skills of the Eastern bloc combined with the civic mindedness of Gordon Gecko

Brutal altogether.

I was shocked to learn they were getting fitted, yet for years a shelter would never have been allowed yet on Eden Quay they are fitted but have zero adverts on them....

AngryLips

The lack of bus shelters in the city centre all these years has been a massive oversight that's finally being fixed and I welcome it. I don't think they look bad.

devnull

ax586 wrote: »

This is from DB internal social media

Transport for Ireland launches H Spine campaign
On Monday morning, Transport for Ireland will launch its marketing campaign for the upcoming introduction of the H Spine. The campaign will include print and radio advertising.

Looks like this did not happen today?

Dublin Bus still are very short on detail and nothing from Go-Ahead on their website or sign of a press release from TFI.

dublinman1990

So; what happened here then?

Did someone on Dublin Bus internal social media get it wrong this time round or did the senior management decide to slightly delay the advertising campaign for Spine H until a day or two later? The ironic thing with the 2nd question is that it can't be too long now for this new ad campaign to be up & running to the public at this point. The NTA & the operators involved have less than 2 weeks left to launch Phase 1 of this project on radio & in newspapers to people living in the north-east of Dublin & for people who live across the city who may be using these services to get to work or school in future etc.

They need to move on it straight away if they want to do more promotion to their customers.

dublinman1990

I don't know if this decision has been discussed here on Boards before but there is a tweet about what is to happen with BusConnects Dublin after College Green has been pedestrianized. These are draft plans btw. I'm not sure if this is a final draft before it's get implemented by DCC & the NTA.

https://twitter.com/yascaoimhin/status/1404448690144690179/photo/1



Bus routes, under this draft plan, would be removed from Parliament St altogether when the College Green plan is completed.

Winetavern & Bridge St will be used for bus routes instead of using Parliament St.

One change that I can see in the map above is the proposed 58 route from Dublin Port to Rathcoole will instead be to re-numbered to the No.75. The 58 is not present anywhere on the map above. The new 75 route is meant to serve areas like Islandbridge including Blackhorse, Bluebell & Kylemore. It could be very likely that the current terminus for the 69, 79 & 79A, in which these routes currently use Parliament St, will be moved to either another part of the city centre or to the docklands. I'm not sure if there are any other changes involved. Maybe someone who had been looking up the plans for College Green in greater detail here on Boards may give us some more information on this new plan.

StreetLight

dublinman1990 wrote: »

I don't know if this decision has been discussed here on Boards before but there is a tweet about what is to happen with BusConnects Dublin after College Green has been pedestrianized. These are draft plans btw. I'm not sure if this is a final draft before it's get implemented by DCC & the NTA.

https://twitter.com/yascaoimhin/status/1404448690144690179/photo/1



Bus routes, under this draft plan, would be removed from Parliament St altogether when the College Green plan is completed.

Winetavern & Bridge St will be used for bus routes instead of using Parliament St.

One change that I can see in the map above is the proposed 58 route from Dublin Port to Rathcoole will instead be to re-numbered to the No.75. The 58 is not present anywhere on the map above. The new 75 route is meant to serve areas like Islandbridge including Blackhorse, Bluebell & Kylemore. It could be very likely that the current terminus for the 69, 79 & 79A, in which these routes currently use Parliament St, will be moved to either another part of the city centre or to the docklands. I'm not sure if there are any other changes involved. Maybe someone who had been looking up the plans for College Green in greater detail here on Boards may give us some more information on this new plan.

That just looks like a very early draft of a plan modified to suit the point of some obscure self-appointed expert.

hunnt

dublinman1990 wrote: »

So; what happened here then?

Did someone on Dublin Bus internal social media get it wrong this time round or did the senior management decide to slightly delay the advertising campaign for Spine H until a day or two later? The ironic thing with the 2nd question is that it can't be too long now for this new ad campaign to be up & running to the public at this point. The NTA & the operators involved have less than 2 weeks left to launch Phase 1 of this project on radio & in newspapers to people living in the north-east of Dublin & for people who live across the city who may be using these services to get to work or school in future etc.

They need to move on it straight away if they want to do more promotion to their customers.

What i have been told is the new Busconnect work changes are not good, they are top secret and little bits and pieces are leaking out and drivers super pissed about it and this is all alongside the messing about of a few years of stalling on pay rise and the fact that the pension changes that the drivers voted on have not been implemented is bringing it to a boil, have been told the chance of drivers striking is high, training center shutting up shop, no point in hiring if a possible long strike is on the cards, it shall be a interesting few weeks

devnull

hunnt wrote: »

What i have been told is the new Busconnect work changes are not good, they are top secret and little bits and pieces are leaking out and drivers super pissed about it and this is all alongside the messing about of a few years of stalling on pay rise and the fact that the pension changes that the drivers voted on have not been implemented is bringing it to a boil, have been told the chance of drivers striking is high, training center shutting up shop, no point in hiring if a possible long strike is on the cards, it shall be a interesting few weeks

A strike, especially a prolonged one, could end up in the drivers cutting off their nose to spite their face, so they may want to think very carefully, when you take into account what the NTA has previously been on record as saying.

If in the opinion of the Authority either route or service level variation costs or implementation timescales proposed by Dublin Bus appear to be excessive, the Authority reserves the right to competitively tender the services in question, in order to expedite the delivery of the Bus Connects service network in a timely and cost effective manner.

CatInABox

The rollout of the new bus stop designs along the H spine continue to be weird. First they were taking them up without any signs to say that there was a bus stop there while the works were ongoing, then put up the new designs with the old info on them (29a, 31, etc), and now they've decided to put the new info on the bus stops, so from Killbarrack Road onwards, it's got the details for the H spine.

It's weird, why put any of the old info up at all? There's not much difference between putting the new info up two weeks out instead of four weeks out, and now they've got loads of stops that they'll need to update again. It's not a major problem, it's just a little weird.

L1011

When new signs were put up in Maynooth / Leixlip to merge DB signage with a TII contract route, they put 39 rather than 66 series numbers up... Someone's not very good at making sensible decisions!

rx8

hunnt wrote: »

What i have been told is the new Busconnect work changes are not good, they are top secret and little bits and pieces are leaking out and drivers super pissed about it and this is all alongside the messing about of a few years of stalling on pay rise and the fact that the pension changes that the drivers voted on have not been implemented is bringing it to a boil, have been told the chance of drivers striking is high, training center shutting up shop, no point in hiring if a possible long strike is on the cards, it shall be a interesting few weeks

Do tell us where you are getting all your inside information. I mean, you sign up with a new account and post on 2 threads now that a strike is looming. What's that all about? No one ever mentioned strike before. Are you a driver?

ax586

devnull wrote: »

Looks like this did not happen today?

Dublin Bus still are very short on detail and nothing from Go-Ahead on their website or sign of a press release from TFI.

Yea devnull it's very very strange...as far as I'm aware TFI are ment to come out in the media but I haven't heard nothing.

L1011

TFI have started marketing online for this now, suspect the traditional media will be soon

Stephen Gawking

L1011 wrote: »

TFI have started marketing online for this now, suspect the traditional media will be soon

Heard an ad for the H spine on the radio today. Probably an onslaught of advertising between now & its implementation.