New 39x service starting on 9th October

thomasj

luas are advertising that it will take about 25 minutes to get from Broombridge to St Stephens Green

It will take 20-30 minutes (more likely 20-25 mins) to get from Hansfield to Broombridge

It's a pity Luas won't be about though until around 15th December

Given the buildup to Christmas, you are likely to see journey times of longer than 1 hour (especially in the evening) even on the 39X

thomasj

saggycaggy wrote: »

Painful!!
I got the 39x from Dawson Street just after 5pm and was off on the New Ongar Road about 6.20pm. Could you get that next time?

Even that is painful.

We're in christmas season meaning you're going to seeing a lot more of those journey times in the coming weeks.

Which is why it is a relief to have the train (when they're not on strike)

miamee

How much of those journey times are spent in traffic getting through the city if you don't mind me asking? I work near Stephen's Green but walk to the quays to avoid sitting in traffic and going all over the place in the bus. My nearest stop is Dawson Street but I never even think of going to that stop.

saggycaggy

thomasj wrote: »

Even that is painful.

We're in christmas season meaning you're going to seeing a lot more of those journey times in the coming weeks.

Which is why it is a relief to have the train (when they're not on strike)

I didn't think it was too bad considering the time of day and the rail strike.

thomasj

Luas cross city will open on Saturday 9th December. It's been confirmed.

DvB

miamee wrote: »

How much of those journey times are spent in traffic getting through the city if you don't mind me asking? I work near Stephen's Green but walk to the quays to avoid sitting in traffic and going all over the place in the bus. My nearest stop is Dawson Street but I never even think of going to that stop.

Took me just under an hour from Baggot Street (Donnybrook Fair) to get onto the quays last week on the day of the first rail strike, this week it was about 35-40 minutes to get onto the quays.

I think i'll be looking at the 39x in future for the days I need to use the bus.

Phil.x

DvB wrote: »

Got a 39a on Baggot Street yesterday at 4.30, stepped off it at 6.35 in Hartstown to walk through to Castaheany, there was no way I was spending any longer on it & was going to wait until it got around near Ongar & hansfield. I sincerely hope it doesn't always/regularly take that long, it was the same getting in yesterday morning, a 2 hour journey!! Train strike or no strike that's shocking. Does it always take that long in the mornings/evenings?

You definitely need to cycle on train strike days, it takes 35/40min from ongar to docklands and 45/50min back.

thomasj

There were inspectors out yesterday evening counting passenger numbers. The 39a I was on and the one behind it were extremely busy. The inspectors were getting on, counting passenger numbers and getting off again.

DvB

Phil.x wrote: »

You definitely need to cycle on train strike days, it takes 35/40min from ongar to docklands and 45/50min back.

Unfortunatley not a chance. Did it years ago in my old place because we had shower facilities, but my current office doesn't & theres no way I could meet clients & attend meetings without being able to clean up properly.

Will be working from home or arranging site meetings so I can use the car for the remaining strike days, the bus at 2 hours a go is simply not an option.

thomasj

Some progress in the Irish rail negotiations, the upcoming 3 strikes will not now happen so some good news.

cython

cython wrote: »

Given that seemingly of the 13 new stops on the Luas, 8 of them will be in the central zone (though this is slightly misleading since 6 of them are on the one way sections), I'd be expecting central to end at the Dominick stop, and Broombridge to be probably a zone further out than the one transitioned to there (i.e. a Zone 3). So a leap fare from Broombridge to Central under that would come in at €2.13, but you should get a Leap 90 discount on that, so €1.13 on top of the train fare to Broombridge.

From Coolmine (my nearest stop) said train fare is €1.73, so total fare then would come in at €2.86 under the current system, again, assuming that Broombridge is put into a similar zone as say Stillorgan on the Green Line. This is a bit more expensive than the equivalent train fare to CC stations at the moment (€2.46 from Coolmine), but could be significantly more convenient inbound. Outbound the prospect of a high frequency service meeting significantly lower frequency is less appealing, mind, as after 8pm weekdays, or indeed any time at the weekend, if you miss a train by 2 mins you're waiting an hour unless IE increase frequency on the line.

Comparing to the bus, that fare is basically within a cent of the expresso fare, and 26c more expensive than the max normal fare, so not terribly unreasonable, I suppose.

Obviously I'm making a massive assumption in guessing the fare zones in the above assessment, but at present the 4 zone fare is actually the same as 3 zone for Luas so there's a margin for error too. I absolutely can't see them putting it into a further out zone than that, and if they do it's torpedoing it a bit before they ever start.

To come back to this, zone info for cross city is out, and all the way out to Broombridge will class as Green 1, which is a pleasant surprise, IMHO. I would have expected Broombridge to be equated with further out than Dundrum, for example, which is the border of the Green zone on the other side.

So under the above calculations (I know there is a revised fare structure coming in December, but to compare like with like), that comes out to 1.73 for the train, plus (since i made the error of using off peak above) 1.70 less 1 for leap 90, to give 2.43 for off peak. Peak would end up being 1.73 + 2.24 (above) or 1.85 (actual) less 1, or 2.97 vs an actual fare of 2.58.

Train fare for Coolmine to Pearse is going up to 2.50 from 2.46 in December, not sure of the Luas changes, but comparing current 2.46 to a would-be of 2.58 at the moment and the fares are a lot closer than I expected.

miamee

Two months in and there are still people surprised when it doesn't stop at their bus stop. I guess the X for express means nothing to them :rolleyes:

thomasj

I cannot wait until Monday when we finally have the train and luas option . Sick of buses at this stage.

