Aircoach June 2024 Route Changes and Service Issues

belfast stephen

have heard that Aircoach new double decker buses have been bought for the city centre service from Dublin airport now its just a Rumour i would be surprised if true

stephenjmcd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122349809#Comment_122349809

Yup the new network started yesterday.

Some of the services are tracking this morning on bustimes but not all

Aircoach also haven't amended any of the bus stops, a few people waiting at cherrywood flyover this morning heading for the airport. 702 stop pole still there, but no bus serves it now as the 702 uses the flyover and the 700 comes down from cherrywood and doesn't pass it.

I'd imagine simple stuff like that will cause a fair bit of confusion

stephenjmcd

First Monday morning of the new services and some observations on the 702 running times.

The 06.20 from Greystones had to hold itself for around 5 minutes each time at Bray, Dalkey, Dun Laoghaire and Blackrock. Even still was then 16 minutes early at the 3Arena & didn't hold there. A good 35 mins running time worth of holding etc

The 07.20 which is timetabled for 1hr 10 mins to Bray in the morning held itself at the terminus in Greystones until 07:35 and even doing that arrived at Wilton Bray @ 07:56 and held itself at there for 20 mins to 08:16 & is after arriving at Supervalu Bray at 08:24.

While from the airport the 06:40 ran the full route with 45 mins to spare at Greystones.

Aircoach should be giving serious consideration to implementing the weekend timetable during the summer months and non term time. Personally I don't think they'll pay any attention.

An afternoon update... the 14.50 from Greystones got to the airport 62 minutes early and didn't even bother holding time at various points on the route. The hour allocated for Booterstown to 3Arena took it 15 mins.

devnull

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122353427#Comment_122353427

Whilst the timetables are clearly not going to work as they are too padded during the summer months, unless they get the schedules sorted out, if a bus doesn't wait at each stops (and I understand that it's frustrating for those on board to sit around and move nowhere) then how on earth are passengers supposed to know what time to be at the stop for? What is it going to be? Turn up randomly at a stop and hope for the best as your bus can arrive at any point? I don't think that's viable when a bus is only once an hour.

stephenjmcd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122356017#Comment_122356017

I'd agree, but today shows the majority of services did indeed wait, but some didn't and ran extremely early through stops, some 10-15 mins ahead

Main point is the timetables need changing for summer, likely to the weekend one

Paul2019

For me, the biggest sin a bus operator can commit is to be unreliable.

Running early or not at all makes it an unreliable service.

Having been left stuck and without information at the 702 Schoolhouse stop not once but twice, I abandoned Aircoach.

Ashamed to say I now use my car for Airport runs - DAA must be delighted.

N64

Do we know if the 702 has plans to reuse the (former) aircoach stops on the Strand road / Sean Moore road that were previously used before 2017 (when the service was amended to go through the city)

Bus route has them go through through the previously used route from St. Vincent's hospital to/from the 3 Arena, though the stops aren't served any more.

p_haugh

AFAIK, they just moved around the routes without adding any "new" stops at all, likely to avoid any issues getting NTA approval or even issues waiting on infrastructure changes (since technically the Sean Moore Road stops would be treated as "new" stops).

The new Dalkey-N11 link on the 702 is another example of where stops could be added (i.e. at the Graduate/Killiney Shopping Centre). The 700 could also do with a set of stops by the Lep Inn IMO now that it passes it

stephenjmcd

Cancelations galore today & tonight

Tweets now all deleted

https://twitter.com/Aircoach/status/1811296623303041404

https://twitter.com/Aircoach/status/1811297653973561562

https://twitter.com/Aircoach/status/1811297996958503418

mikeybhoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122366024#Comment_122366024

Haven't used the Aircoach in a long time but I used to find if you had a friendly word with the driver they'd let out at DB stop you wanted.

devnull

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122366210#Comment_122366210

IHow bad was it. I didn't see.

Be interesting to see if there are actually cancellations in reality and they've simply took down the notices or the services are actually running.

stephenjmcd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122367588#Comment_122367588

I think it was something like 6 outbound and inbound 700 services and probably around the same 701 with 702 having 1 inbound and 2 outbound cancelled.

Majority were all between 8pm-2am ish tonight

devnull

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122368020#Comment_122368020

Looking at the tracking tonight it looks like the cancellations went ahead unless there are some services not tracking on their site and BusTimes.

Only seems to be 2-3 active vehicles each on the 700 and the 701 at present with each route seemingly running at half the advertised frequency (so basically once an hour each).

mikeybhoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122369338#Comment_122369338

The 702 is already only hourly

devnull

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122369512#Comment_122369512

Typo - meant to say 700 and 701.

mikeybhoy

Read elsewhere that Aircoach drivers are working to rule at present

stephenjmcd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122369338#Comment_122369338

Looks to have been a few canceled on the 700 later last night / early hours this morning.

Likewise for the 702. Don't think the 07:20 from Greystones has ran this morning either.

701 isn't tracking properly on bustimes.

devnull

Reports of issues with services again this evening with some missing in action.

Bustimes.org tracking hasn't worked for Aircoach since this morning and whilst the Aircoach 'Track My Coach' feature appears to be functional, it's not showing many services.

