BusConnects Dublin - Bus Network Changes Discussion

The H isn't a real spine it was added last minute and it ends abruptly in the city centre where as the other spines continue through to the opposite side of the city. Someone Trying to get to the H spine from anywhere along E would be better off using the North side orbitals than going into the city centre and changing

O'Connel St is already basically bus and access only

Yeah I don't get why that they didn't give it southside routing to say Merrion Square

"Once you start adding more than one change to someone’s journey then they are put off using public transport."

The above may be true, but it doesn't necessarily mean you should design a system just to cater for a percentage who won't make a double switch. There's a trade off between the best possible design for the efficiency and speed of the system, versus the amount of changes people will have to make.

Something like the London Underground or Paris Metro will have many instances where two changes are required for the most efficient journey, because they don't link every line directly at a central point.

you're comparing metro systems with a surface bus network though - even when the infrastructure works are complete (probably 5+ years away) it won't be as frequent or reliable as a metro; plus any journey with more than one change is likely to involve non-spine routes with lower frequency.

The more changes you have, the more chance a bus doesn't turn up and you're left waiting for a long time - there's a good reason people avoid journeys with multiple changes.

A merging of the G and H spines would remove any connectivity issues. Putting every spine on O'Connel St and leaving vast swathes of the city centre without any bus service isn't good for connectivity either.

In any case, post bus connects we're going to have to have a serious conversation about cars on the quays. Most spines will be using the quays and there isn't room for cars as it stands. Certainly a car ban between Talbot Bridge and millennium bridge is long overdue.

Well in any case, the bones of the system has been designed and decided on. Can't see any major changes to Spines happening in the near term. Although, why do the G and H spines not connect into one spine? A trick missed perhaps, or future improvement.

Would definitely be great to see some radials serve the North inner city, such as 73, 34, 35, 22 and the 19. Also, make the 19 more frequent.

Is there a way to provide feedback to BusConnects or NTA?

In all fairness I believe we should avoid any route variations or select departure treatments where possible. It makes the network so much clearer when a single route always operates the same way - probably the major reason why the night-time C3 and C4 were split out into the C5 and C6, as much as I dislike that particular label (still think C3N and C4N would have been somewhat better, although clunkier). In the end at the moment the only BusConnects routes with variations are the Lucan Xs where some of them finish and start around Leeson Street instead of running to UCD - and that's a feature that's been in place back in the 66X/67X days anyway, just with different locations - plus the one inbound X30 via Kew Park. The less messing around the better, and I do think that the reason why the G and H spines aren't connected would be pretty much the same reason why the 27B or 29A (I honestly can't remember which one was being considered) was never made into a single crosscity route with the 79/A despite strong considerations towards it in the last decade or so.

(Now, in saying this, there are very few routes that outside of last buses being cut short have different variations and don't operate under different numbers, with the 7D, 27B, 33, 33A, 33B, 45A, 84 (?), 84X, 120, and 145 springing to mind, but I do think the point stands.)

Excuse my ignorance on Bus Connects but is there any plans on when they would actually like all these Spine routes finalised? I live out in Knocklyon so on the A1 route which looks like it's taking over from the 15 which currently goes by my house, but I don't see any upgrades happening along its current route into town. I thought the initial idea of this Bus Connects was to somewhat isolate the bus corridors to increase the speed/efficiency of the bus network. Or has that been abandoned now?