TFI Live - Real Time Transport Planner App

Citrus_8

I have removed this app from my phone and suggesting others to do the same. It only takes up the space in my phone, similar to malware/spyware or any other trash, just this one is less harmful.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120404403#Comment_120404403

Sadly it's the only way I know if my bus is coming.

AX636

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120404850#Comment_120404850

Bustimes.org, great for tracking buses

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120402789#Comment_120402789

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120402924#Comment_120402924

Somehow the days and dates are screwed up in the database.

It’s displaying the schedules for the following day for any given date.

AlmightyCushion

The Luas green line wasn't operating over the weekend south of Ballaly for maintenance. Yet the app and journey planner were still showing it as operating normally. Absolutely useless. I only found out when I went to my stop and seen the destination on the front of the Luas. Nearly completely messed up my plans.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120406885#Comment_120406885

And were they showing live stop times ?

Neither the old or new app ever showed diversions in Limerick but not sure if they still showed phantom stop times.

AlmightyCushion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120406915#Comment_120406915

I don't know what you mean. I just checked the app and it was showing that the luas at my stop was going all the way to bride's glen. I checked the journey planner multiple times over the past week including yesterday morning to see what times the luas was going and when it would get to Carrickmines and the journey planner showed that they were all going to Carrickmines. No mention anywhere that it wasn't going south of Ballaly. Even the displays that show the next luas arrivals were saying they were all going to Sandyford.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120406992#Comment_120406992

I thought your stop was one of the cancelled ones. I get you now.

So ya we have the same problem with buses. For instance my bus didn't show the Paddy's Day diversions. It was always that way on the old app down here as well.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120405041#Comment_120405041

Just tried it now and it was tracking a bus that was down as the dreaded (scheduled) on the app. Even tells you which livery the bus is.

Would have walked home if it wasn't for the site. 👍

xper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120405221#Comment_120405221

I see. I'd put money on someone has changed the First Day of Week setting somewhere on the back end from Monday to Sunday. Have seen it done with similar outcome elsewhere

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120413893#Comment_120413893

It has now been fixed and the correct schedules are displaying.

AMKC

The new app is a disaster. It trys to be everything for everyone and fails to be any good at all. The old app was far superior and much better. I still have it and still use it.

KD345

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120406885#Comment_120406885

There was more planned maintenance work on the Green Line Luas this weekend with no service between Beechwood and Stephen’s Green.

Unlike previous years, there was no bus replacement service, presumably because of the driver shortage. Despite the partial closure affecting thousands of passengers there was no mention of it on the TFI website. Their social media channels do not operate at weekends and they provided no information in the days leading up to the work.

The new TFI Live app, which is currently being heavily promoted and is pinned to the top of their Twitter page, had no information of this disruption. If you used their journey planner it told you to use a tram which was not running. Luas stops on the app show a schedule of expected tram arrivals at closed stops.

How are TFI not on top of this? This is really basic stuff - are they not aware of changes to their services? Or do they know but don’t care enough to update for those of us using their apps, websites and social channels?

AlmightyCushion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120485935#Comment_120485935

I emailed the NTA and Neasa Hourigan about it when it happened and I got back a rather useless boiler plate answer from both. Still if people start hounding them with emails everytime this happens it might lead to something changing.

icdg

I’ve never seen an app beg me to delete it so much as the TFI Real Time. I know they want people to migrate to the new apps but it actually came across as pushy rather than helpful.

halfpastneverr

I've deleted the old & new app! Bustimes.org is the best thing I've come across for buses in Dublin yet. Easy to use, shows all bus info and map is easy to navigate.

Why can't these app designers just create a basic version similar to it for regular commuters to track their buses and then a journey type planner one for other folks/tourists etc? the new TFI app is so user unfriendly to both sets of customers.

NTA/TFI have such a talent for disimproving services, hats off to them I suppose.

transportrian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120489427#Comment_120489427

yep, I used the old app but now after using the new one for a few weeks I always end up just going to bustimes because it's easier. Very bizarre that the new app isn't very user-friendly.

Buffman

They've been blowing up my phone with notifications about the old app no longer being supported, pity they didn't put the same level of effort into the new one.

AngryLips

Honestly, I find the new app to be okay. There's a bit more latency with finding my location but that's about it.

VG31

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120498065#Comment_120498065

The new app isn't great but it's definitely an improvement on the old app. The old app was terrible. My list of saved bus stops was frequently erased meaning I'd regularly have to re-add them which was very frustrating. You couldn't even change the order. The old live map wasn't much use either.

