Coronavirus and the effect on Public transport

pottokblue

surely with the vaccination roll out they should increase capacity from 25-50/75%.....? wish more people wore their masks and opened windos...

r93kaey5p2izun

Honestly, the number of people who insist on closing the couple of open windows - it's absolutely weird. There's a woman on before me every morning who, as soon as I stand up to get off the bus, rushes forward to slam closed the window where I was sitting - usually the only one open at that stage.

.anon.

Emerald Blue Mail wrote: »

Honestly, the number of people who insist on closing the couple of open windows - it's absolutely weird. There's a woman on before me every morning who, as soon as I stand up to get off the bus, rushes forward to slam closed the window where I was sitting - usually the only one open at that stage.

This is why I open every window at each terminus. Some people think it's over-the-top, but it's the only way of ensuring that some windows remain open throughout the whole run.

punisher5112

I open 3 downstairs and 4 upstairs in the morning....

Some absolute numpties get on close them all.

If I cop it downstairs I give them a shout and ask do they see the stickers on the window, eh yeah, well what does it read back to ya.....

GT89

punisher5112 wrote: »

If I cop it downstairs I give them a shout and ask do they see the stickers on the window, eh yeah, well what does it read back to ya.....

I get the suspicion you might be fighting a lost cause there

BonnieSituation

pottokblue wrote: »

surely with the vaccination roll out they should increase capacity from 25-50/75%.....? wish more people wore their masks and opened windos...

I haven't been on one bus where there were mask issues the last 3 months I've been back on a commute.

The window thing is annoying though.

I open the 3 near me when I sit down though.

punisher5112

GT89 wrote: »

I get the suspicion you might be fighting a lost cause there

Ah well the hot weather is near here.... They'll all be open soon.

Leonard Hofstadter

pottokblue wrote: »

surely with the vaccination roll out they should increase capacity from 25-50/75%.....? wish more people wore their masks and opened windos...

Surely with all primary schools back since Monday they need to go back to standard Monday - Friday timetables? With all schools back after Easter, they'll surely have to go back to those timetables as all secondary schools will have to be back.

I've used buses a couple of times lately, excellent compliance with mask wearing, sadly I've found I've needed to open windows on the buses I was on.

L1011

Standing in vestibules under 2m apart and plenty on yellow marked seats on the train today, all because they're using 4 cars instead of 7 to save fuel.

The London capacity reduction was ridiculed in Ireland, yet we're doing the same. Weekday schedule is needed again for distancing

r93kaey5p2izun

Something I have seen on a Go Ahead bus route this week is that only 50% of the seats are marked off. It's set up for 50% capacity - I had actually wondered if I had missed an announcement about it.

GT89

Emerald Blue Mail wrote: »

Something I have seen on a Go Ahead bus route this week is that only 50% of the seats are marked off. It's set up for 50% capacity - I had actually wondered if I had missed an announcement about it.

A lot of the signs have been vandalised and don't appear to have been replaced or maybe they never updated them it. Limit is still 25%.

r93kaey5p2izun

GT89 wrote: »

A lot of the signs have been vandalised and don't appear to have been replaced or maybe they never updated them it. Limit is still 25%.

Yeah, I know the limit is still 25% it just made me wonder when I saw it so consistently at 50% of seats this week as opposed to last week. And that's also what made me doubt vandalism - every bus has been consistently 50%. It's every row, not just some.

GT89

Emerald Blue Mail wrote: »

Yeah, I know the limit is still 25% it just made me wonder when I saw it so consistently at 50% of seats this week as opposed to last week. And that's also what made me doubt vandalism - every bus has been consistently 50%. It's every row, not just some.

It doesn't appear to be as restrictive as in the first lockdown.

r93kaey5p2izun

GT89 wrote: »

It doesn't appear to be as restrictive as in the first lockdown.

Yeah definitely not. Personally, I don't really see much value in the 25% versus the 50%, so I'm happy enough. So long as it's not packed with everyone standing on top of each other. If they'd just leave the windows open it'd be grand!

punisher5112

1st lockdown was easy, people followed it quite well and most were happy having time off work, now the last few months you can see the difference and most couldn't care less.

