Worsening and unacceptable bus service in Dublin

JupiterKid

Waited over an hour for my bus earlier today (route 37) in the pouring rain. Three busses were scheduled to arrive within a 45 minute period but none turned up. I ended up going home.

The new TFI app is a complete joke - the expected arrival times are completely out, busses are very unreliable, not adhering to timetables properly and are frequently packed full when trying to catch one at a bus stop in recent months. 

So much for Dublin City Council’s aspirations to make Dublin a “car free city centre” - people will not use the bus service if it is not reliable and dependable and they will not make the modal shift from cars to public transport until a viable and reliable alternative is available. Meanwhile, the city is bursting at the seams with population growth and public transport in Dublin is now ranked the worst of any capital city in Europe. 

BusConnects, as I see it, is only a short to medium-term “sticking plaster” solution for a serious lack of quality PT in the city which needs a full metro system and it appears in any case that it is not being rolled out as originally planned and is also not running properly. The reality of a declining quality of bus service completely flies in the face of the so-called “15 minute city” concept. 

What’s the point in having close to full employment in Dublin when those employees have no place to live (as per the housing catastrophe) and cannot get around the city due to an appalling bus service? 

According to a Greenpeace study of European cities where the ease of purchasing and using public transport services was ranked, Dublin was ranked the very worst - and that’s not even taking into account the dire TFI app, “ghost” busses that never turn up and a generally inadequate and worsening level of service over the past few years. 

Anyone else have any thoughts on our very poor public transport in Dublin?

Link to article:

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/dublin/dublin-news/dublins-public-transport-has-been-ranked-the-worst-in-europe-how-can-we-get-it-on-the-right-track/a219437691.html

billyhead

They blame lack of drivers. I agree it's a joke. The train service is no better. Constant delays.

odyssey06

The politicians dont care about actual buses and actual commuters. Just point at notional timetables.

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121027049#Comment_121027049

They can easily fix that problem by paying drivers more, they have a lot of responsibility and aren't paid near enough. You can earn nearly as much working in a supermarket or warehouse without paying thousands for lessons and don't have to deal with brain dead road users.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058310838/worsening-and-unacceptable-bus-service-in-dublin

There is a shortage of bus drivers affecting the entire industry unfortunately, and Dublin Bus has been affected as much as any of the companies, despite the largest recruitment campaign in the company's history. Recently a private operator was quoted as saying that far fewer young people were interested in driving as a career anymore, and that is a massive problem for the companies.

The rollout of the new BusConnects network has been repeatedly delayed because of the lack of drivers to drive the new or expanded bus routes.

The summer holidays have exacerbated the problem, as there was insufficient cover for those on annual leave, but hopefully that should improve once the schools go back as the bus drivers' holidays will have ended too.

There are unfortunately a large number of cancelled departures, and each one needs to be manually cancelled by the controller and that isn't always happening. Hence the "ghost buses".

I would suggest using the Transit Bus & Train Times app - (available on the app store and google play) - it has a much better user interface than the TFI app and you can see clearly where buses are along the route and from that deduce whether a departure is actually operating. However, if you are using the TFI app, I'd view any departure with the word "scheduled" beside it with some degree of scepticism.

That Greenpeace study really wasn't fair in its analysis of Dublin transport, as it focused purely on the cost of a monthly unlimited travel ticket across all modes, and failed to take into account the ease with which you can avail of daily or weekly capping on LEAP, which have overtaken the use of monthly tickets since the 90 minute EUR 2 fare came in. Most people are now paying EUR 4 a day to commute, whether they use multiple buses or modes, or half that if under 24. The vast majority of people use only one mode, and for them a weekly bus cap is only EUR 22, or EUR 11 for those under 24.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121027060#Comment_121027060

Actually that's not really true. There have been three meetings of the Oireachtas Transport Committee focussing on the driver shortage problem with the bus companies and trying to see what can be done to alleviate it.

They are looking at streamlining the approval process for new drivers, and potentially recruiting more from overseas. But I would suggest that the ongoing housing shortage is not helping driver recruitment either. Remember that bus drivers have to live somewhere too.

odyssey06

@LXFlyer well I hope the committee meetings lead to something. But at government \ cabinet \ minister level the focus seems to be on more buses, and the notional timetable - regardless of whether there's drivers to run it, or the timetable is practicable.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121029062#Comment_121029062

Well they do have to invest in the bus service - Dublin needs the orbital routes and the night time services that BusConnects will deliver. Similarly the rollout of Connecting Ireland (documented in the C & T forum) is delivering regular public transport to areas all over the country that never had it before.

To be fair, Ministers aren’t responsible for staffing the buses and deciding how the routes are rolled out - their job is to approve the funding for the staff and buses, which they did. It’s up to the bus companies and the NTA to hire the staff and manage the rollout.

What the Oireachtas Committee meetings did was to allow the bus companies explain the problems, and then to try and tease out what can be done to address the issues the bus industry faces - some of that is looking to streamline the approval process for new drivers with the RSA, and also to get immigration rules relaxed to allow for more people to be recruited from overseas.

The NTA did commit at the committee meeting last December that no further phases of BusConnects would be rolled out unless the bus companies had sufficient staff to deliver it and maintain the existing services. That wouldn’t have happened without the politicians intervening. The only phase since then implemented was the W4, W61 & W62, all operated by GoAhead who had hired sufficient staff.

The next phase (southside orbitals) involves both companies and requires a lot of additional drivers, particularly at DB (appx. 60). That is going to be challenging.

BlueSkyDreams

Just build an underground and be done with it, for the long term.

I never even consider getting a bus becsuse they are just totally unreliable.

Green Line Luas, yes. Bus, No.

Give us a proper underground that future proofs transport in the city for centuries to come.

We will get there eventually, but not in my lifetime.

Its like highrise apartments. We all know they will happen, so solve the housing crisis now and just build them, rather than bulldozing the Docklands in 10 or 15 yrs time to build them then, which will inevitably happen.