AngryLips

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120499102#Comment_120499102

Yea and actually the only thing I find better is how quickly the old app would zoom to your location, but on the other hand when I think about it I'm not sure if that was just the speed of the animation rather than the speed of the loading. Sometimes it was definitely that the animation would make it look like it happening more quickly than it actually took to load and there would be a lag afterwards for the actual stop info to appear.

AMKC

The new TFI app is a disaster. Its unused friendly and tge way it is designed makes no sense whatsoever.

I preferred the real time Ireland App. It was user friendly at least.

Also its a pity the apps do not tell you what kind of bus is running on each service. So for my go-ahead service there is these horrible single Decker buses that should not be anywhere near a country road. The seats are crap in them too. No back support at all. I always have a sore back after being in them. Hate them.

There is also the nice luxurious Double Deckers with proper comfortable seats in them and if the app said DD at 11:30 S at 12:30 , 13:30 and 14:30 then a DD again at 15:30 at least I could choose which bus and time I want to go on and at. The single Deckers in my opinion are not suited for long journeys. They are OK for short journeys and that is it. They are meant for airports not long journeys on rural roads.

p_haugh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120510710#Comment_120510710

On the point of knowing what bus is running the route, you can view that info on the following site. It's quite mobile friendly too:

https://www.bustimes.org

Pretty much all of the Dublin Bus and Go-Ahead fleet is recorded, and a fair chunk of Bus Eireann is done as well.

Now this info is unofficial community input but it's tied to the vehicle id so is pretty accurate once recorded.

Don't get me wrong, it would be great to have this kind of information in an official capacity, but this is the next best thing imo.

Citrus_8

Plenty of quality single deckers in the continent. I suppose, there aren't many options for Ireland? Or do we just buy the cheapest options? Coincidentally, I've just a single GOI decker today and I can agree that the suspension is very hard and the bus is very shaky and making weird sounds. Haven't noticed the seats problem, but only took for 15 min. Some people are sitting with a backpack still on a back rather than taking it off - perhaps that's the issue? Bustimes.org is amazing - it's a huge, consistent and painful kick in the NTA's balls for them not managing to create something similar.

harringtonp

An alternative here guys:

https://yourstop.info/

Long term hobby project, I've been running it since 2017 but without access to AVL data didn't see much point in plugging it.

Recently migrated to a new server and hooked up the new GTFS feeds and you can now see where your bus is on the trip map and trip diagram.

There seems to be good AVL coverage. At peak times there can be over 1300 buses tracked in the VehiclePosition feed

Hippodrome Song Owl

Everything just says "scheduled" on the app this morning. No live tracking at all it seems for any route.

p_haugh

Seems it's showing scheduled for Dublin bus, Go-Ahead routes (within the next hour) seem to show fine. There was a "server maintenance" period overnight so maybe that didn't go to plan?

Edit: it's the same case on bustimes as well, no Dublin bus services are appearing at all, not even their location...

Citrus_8

Some buses now appear on bustimes, but some of them have no bus route number. It looks that BE data is also affected.

dublinman1990

The Dublin Bus app will be removed from the iOS & Android app stores from Tuesday the 16th of May.

When you look up the real time info in the app. It has a notice up for it's users to say that it's real time info will be removed from the Dublin Bus app, from the week after it, on the 23rd of May.

Polar101

I wish they'd done the stops on the map in a better way. Now what you've got is "2" everywhere, then you have to zoom in pretty close, and then try to click the correct stop to get the stop times you need. If it's an area you don't know very well, you probably end up clicking on both stops to get the correct one.

It's worse in some places, if you have more than 2 stops - one example would be centre of Ashbourne. There's a pair of stops, but one side has no departures at all - the stop you actually want to click is further up the road.

I'm not an app designer, but I just wish they had just one stop to click in most places, and then they could list "towards city centre" or something like that. Or they could show routes on the map instead of having to play "guess the route/stop" to find out a bus you need. There is the "list" tab, but again unless you are actually at the stop (or you know the stop number), it's not very handy.

Also I'm not a fan of the "cancelled" buses info - often buses show as cancelled, but they still run - and sometimes buses shown as running are actually cancelled. It's just not reliable info, which would really be something that's needed with all the bus cancellations going on.

Sudden Valley

Two "scheduled"buses just ended up being ghost buses. Why show them on the app, i dont know. The real time dublin bus wouldnt show them. Why give us false hope TFI app??

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120587869#Comment_120587869

They need the controller to actually manually cancel them and that doesn’t always happen.

There are occasions though where a “scheduled” bus can appear - for example, where the GPS tracking equipment on the bus fails.