It was nearly exciting to a degree for many and just something we had never seen before.

Dublin city like a ghost town, no traffic, the odd bus, hardly any cars and just drug addicts and bus drivers roaming the streets.... Nothing like that this time round.

Motorway etc were near empty too.

GT89

punisher5112 wrote: »

1st lockdown was easy, people followed it quite well and most were happy having time off work, now the last few months you can see the difference and most couldn't care less.

It was nearly exciting to a degree for many and just something we had never seen before.

Dublin city like a ghost town, no traffic, the odd bus, hardly any cars and just drug addicts and bus drivers roaming the streets.... Nothing like that this time round.

Motorway etc were near empty too.

Tbh I don't blame people I'm not going down an off topic rabbit hole today but just think about it the airports are still wide open and we're being told to stay home.

Zebra3

Another nightmare getting home today.

Stayed late to help put preparations in place for a baby's life saving operation.

66 and 67 went past without stopping. Had to get on a 25 before eventually getting off in Lucan and waiting for the next 66.

A Saturday service at 25%? Utter joke.

But sure we're all in this together, aren't we? :rolleyes:

punisher5112

Zebra3 wrote: »

Another nightmare getting home today.

Stayed late to help put preparations in place for a baby's life saving operation.

66 and 67 went past without stopping. Had to get on a 25 before eventually getting off in Lucan and waiting for the next 66.

A Saturday service at 25%? Utter joke.

But sure we're all in this together, aren't we? :rolleyes:

Contact the garage, contact nta Anne Graham, contact 98fm, rte, Niall boylan etc.

That isn't on
The biggest issue is the amount of people using the buses and in no way for essential reason's.


I honestly feel terrible having to leave decent hard working people behind.

dashcamdanny

punisher5112 wrote: »

Contact the garage, contact nta Anne Graham, contact 98fm, rte, Niall boylan etc.

That isn't on
The biggest issue is the amount of people using the buses and in no way for essential reason's.


I honestly feel terrible having to leave decent hard working people behind.

TBH. I have been driving by groups of kids in tracksuits on non school hours.
. Trying to fill the bus with people going to work or shopping. Its fairly easy to spot ..

L1011

1710 to Sligo is still four cars. If there's no obvious indication of it going back to seven for Friday evening, I'm going to drive in.

r93kaey5p2izun

What's the likelihood of a return to 50% capacity and/or a return to Mon-Fri timetable for Dublin bus services (DB and GA)? From April 12th, with return of full school attendance and resumption of some construction activities, surely capacity will need to increased? Has there been any announcement on this? Anyone here have any info?

ax586

Emerald Blue Mail wrote: »

What's the likelihood of a return to 50% capacity and/or a return to Mon-Fri timetable for Dublin bus services (DB and GA)? From April 12th, with return of full school attendance and resumption of some construction activities, surely capacity will need to increased? Has there been any announcement on this? Anyone here have any info?

That's a question you will have to ask the NTA..The capacity will only go up if we go down onto a level 3 let's say.

Jamie2k9

Its only a minority of drivers strictly following to 25% now. Numbers are creeping up and most drivers are fine up to 50%.

Noticed the really old single door buses are also back out, is there any reason why when its a Saturday service?

NTA are probally happy to keep CIE services to a Saturday service for as long as possible as its likely saving them some money.

.anon.

Emerald Blue Mail wrote: »

What's the likelihood of a return to 50% capacity and/or a return to Mon-Fri timetable for Dublin bus services (DB and GA)? From April 12th, with return of full school attendance and resumption of some construction activities, surely capacity will need to increased? Has there been any announcement on this? Anyone here have any info?

Nothing has been announced officially yet, but I've heard that Mon-Fri timetables are returning on April 12th.

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime

GT89 wrote: »

I get the suspicion you might be fighting a lost cause there

I used to do something when I was driving them years ago because in some weather I absolutely hated the way the inside of the bus fogged up, or you could actually see the water droplets on the inside of the windows, and it wasn't rain getting in, it was the condinsation from everyone on the inside.
It was absolutely disgusting and I often remember being a passenger in that same environment and struggling to breathe with it. (There was a day I got off a bus well to early and walked a considerable distance just so I could breath fresh air)

So I'd leave my cab window open where possible once it didn't interfer.