LF403

Most days there are a total of 25 ish cancellations over 24 hours since the new changes. The worst I've come across (so far) was 50 cancellations over 24 hours. This is due to drivers calling in sick far more often, and some who have headed for the hills. Many drivers are being placed on rotas that don't suit them, with no option to transfer, so they are refusing to work.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122369559#Comment_122369559

The current official industrial action is a "Work Under Protest" while the matter is being sent to the labour courts.

devnull

Service Cancellations on Aircoach
The cancellations of services continues to occur, with a number of early morning services on the 700 and 702 not operating this morning which is the last time you want to have an unreliable service

The 700 timetable on the Aircoach website and the timetables page continues to advertise that the service runs up to 15 minute intervals as well which is confusing people. The timetable itself might be correct, but is it too hard to change the text?

Customer Service Update
Aircoach are now no longer monitoring Facebook or Instagram, as their recently added disclaimers on both social media sites now say.

In addition, today Aircoach have removed the 'Contact Us' form from the Help section of their website, you now have to go through a long list of FAQs before you can find an option that says 'Unable to find your answer' to reach the contact form.

The customer service on Twitter also leaves a lot to be desired, with someone reporting an issue with on-street furniture being told to contact Translink (??) and very little customer empathy in general about the poor service being provided as of late.

devnull

Aircoach have announced further cancellations to services and further temporary timetables, but they're not going to publish those temporary timetables and instead people are going to have to search the journey planner to see if services are running.

They have advised people travelling to the airport to take an earlier service than they have booked to make sure that they are able to complete their journey in time. If they have so little faith in their own service, why should passengers have more?

Dublin and Wicklow Services - Important Notice

Our Dublin and Wicklow routes will experience temporary changes to timetables over the coming weeks. While most of our services will run as scheduled, some services may need to be cancelled.

Please use our journey planner to access up to date service information, only services that are operational will be available for booking.

Already booked online to travel?

Customers can use pre-booked online tickets on an unaffected service on the same route. This can be earlier or later in the day, the day before, or the day after the date of disruption.

Alternatively, if your planned trip is affected by a cancelled service, you can seek a full refund. Please contact our customer service team via our online contact us page.

If you are travelling to the airport, we advise that you travel on an earlier Aircoach service to ensure you complete your onward journey.

At this stage I would strongly advise prospective passengers on the 700, 701 and 702 routes to look at other options, this might include Dublin Express Services 782, 783, 784, Dublin Bus 16 and 41 and train services to Heuston, Connolly or Tara Street to connect with said bus services.

stephenjmcd

Booked onto the 702 Thursday morning so let's see how that goes. Service is in the journey planner for Thursday at the moment. Looks like only 2 or 3 services not there to the airport for tomorrow

Also no email from them advising of the above either

devnull

Shouldn't surprise you.

There are also now scam accounts on social media pretending to be Aircoach reps that are trying to take advantage of the customer service vaccum by asking people for DMs no doubt to try and scam them and ask them for personal information.

There's at least four of them I've been able to find. I've reported the accounts to Twitter for being fake and scams, but this s just another symptom of all the problems that have been going on and some sick individuals realising that there may be a way for them to take advantage of the situation for their own personal gain.

In short - f you get a message from anyone else other than @aircoach on social media, please make sure you ignore it and report the tweet, it is going to be a scam for sure.

thebaz

The expansion sounds like a disaster , but no wonder Taoiseach seams so happy , he lives in Greystones.

Aircoach is becoming the Greyound service in Ireland, and anyone who has travelled by Greyhound in America will know how bad that is Zero customer service and no reliability

john boye

Think that's more a symptom of the hellscape that Twitter has become - enquiries to Aer Lingus were being replied to by similar scam accounts during the recent industrial action. It's very common and doesn't just affect companies having trouble.

devnull

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122389769#Comment_122389769

The ironic thing being of course, that Greyhound and Aircoach were in common ownership for many years!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122389774#Comment_122389774

Indeed, however it's noticeable that someone, somewhere has recently decided that Aircoach customers might be a good target, it can't be a co-incidence that this has all started around the same time, in the same way it probably wasn't a co-incidence that Aer Lingus saw an upsurge during the industrial action.

The way you fight such accounts apart from the obvious need to make sure the official accounts are reporting them (carries more weight that way if you say your brand is being ripped off and impersonated) is to make sure that you offer as good customer support as possible via social channels so helpless people won't turn to the scam accounts out of sheer desperation.

thebaz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122389782#Comment_122389782

They bullied the old Patton flier out of existence, which was a great service, and today we have this.

Spent a few trips around America on Greyhound, the last one was so bad, never ever again.

devnull

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122389809#Comment_122389809

That's not exactly how it was in terms of the Patton Flyer I'm afraid, that may have been the story that Trevor Patton liked to play to the media, but it wasn't what actually happened in reality.

This thread is not the place to discuss the ins and outs of the Patton Flyer, but if you want to find out what actually was the case, there's a fair bit of reading below (best start at the beginning of the thread!).

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2055730592/patton-flyer-mod-warning-post-404-see-post-659-also

john boye

The funniest one I saw recently was when one of the bots got confused and responded to a Ryanair query using a scam Easyjet CS account. Maybe the computers aren't ready to take over just yet.

thebaz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122389817#Comment_122389817

As an old customer of the Patton flyer never had an issue with its service, seamed friendly and definitly reliable , reading this thread about Aircoach and its (lack of) customer service, does not sound like a good experience or reliable to me.