Galway traffic

Galway has a LONG way to go in terms of what buses can do before it will ever get to the point of actually needing light rail

You could whack in more bus lanes for the majority of routes, increase frequency to <10 min (off peak) and <5 min (peak) on all routes and extend running times from 6am to midnight 7 days a week (longer on the weekends) and run it like that for nearly 20 years before you'd have capacity issues that would justify light rail.

Thats not to say it wouldn't be done sooner if the opportunity (politically) arose. LR is sexy and a big ticket item. Same as the ring road, politicians love those.

Best as I can tell based on my limited knowledge of LR, in Galway, without knocking a load of buildings, its not going to be coming anywhere near Eyre Sq

Fitz*

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120004113#Comment_120004113

That's funny because I have complained about the same routes and I have received pretty much the same reply, eventually after weeks of following up.

"As we endeavour to provide the best service possible I am very disappointed to hear this feedback regarding this service. After further investigation and checking our on board vehicle tracker I can confirm that our 15.25pm service operated at 16.10pm 45 minutes behind schedule and our 15.45pm service operated at 16.13pm 28 minutes behind schedule.

Every effort is being made to ensure our services are operating as per scheduled timetable unfortunately at times traffic is out of our control. I can assure you that we are continuing to monitor these routes going forward. Thank you for bringing this to our attention."

I've replied a number of times asking what these efforts actually are, but I'm yet to receive a reply.

Seathrun66

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120004389#Comment_120004389

I had the same issue with the 404 regularly in 2016/17 when I moved back from abroad. I complained and got the same response as you so started CC-ing Shane Ross (then Minister of Transport). They gave me a lengthy reply and apology. I claimed for the costs of taking taxis twice to attend a meeting and to catch a train and threatened legal action. They paid up. I only use the service now to head into town for a night out or in the middle of the day, never at either rush hour. The major problem with this particular route is that is goes all the way from Westside to Oranmore so there's not a hope in hell of buses not being delayed at either end. Spitting the route is essential and I expect there are similar stories from every other route.

rustyfrog

I trust my fellow nerds also regularly have a chuckle at the 404 route number.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status/404

what_traffic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120003919#Comment_120003919

A bit was done about 15yr ago on bus infrastructure SQR/BOD, Dublin Road- very little done in last 10yrs on priority infrastructure like bus lanes; but that is part of the City Council executive strategy. Wouldn't want to be solving car traffic issues when that very expensive Silver Bullet was on the horizon for them.

NTA did stuff in the past couple of years re timetable, routes and frequency.

I think last proper bus lane (inbound) and bike lane(outbound) in the City that was installed was the Rahoon Road Bus between Bishop O Donnell Road and Rahoon Cemetery - which was done a decade ago now.

So the in action from the Council on this front - just shows that this has been the City Council executive strategy over last decade.

rustyfrog

I agree, their inaction seems to be to build pressure for the ring road. Even when they need to add solutions to development and strategy plans, they add the caveat that the ring road must happen first.

Larbre34

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120005220#Comment_120005220

And it will.

Or at least it will be locked in without any further impediment before any complementary measures are worked up.

Fitz*

This is from today, from Bus Eireann's own 'real time' info section.

What good is it having no service run for nearly an hour, and then 4 within 13 minutes of each other?

A other large break of over an hour later on.

Surely someone had to realize that this was happening and take action? Then again, I wouldn't be confident that anything proactive like that would be done.

Trying to leave Galway City today was a nightmare. No 401, 404, 405 or 409 could be seen for a very long time, considering how frequently they are supposed to operate.

JCX BXC

The scheduling plays a part in this. On college road I very often see the 409, 404 and 401 all come flying into town at the exact same time, often without even another item of traffic in between.

The 402 and the 404 leave GMIT within 2 minutes of each other all day long.

When busses are running behind, nobody seems to think proactively, I've often seen a bus running very late that's full, with the next scheduled bus flying up the road right behind it with only 1 or 2 people onboard.

However, one of the most annoying parts about the scheduling is the ten minute wait you have in eyre square on all the cross city routes. Sometimes I pray that the bus runs a little late because it lowers the amount of time you have to agonizingly sit on a stationary bus.

Busses bunching together is a common problem - the idea of you wait ages for a bus and then three come at the same time isn't new.

It isn't particularly easily solved.

Drivers can't particularly decide to say skip a stop and overtake the bus ahead, it throws out the schedule for everything.

Fitz*

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120006353#Comment_120006353

But it's just pointless having 3 buses back to back in a line taking it in turns of who picks up people at every second stop as they overtake each other but end up being back to back again 20 seconds later.

They can be proactive such as transferring all passengers off of one bus to another at a 'big stop' where there will be lots of disembarking anyways and have that one bus wait for 10-15 mins so that there will be some sort of continuity by kicking itself back into the schedule.

While not being ideal, it helps keeps a flow of passengers and not every stop will be waiting an hour while buses are bunched together.

Another idea is to send the spare empty bus to the stop where there is going to be no bus for an hour and start the service from there as there is clearly going to be none for a while.

I've often seen a 405 'hiding' in between 2 stops just off the Boston Scientific junction.

rustyfrog

It's very frustrating that we have the brains and tech skills in Galway to optimise New York's public transport network yet our City Council are full of ring road and bypass merchants with county council mindsets.

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/start-ups/cityswift-galway-new-york-transport-partnership

Frozen Veg

The ring road is an outer city infrastructure development if it ever happens.

There is still much investment required in additional public transport developments.