But when I got my bus, or at a terminus, I'd tear off a length of ticket roll, fold it right the way up into itself and go to the outside of the bus, open up one or two windows from outside. Then the folded up ticket roll would get stuffed into the corner of the open window, so when you were on the inside of the bus the window wouldn't close, and sure a passenger would just think it's broken

In all my time doing that it's helped drastically keep the inside ventilated better and never a complaint. And to clarify, you're not interfering with the window and it has never done any damage. When you're done, just pull the paper back out and no problem

pottokblue

I'm regular commuter on DB and always 2-4 windows when I'm first person upstairs/downstairs still an incredible amount of people happy to sit beside closed windows even in this fine weather. Regardless I open the window beside me and only once got into an argument with a fellow maskless passanger last august who closed my window and told me to think of her bambino/child (a teenager), the bus was empty so I gave up my fav front seat and sat down the back opening more windows along the way.

I wish DB keep mask policy beyond panepidemic as I notice a lot less nosepickers.

TK Lemon

I’ve noticed a lot of people close the windows before they’ve even sat down on the bus! I don’t understand why people just can’t leave them open!

devnull

TK Lemon wrote: »

I’ve noticed a lot of people close the windows before they’ve even sat down on the bus! I don’t understand why people just can’t leave them open!

Had quite a few people who get on the bus recently who proceed to close every window downstairs before sitting down.

TK Lemon

devnull wrote: »

Had quite a few people who get on the bus recently who proceed to close every window downstairs before sitting down.

I’ve seen a few of those people too.

punisher5112

devnull wrote: »

Had quite a few people who get on the bus recently who proceed to close every window downstairs before sitting down.

Could never understand this, yes I know it can be cold, I wouldn't expect all to be open but even one open makes such a huge difference....

When we had the Ra and RV the difference by having the one at the top of the stairs open and one slightly open downstairs stopped the windscreen completely fogging over.

Every morning, terminus and even as taking up in service I'll make sure the ones at wheelchair bay are open....
I'll go around later and open 3 or 4 upstairs and about 3 downstairs especially when it was wet and cold as otherwise it would be too cold.

r93kaey5p2izun

I think those closing the windows at the moment are just weirdos. It's such an odd thing to do, but there's definitely plenty of them out there!

I will say that when you sit on the raised up seats near the back downstairs, and the windows a few rows ahead are open, then the strength of the wind is very unpleasant when the bus is on the dual carriageway, travelling at a good speed and with no stops. But I will never understand those who rush to slam shut every window, especially at the moment.

john boye

Personally I find that if the heaters are on and working then one or two windows open makes very little difference, even on a cold day.

devnull

Emerald Blue Mail wrote: »

I think those closing the windows at the moment are just weirdos. It's such an odd thing to do, but there's definitely plenty of them out there!

I will say that when you sit on the raised up seats near the back downstairs, and the windows a few rows ahead are open, then the strength of the wind is very unpleasant when the bus is on the dual carriageway, travelling at a good speed and with no stops. But I will never understand those who rush to slam shut every window, especially at the moment.

The thing is the further back in the bus you sit, the more air you will feel from open windows from further ahead in the bus and you'll feel this especially when you are going down a dual carriageway or another higher speed section.

The people who are shutting the windows the whole length of the bus are normally those sitting towards the back. The easiest solution for them is to sit nearer the front where it will be warmer, but instead of doing this they sit near the back and close all the windows and force everyone else to deal with it.

punisher5112

devnull wrote: »

The thing is the further back in the bus you sit, the more air you will feel from open windows from further ahead in the bus and you'll feel this especially when you are going down a dual carriageway or another higher speed section.

The people who are shutting the windows the whole length of the bus are normally those sitting towards the back. The easiest solution for them is to sit nearer the front where it will be warmer, but instead of doing this they sit near the back and close all the windows and force everyone else to deal with it.

Actually I've found many get on start closing windows then sit right up front....

