Coronavirus and the effect on Public transport

Outside of a well ventilated cabin with a perspex screen, how does it stop you getting it through your eyes?

And how can any mask make a difference in the cabin?

SI 244 of 2020

5. (1) A person shall not, without reasonable excuse, travel by public transport vehicle within a relevant geographical location without wearing a face covering

(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply –

(c) where there is a screen in a public transport vehicle which separates the driver of the vehicle from persons boarding or alighting from the vehicle, to a person driving the vehicle from behind that screen

What agreement is required to have drivers work on a standard working day after 10pm? I would be surprised if there is any legal or actual need (though always good to have all partiers happy).

DB did reference Covid and Operational Issues in the press release.

Its about time NTA stopped the early close, at a minimum core routes and the 24hr don't stop. No real issues with a major reduction even below Sat freq on NYE but the complete stop never made sense.

While you may have a point that it's not the busiest of days today , I wouldn't be using the city centre as a basis for presuming services will run light or empty. Not in the case of routes that serve busy shopping centres like the 39A.

I'm sure when the NTA ordered DB to run a service it was long before pubs closed early. I agree there is a good case for service reduction now however in more normal times there is no reason to finish at 22.00 on NYE.

Unless we go back into lockdown, I don't see how that'll work. They should be reducing capacity on buses again, rather than cutting services.

Public transport is a social service. That's why it never is profitable in cities. Government pay subsidies to the operators to keep the service level. Irish government is actually subsidising it at a lower level then the other European countries.

Pubs and restaurants are closed for late evening and night temporarily. So this demand drop is also temporary. Need to look and plan for the future, even though planning ahead isn't the strongest thing for Irish people.

Again, it is simply the case of that there’s not enough drivers to operate the weekday service due to Covid absence.

All of the transport operators are having to cancel numerous services.

Better to have a service that can be delivered than one that can’t.

Well that is up to the government based on the advice from the public health officials, not the transport companies, and as of now they are not imposing any more restrictions on society.

The Saturday schedule for many city bus routes has the same daytime frequency as Monday-Friday, it's just less frequent during the traditional morning and evening peaks. With vast numbers of office workers continuing to work from home, the numbers using the buses or trains at that time are far less than normal. I've been on buses on one of local routes that would traditionally be standing room only, and they've got maybe half a dozen people both downstairs and upstairs.

Most buses aren't exactly packed right now. Some are, particularly around school times, but most are carrying large amounts of fresh air for most of the day. Many people can probably work around avoiding the school times, maybe travel a little earlier/later if needs be.

Also, the Saturday schedule would have more appropriate running times for buses than Monday-Friday. Yesterday and the day before I was on a number of buses that had extended waits at bus stops along the route due to the running time being far too generous as a result of there being very little traffic.

You have to feel for the poor driver who was unfortunately caught up in this horrible situation. It's not a nice thing to hear it happened 5 days before Christmas Day.

How often have these assaults occurred on bus drivers here during the pandemic? Is it a recurring trend that is taking place at the moment along with anti-social behaviour on IÉ staff.

Reportedly Dublin Bus are NOT going ahead with the Saturday service starting next week. Go-Ahead must be as they published their Saturday-based timetables already (they're kind of Saturday departures with Mon-Fri running times tbh).

DB cancelled, GAI looks to be still going ahead with the changes.

I'd say there's a big difference. The pub is personal responsibility, you don't have to go if you do it's your decision and bar the pub or someone else doing something bad you'd be solely responsible for your actions. Bus however is an essential service and there would be a lot of old and vulnerable people and healthcare staff that need public transport that would be hessitant on getting on buses where people are not wearing masks.