It'd be like having the M50 in Dublin without Luas or bus lanes.

zell12

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120005912#Comment_120005912

Did you see the traffic Friday? And Thursday was worse due to that CircleK stunt. All the buses are caught in it.

A double decker bus broke down Friday evening on Eglinton Street adjacent Brown Thomas, plus there was stupid parking restricting the entire street, this caused all sorts of problems for maybe an hour, other buses could barely manouvre past. If the stupidly parked cars were not there/enforced/towed, then it would not have been such a big issue

ben.schlomo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120006682#Comment_120006682

It's obvious to a blind man that buses can't run to timetable during morning and evening rush hour. That's what the TFI Realtime app is for. But even then some buses can disappear off that.

For the last 2 or 3 months the amount of cancelled buses appearing on the app has been very bad. And not at peak times. I only really use them on days off to go to town with the kids so you're talking between 10am and maybe 1 pm on a weekday.

Fitz*

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120006819#Comment_120006819

Yeah if there was actually a proper working service where people knew buses were not going to show up, then it would alleviate some problems as people would not be aimlessly standing around and could make other arrangements or travel later on.

Bus Eireann are able to tell us weeks later where every bus is at the exact minute, but won't do it when it is needed. Any 'real time' service that just shows the expected time according to the timetable, instead of actual real time information, is not a real time service.

sasal

For the 409 and 401 the junction at Briarhill f*cks everything up. The bus can sit waiting for 10 minutes trying to get out of Parkmore.

ben.schlomo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120007043#Comment_120007043

As far as I'm aware the RealTime App from Tii is real time. The screenshot below shows the blue ones as real time. When you scroll further down they show timetabled services later in the day. Also an example of the cancelled trips right there too.

Mrs OBumble

The information in the app has gotten better as the bus controllers have started entering cancellations. I think some drivers still have ways of evading it though. And at the moment we have situations like this from last Thursday evening, apparently because of the driver shortage:

Mrs OBumble

I just saw double-decker city bus headed out the Dublin Rd labelled route 51 Gort.

Maybe someone's listening!

Of course this is after I spent 40 mins in Eyre Square waiting for a 409 😡

Still stihl waters 3

Maybe this this been mentioned here before but has anyone driving from the city out towards the clinic notice how 90 percent of drivers have no idea how to merge, they come off roundabout and queue in the right lane backing traffic up to the roundabout instead of using both lanes and merging at the top of the lane like it's supposed to be done.

I was 1 of very few cars that used the left lane to do this all week and the amount of drivers that refused to let us in was funny in fairness, I laughed as 1 driver revved her engine while staring me out of it, im going in and out all week and the lack of understanding how it's supposed to work is a little bit disconcerting that drivers are so badly informed, little more than morons behind the wheel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120006537#Comment_120006537

Pretty sure the parkmore busses are laid on depending on the shifts in the industrial estate. I've often seen the three or four double deckers parked up at once in parkmore and all head off full.

Renewed calls for a Park and Ride at the airport

https://galwaybayfm.ie/galway-bay-fm-news-desk/renewed-call-for-park-and-ride-at-galway-airport/

This despite a 6 month trial back in 2013 failed so badly it was shut down months ahead of schedule. The only thing that's changed since then is traffic has gotten worse.

P&R can work at that location, but only with bus lanes and bus priority at the lights

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120008155#Comment_120008155

Nope, the last factory bus to Parkmore finished before 2012.

The timetable is now independent of any employer, and is officially every 10 minutes for the 409 and every 20 for the 401. However with the number of recently-hired bus drivers, they seem less capable of using their brains and doing things to avoid bunching up. So it's happening more often.

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119996149#Comment_119996149

This is one of the most thoughtful posts that I've seen for a while, which actually proposes using rail / trams in sensible ways with address actual and likely future problems in the area of the city / county where population growth is most sensible.

A Galway tram-train would be unique - the widest gauge tram on the planet as it would have to fit onto Irish gauge rail.

Running on the existing tracks would limit the catchment area - half it is in the sea.

Putting it on existing roads would widen the catchment area and cover areas not otherwise covered but would be more expensive and disruptive.

zell12

We elected 18 councillors to represent us and they are generally silent on this topic that we all scream about. Maybe they realise the problem is simply the volume of cars, and it would be political suicide to speak out?

Speed limit review pushed back until Jan

https://connachttribune.ie/review-of-speed-limits-deferred-until-january/

Some bits of news from today

New bus route for North Galway going to tender

The service will link Tuam, Headford, Corrandulla, Annaghdown, Menlo and Galway city.

The planned service will be for four returns per day, between 7AM and 7PM, and it will run seven days a week.

https://galwaybayfm.ie/galway-bay-fm-news-desk/new-bus-service-for-north-galway-areas-going-to-tender/

New pedestrian bridge officially opened in Athenry. Its a few years late as it was supposed to open ahead of the new Clarin College building but better late than never. Looks great though

https://galwaybayfm.ie/galway-bay-fm-news-desk/new-pedestrian-bridge-in-athenry/

Whatever about the upcoming legal decision for the GCRR, after the release of Climate Action Plan 2023 today I can't see how the GCRR will ever pass a PSC review.

Part of CAP2023 will introduce the concept of Green Budgeting for govt finances. One element of that is identifying "Climate Harmful Spending". I think the GCRR will easily fall under that heading

Also, the reallocation of road space to sustainable modes and the corresponding increase in pedestrian, cyclists and PT users, will likely negate the need for the thing anyway.