I see the new hybrids will not have windows at the front you can open like GT and sg class.

ax586

When I'm driving I always open the wheelchair bay windows..95% of the time nobody will go near them.

GT89

Is there an element of truth to this or is it union scaremongering I wonder? The government appear to be adamant that investment into public transport will continue despite covid.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/coronavirus/serious-concerns-for-dublin-bus-services-as-revenues-tumble-1.4528425

Midnight_EG

No mention of GAI, or any other CIE companies... Scaremongering at its finest.

goingnowhere

Kite flying by the unions, probably terrified Dublin Bus, Irish Rail, Bus Eireann will (though unlikely) completely reimagine the service and undo a lot of the legacy junk.

You won't see any issues from Transdev over in Luas as they operate a under a management contract so get paid even if there are no passengers. Luas has run a FULL schedule throughout unlike everyone else.

GAI should be in a similar place in terms of funding, they are insulated from this.

pottokblue

A bus driver on the 27 route made a garbled announcement for a lad to put on his mask (he was babbling on his phone and not listening to the announcement). The driver then stopped the bus and cameupstairs, I warned the lad in French that the driver was probably going to have words with him. There was only 4 of us upstairs on the bus windows opened and we weren't botherd about the lad with the mask 1/2on off much more troublesome was the drunken lad sitting behind me and trying to make light chat when all I want to do is doze after night shift. The drunk lad was sitting on a yellow closed seat and the driver made no announcements words to him, I wonder if skin colour plaeyd a factor?

punisher5112

pottokblue wrote: »

A bus driver on the 27 route made a garbled announcement for a lad to put on his mask (he was babbling on his phone and not listening to the announcement). The driver then stopped the bus and cameupstairs, I warned the lad in French that the driver was probably going to have words with him. There was only 4 of us upstairs on the bus windows opened and we weren't botherd about the lad with the mask 1/2on off much more troublesome was the drunken lad sitting behind me and trying to make light chat when all I want to do is doze after night shift. The drunk lad was sitting on a yellow closed seat and the driver made no announcements words to him, I wonder if skin colour plaeyd a factor?

Oh jebus

Sultan of Bling

pottokblue wrote:

A bus driver on the 27 route made a garbled announcement for a lad to put on his mask (he was babbling on his phone and not listening to the announcement). The driver then stopped the bus and cameupstairs, I warned the lad in French that the driver was probably going to have words with him. There was only 4 of us upstairs on the bus windows opened and we weren't botherd about the lad with the mask 1/2on off much more troublesome was the drunken lad sitting behind me and trying to make light chat when all I want to do is doze after night shift. The drunk lad was sitting on a yellow closed seat and the driver made no announcements words to him, I wonder if skin colour plaeyd a factor?

Did the driver say "could the person with (insert colour here) skin put their mask on".

If not, I wouldn't say skin colour played a factor.

punisher5112

Some Drivers and some passengers are very anul about the mask wearing....

Nothing about race and what a world we live in that the race card is played for any little bit of enforcement or argument.....

My wife was verbally abused by a lady walking her dog, she is a health care worker, was coming home from night shift and got off a bus.
The lady was screaming at her that it fcuking a holes like her spreading the virus and shouldn't be travelling etc etc etc....

The daughter was abused by a guy in a car that pulled up beside her in his car, she was on her bike cycling ahead of the wife, he was cursing at her and telling her she was a disgrace for been out and virus rubbish etc.... This fruit was extremely lucky I wasn't there as he wouldn't have got far.
Wtf is wrong with people.

GT89

punisher5112 wrote: »

Some Drivers and some passengers are very anul about the mask wearing....

Nothing about race and what a world we live in that the race card is played for any little bit of enforcement or argument.....

My wife was verbally abused by a lady walking her dog, she is a health care worker, was coming home from night shift and got off a bus.
The lady was screaming at her that it fcuking a holes like her spreading the virus and shouldn't be travelling etc etc etc....

The daughter was abused by a guy in a car that pulled up beside her in his car, she was on her bike cycling ahead of the wife, he was cursing at her and telling her she was a disgrace for been out and virus rubbish etc.... This fruit was extremely lucky I wasn't there as he wouldn't have got far.
Wtf is wrong with people.