Sudden Valley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120587915#Comment_120587915

Its pretty bad forty waiting for a bus that is supposed to be every ten minutes waiting for 30 minutes as controller too lazy to do their job.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120587944#Comment_120587944

Lazy is probably the opposite of reality - it’s a very busy job and there's just so many cancelled services at the moment due to the driver shortages that I suspect some are falling through the gaps unfortunately.

Citrus_8

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120588150#Comment_120588150

Don't need excuses. It's a lack of a good management of the tasks. It doesn't matter how busy it is, if there are the processes in place and they are followed, then things wouldn't slip through. Wrong people perhaps are hired for the position? It requires a technical, logical thinker, multitasker, problem solver and a very organised and consistent person. If they lack required skills, than they are lazy for not upskilling.

Hippodrome Song Owl

What would the story be with a bus marked cancelled for half its route, and "scheduled" for the other half?? Is it going to run the second half of the route or not? C1 on app currently marked cancelled from Sandymount to Tara Street, and "scheduled" from Aston Quay to Adamstown. Who knows?

This current situation with the driver shortage is bad, but the issues with buses not tracking (listed scheduled but actually running) and the inability of DB to officially register all the cancelled buses as cancelled, is maddening.

john boye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120736981#Comment_120736981

I would guess that Aston Quay is where a driver change was scheduled to occur but there's no driver for the duty that was to operate the Sandymount to Tara St section so the relief driver will take up on Aston Quay. I assume they'll have to get someone to bring the bus to him/her.

Hippodrome Song Owl

It didn't operate unfortunately.

I've had a day of it - lots of cancellations, very few officially marked as cancelled. And the one "scheduled" bus I assumed was cancelled (so ended up heading home later than intended) actually did operate.

I can cope with the cancellations, but not the inconsistent communication.

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120588938#Comment_120588938

Processes are designed to work at a certain volume. If the number of events goes over that, there's often not enough time to carry them out.

Citrus_8

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120737326#Comment_120737326

So again, it's a bad management. No good decisions been made in time. Ie, hire more people instead of waiting for too long. No, I understand this is a public body and they have to deal with some paperwork and make arrangements before even publishing about the opening. But again, things can be foreseen and prevented. And the NTA looking to be like those headless chickens, but even those are better as they show energy and enthusiasm.

brianc89

Is it safe to assume that any bus listed "scheduled" on the app is actually cancelled?

Only the buses being real time tracked are running?

bikeman1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120737970#Comment_120737970

I don't bother with the ones that say scheduled. They nearly never run. I think they are ones that they don't have a driver for, are scrambling to find one, which they might get (say a driver doing an extra run) but not guaranteed.

The summer is a tricky time as drivers get their well earned two weeks leave at this time, so even more pressure on resources. We can only hope from September, things will start to bed down.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120738056#Comment_120738056

They certainly can operate - examples would be where there is a problem with the GPS equipment on the bus, and also where a driver signs on to the ticket machine for the first time (either at the terminus or at a handover point) the buses can then vanish from the live info for several minutes until the system resets (it appears to be a glitch), and the scheduled times appear.

But other times it is simply that there’s no driver available for the duty, and for whatever reason the departures have not been cancelled off the system by the controller.

Hippodrome Song Owl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120737970#Comment_120737970

In my experience they are cancelled about 80% of the time, but buses failing to track is a growing problem.

bikeman1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120738481#Comment_120738481

LXFlyer, in fairness I did say "They nearly never run". That is different to they don't run. As HSO says, they don't run 80% of the time, which would be my experience too. With a 1 in 5 chance of a bus running, I don't bother wasting time time going for that most likely imaginary bus.

AndrewJRenko

Have people seen the Transit app? It seems to be a much improved interface compared to the NTA app.

Same data feeds presumably.

https://apps.apple.com/ie/app/transit-bus-train-times/id498151501

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120740252#Comment_120740252

I was just explaining why they can appear as “scheduled” and still operate,

Polar101

Anything that says "scheduled" within the next hour or so is usually cancelled (but not always).

But is there any way of knowing which live tracked buses have actually departed and are running on the route? My local stop is about 10 minutes from a terminus, and many of the live buses do not exist. As in, it might say "5 mins" for the next bus, but that bus will never arrive - the time jumps up and down or gets to "due", and then just disappears from the app.

And then there's the occasional stealth buses that are neither "scheduled" or live, but still run.

I think the system and the app need a lot of work.

p_haugh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120763828#Comment_120763828

If it actually departed, the bus location should be tracking on the map view page.

VG31

I had two experiences of "scheduled" buses today that did operate. One was visible on the tracking map. The other wasn't but interestingly was appearing on the bus stop real time displays. Do these have a different source to the TFI app?