BusConnects Dublin - Bus Network Changes Discussion

I had a look at the drawings to the Rock Road corridor today. I am largely happy with the changes being made to it. However; I'm bit disappointed to see a little change being made to a proposed bus stop at St. Vincent's Park on Temple Hill in Blackrock. There's a proposed bus stop just located after the traffic lights which was meant to put in before the lights at that location.

Let's say if people living along the S8 route wanted to take another bus out to Blackrock or further out along the CBC maybe out Blackrock College or to St Vincent's Hospital. They would have to make a small compromise in their journey by walking down from a bus stop at Montpellier Manor down to Temple Hill to get another bus along that corridor.

If they cannot use the 114 to Blackrock by trying to avoid that situation if it was scrapped. They would have no choice to use the journeys like this as the talk of compromises have been put into the conversation when Jarret Walker was talking about making them when this plan was 1st launched a few years ago.

That talk of potential compromise has also been put into 3 proposed coach bays that have put in at the Rock Road junction near Mount Merrion Avenue, the Willow Park School entrance at Booterstown & St Vincent's Hospital in Elm Park.

Ironically those locations are currently being used as bus stops for both Dublin Bus & Aircoach. I just want to ask people here did Aircoach make any formal submissions to the NTA to include these 3 coach bays along this corridor or will they be used as layover stops for other private hire coach operators.

Ha, largest investment in bus public transport in history of the state is "punishing" buses.

Tbh I’m not really surprised the N6 is keeping the terminus at Howth junction. It wouldve been very tricky to create a turn-around point at Kilbarrack, though it is kinda dissapointing

What I AM surprised at is no mention of the 70d or 42d being cancelled. I wouldve thought with the N4 serving DCU with a weekdays peak of every 10 mins that they would get withdrawn, considering the vastly improved connections it gives between North Dublin and DCU, but no. They’ll still continue

It wouldn't surprise me if the only reason why 23.20 is the last departure on the N6 is because it just finishes neatly off the frequency (especially on Saturdays with the constant f-15 from 18.50), rather than creating a bigger gap for a 23.30 service. On the other hand, they could've done a 23.35 just as well, and then a 23.10+23.30 on Sundays to flow with the f-20 there.

The 17A Kilbarrack terminus remaining is a disappointment, it's now the third route to not be implemented exactly as per the released network (H1 short of Clongriffin, C2 around Adamstown, and now the N6) - however, at the same time all of these can be blamed on the lack of suitable roads or termini to offer the proposed service.

Go-Ahead's N6 is available on bustimes.org already >> https://bustimes.org/services/n6

EDIT: As far as I can tell, there would be around 17 buses on the N6 in the afternoon peak. The actual number of buses needed would depend on the driver break arrangement: if they're going to pull in somewhere off the route, more buses will be needed. I know the N4 PVR is 24.

What thoroughly annoys me is the farce of publishing terminus departures only. For crying out loud, the NTA has to print individual stop timetables anyway to install them, why on earth can they not publish them online just as well - without having to go through a bloody journey planner?! I absolutely abhor detest having to go through journey planners or full tables (the likes of bustimes.org) to obtain intermediate timings. Is it too much to ask for the bleeding PDFs if they're not going to create a proper PHP or HTML-based webpage or whatever?

I think Charlestown SC would be a better terminus than Finglas Village

My bad sorry didn't realise it already passed it anyway. I thought the routing was the same as the 17a until Finglas.

With the N4 being operated by Dublin Bus. Where are the extra buses and drivers coming from to operate this?

I'm surprised that the 104 is not being discontinued as a result of the N4. I had assumed that the N4 is essentially a replacement for this route.

Can anyone please point me to a reasonably updated timetable for the remainder of the roll-out for BusConnects?

B-spine in 2024 as well

Go-Ahead have published their N6 timetable with selected intermediate points >> https://images-goaheadireland.passenger-website.com/downloads/Route%20N6.pdf >> as part of a larger press release, which tbh isn't that different from the TfI one >> https://www.goaheadireland.ie/bus-connects-phase-3

(For those interested as to why these stops are chosen as the intermediate points in GAI's timetables, they are the [reference] timing points as found on drivers' duty cards.)

EDIT: Going through bustimes.org it would appear that there will be new stops going in with the N6: for example, I spy a pair of stops 7828/7829 on Balbutcher Lane just before Ballymun Road, to provide a set with the Civic Centre stops on Ballymun Road itself. 7847/7848 will be the new stops on Swords Road between Santry Avenue and Coolock Lane, with stop 991 (last eastbound on Santry Ave) going out of service instead.

N6 isn't 24 hours, only N4