I was verbally attacked by a customer for not wearing a mask at work last summer this was before they were required btw. Another time I was abused for wearing a visor not a mask and another time for the heinous crime of sneezing.

dublinman1990

GT89 wrote: »

Is there an element of truth to this or is it union scaremongering I wonder? The government appear to be adamant that investment into public transport will continue despite covid.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/coronavirus/serious-concerns-for-dublin-bus-services-as-revenues-tumble-1.4528425

Midnight_EG wrote: »

No mention of GAI, or any other CIE companies... Scaremongering at its finest.

Well is it scaremongering coming from the unions? I wouldn't think so.

For one thing; the IT article above is not really reporting on what type of Dublin Bus routes are currently experiencing these difficulties in failing to maintain their financial performance to remain viable. They would have to be routes that are carrying little to no passengers during the entirety of the current pandemic. I could have a theory that the peak & xpressos are maybe the ones that is causing the most harm to their viability during this crisis. These services have taken most of the brunt of the cuts in demand because they have had their timetables reduced to run more limited services or run no services at all at certain times throughout the pandemic.

These are routes that have mostly been impacted by the crisis because many of their customers that they serve on these services on weekdays pre-covid would typically go to work in places like commercial office buildings, school & colleges that have been closed & resorted to WFH for most of this pandemic. I would say these peak/xpresso routes right now will currently take some other passengers by simply piggybacking from the other bigger routes with taking on healthcare workers & other essential workers to keep their services open to most of their remaining customers.

I think GAI may prove to be crucial in retaining their viability here by maybe taking on the peak routes onto their network post-Covid when BusConnects Dublin get implemented from this year. This is a more difficult task for Dublin Bus to manage though as the xpressos are not publicly funded routes via the taxpayer as they are deemed to be commercial services. This also puts into question the viability of Airlink services & tour bus services throughout this pandemic that were run by this operator. Is their time now reported to be up this year because they're now reported not to be contributing any money to the current business model of Dublin Bus?

devnull

dublinman1990 wrote: »

I think GAI may prove to be crucial in retaining their viability here by maybe taking on the peak routes onto their network post-Covid when BusConnects Dublin get implemented from this year. This is a more difficult task for Dublin Bus to manage though as the xpressos are not publicly funded routes via the taxpayer as they are deemed to be commercial services.

Xpressos are part of the PSO network - they are not commercial routes.

This also puts into question the viability of Airlink services & tour bus services throughout this pandemic that were run by this operator. Is their time now reported to be up this year because they're now reported not to be contributing any money to the current business model of Dublin Bus?

Well I think that all commercial airport operators and tour operators have the same problem. In the short term the routes are not going to be commercially viable which is why they are not running, but once things start opening up they will certainly be profitable once more in the medium term.

Jamie2k9

Last week it was NBRU saying they would not facilitate a return to full capacity until staff get vaccines. Word is they didn't inform all members at least when they went public on it. Now there was never a suggestion 100% capacity would return before then. A week later another fake news story from a second transport union.

One thing that is certain I don't see 2022 getting the same blank cheque from Goverment to NTA. Country cannot afford it so lets hope some form of normality returns from the Autumn.

LastStop

Didn't DB move away from fare box revenue on it's new contract and is now operating on the same terms as GAI.

Set fees + performance bonuses and - fines for lost km and failure to drive ontime.

Maybe it's the Nta who are struggling with the drop in passenger numbers.

BonnieSituation

I wouldn't trust the accuracy of any article in the IT wrt public transport.

---

GT89

LastStop wrote: »

Didn't DB move away from fare box revenue on it's new contract and is now operating on the same terms as GAI.

Set fees + performance bonuses and - fines for lost km and failure to drive ontime.

Maybe it's the Nta who are struggling with the drop in passenger numbers.

Not yet afaik

ax586

LastStop wrote: »

Didn't DB move away from fare box revenue on it's new contract and is now operating on the same terms as GAI.

Set fees + performance bonuses and - fines for lost km and failure to drive ontime.

Maybe it's the Nta who are struggling with the drop in passenger numbers.

Yes they have all farebox revenue goes to NTA.