ION08

I think this morning's journey on the 39X was the last one for me.

I got onto a freezing cold 39X on the Ongar Road at 7:50am

At 9:00am the bus was turning right over O'Connell bridge onto D'olier street.

Took a solid 25 minutes to get down D'olier street, past Trinity and onto Nassau Street.

Got off on Baggot Street at 9:30am.

In total, 1h40mins on a supposedly "Express" bus - a complete joke.

The fact that I got off the bus and could barley feel my toes is the straw that broke the camels back.

I'm assuming the traffic was this bad because of the the new cross-city LUAS.

If it will be like this going forward I can't see this "Xpress" route working out for too much longer.

January

Signal fault apparently this morning caused the gridlock.

ION08

January wrote: »

Signal fault apparently this morning caused the gridlock.

Thanks, good to know that it's not to be expected going forward.

thomasj

ION08 wrote: »

Thanks, good to know that it's not to be expected going forward.

it would be interesting to see if that is the case..............

Dublin Bus tweeted Friday advising people to leave earlier Monday, anticipating problems. we'll see how it goes this evening but you have to remember it's December and the weathers not the best atm

Phil.x

How is the service now that the luas is crossing the city?

I was going to get it this morning but i think I'll stick with the train.

Phil.x

Change of plan, I got the 07.35 bus, it's a lot busier than the last time I got it.

Shuttle666

Phil.x wrote: »

Change of plan, I got the 07.35 bus, it's a lot busier than the last time I got it.

Yes busy enough, but seldom anyone standing. Time lost getting from Leeson St to the quays the biggest issue coming out from town and they are still experimenting with route post Luas. 4 services only in each direction a bit limiting.

Luas frequency / timings doesn't always make for optimal journey times, and it's a desolate station if you end up with a 20 min wait.

Phil.x

38mins to the quays, now let's see how quick it's down the quays.

ION08

Phil.x wrote: »

38mins to the quays, now let's see how quick it's down the quays.

Getting down the quays , up D‘olier street and past Trinity onto Nassau is the worst part.

Pre-Luas, youd get to O’Connel bridge around 8:30ish ... now it’s always around 8:40-8:45

Phil.x

15 mins down the quays, then another 20min walk for the final 2km.

So just a little late for work.

We need more trains and branches in blanch/clonee IMO.

thomasj

Just to point out that after today, Dublin bus are running, at best, a Saturday service right up until the 2nd January.

So, no xpresso over Christmas.

Phil.x

I wonder how much longer DB will keep the 39 in operation, every morning I see it pass my road and at Max there's two people on it, it's god almighty slow and inefficient.
Also in the evenings I see it heading towards clonsilla station and it's the same, empty.

Maybe it's time to remove it and keep the 39x full-time.

thomasj

Phil.x wrote:

I wonder how much longer DB will keep the 39 in operation, every morning I see it pass my road and at Max there's two people on it, it's god almighty slow and inefficient. Also in the evenings I see it heading towards clonsilla station and it's the same, empty.

Phil.x wrote:

Maybe it's time to remove it and keep the 39x full-time.

The 39 carries good numbers along the route , it's not just about ongar. It picks up numbers along the hartstown loop , through the Clonsilla road, blanch village and along the route closer to the city

Introducing an all day 39x route would be ridiculous, it's limited in it's scope , were talking about a high price limited stop service. There's a reason why you don't see much expresso service outside of peak hours, there's little demand for it.

And sure if you want a faster service to the city, you have a rail connection to a service that will get you to the city faster and you are within walking distance to the 70 route.

Phil.x

thomasj wrote: »

The 39 carries good numbers along the route , it's not just about ongar. It picks up numbers along the hartstown loop , through the Clonsilla road, blanch village and along the route closer to the city

Introducing an all day 39x route would be ridiculous, it's limited in it's scope , were talking about a high price limited stop service. There's a reason why you don't see much expresso service outside of peak hours, there's little demand for it.

And sure if you want a faster service to the city, you have a rail connection to a service that will get you to the city faster and you are within walking distance to the 70 route.

But the 39a does pretty much everything the 39 does.
Trains after peak and on weekends are one per hour, so your going nowhere fast with that option.

If I want to get into town I want it to be as fast as possible and not a day tour of dublin15, if it could be faster I'd happily pay more.
As it is I walk past 3 stops to get the train mon/friday as the bus is too slow.

thomasj

Phil.x wrote:

But the 39a does pretty much everything the 39 does. Trains after peak and on weekends are one per hour, so your going nowhere fast with that option.

It doesn't . Pulling the 39 route would leave the Clonsilla road and coolmine without a service, and no way to get to blanch village or Clonsilla road for people on the 39a route. It's the only city service that passes Clonsilla station .

Phil.x wrote:

If I want to get into town I want it to be as fast as possible and not a day tour of dublin15, if it could be faster I'd happily pay more. As it is I walk past 3 stops to get the train mon/friday as the bus is too slow.

Everyone would want that including myself but the problem with that but DB haven't got the money or resources to accommodate that. Best thing to do is walk down to littlepace and get the 70.

thomasj

Hows peoples experiences of the 39x been this week ? The quays all the way to O'Connell bridge has been a disaster all week.

ION08

thomasj wrote: »

Hows peoples experiences of the 39x been this week ? The quays all the way to O'Connell bridge has been a disaster all week.

O connel bridgge to Nassau street is where it bottlenecks the most. Can sometimes take a good 20 mins.

The whole Dolier street with all of the busses and trying to squeeze past trinity algngside the Luas is a disaster.

It needs to avoid that entire area IMO