BusConnects Dublin - Bus Network Changes Discussion

Google maps has a strange interpretation of the 17a routing seems to suggest it does two loops one around Connolly Hospital and another around Waterville road

There's a fair few routes that don't get shown correctly on Google maps, the 46a & 155 between Dawson Street & Westmoreland Street being one example. Google maps has them doing the same route as the 145 via Please Street (plus a detour via Hawkins Street) rather than using College Green.

Edit: just noticed all 3 routes are also routed via Frederick Street. Looks like Google maps doesn't recognise that the bottom of Dawson Street/Kildare Street are accessible by buses.

I know myself some bus operators having drawn the lines on map themselves using a Google Earth generated file which works perfectly fine on Google Maps. I did this job myself years and years ago having to draw a couple of hundred lines over a few restless months' time. Sometimes even had to take an actual bus and correct bus stop locations on map too as schedulers weren't sure about the true locations. Over 10 years have past and still works fine. People who does the scheduling now simply adjust the lines when needed (even does that just for the weekend when due to special events some streets are closed) and aren't dependant on Google maps, they can also use same file format with Open Street Maps. I know a few operators now using this instead. Irish public transport is extremely lazy in regards to this - too little PT enthusiasts working in their (NTA/TFI and operators) offices. When I was a student I was a volunteer consultant to one of these NTA type of agencies in my own country. It was a great experience. Funny, I sometimes had a word and they actually cared about my opinion. Unlike the NTA, I guess...

What's the problem for pupils to change bus? There already are too many spoiled children who are being brought to school by their parents with a car. They should all take buses and learn an independent and responsible lifestyle as early as possible. Otherwise we see what happens when they get older - plenty of bad examples around.

Looks like they forgot that the 220 will still run…

To the people who live close to and/or use the 220, how are the numbers? Just curious

Speaking of which, is the 26 supposed to be replaced by the 80 till Rathmines when the F Spine rolls around, or will the southern portion of the 140 still stick around?

There are three main sequences (not in order and with no consideration for pedestrians) at the moment:

1. Traffic from Upper Rathmines Road with priority to Palmerston Park and Darty Road, and traffic from Darty Road with priority to Highfield Rd and Upr Rathmines Rd.

2. Darty Road traffic turning left and right which prevents any traffic from Upr Rathmines Rd.

3. Finally there is Palmerston Park and Highfield Rd and turning across each other at the midpoint of the offset junction .

A right turn from Rathmines Rd to Highfield Rs could be facilitated during the second sequence by stopping the Dartry Rd left filter early (the right one could continue).

But it is a mad junction as you say and will have to do a lot of heavy lifting in future.

That would be very reminiscent of the long gone Donnybrook operated 13b if that happened

Not a moment too soon.

The public should neither have to know nor care which operator has been contracted to run a route.

IMHO the commercial routes should carry operator bands and separate contact details as per current practice, but the Dublin city network should be either left unlabelled, or preferrably labelled as something like "Dublin city bus network" (emphasis here on 'city bus', not 'Dublin city') - somebody on Twitter even suggested "TFI Dublin".

Timetables should then be reduced to a one-liner, something like "Service operated by ZYX on behalf of the State." and then just TFI/NTA contact details. For the amount of London copying the NTA attempted to do, they missed this - bus timetables on stops in London just have "Operated by ABC for London Buses" directly under the departure times. (They also missed how most of outer London stops use separate sheets for every route so that an entire sheet of 3-4 routes doesn't have to be reprinted when just one route is adjusted...)

Mind you - the first paragraph is an argument I've had since 2018.

Ah yes, that's what I was aiming for when GAI started out, I just forgot the exact wording by now. After all, it is a single-fare network, there's literally no point in splitting this up.

My bet is that Dublin Bus will not be operating the L85 at all, so their buses and drivers can be redeployed to other services that will see an increase in service levels, such as the A Spine. It does leave the question of what will happen to the Skerries shed, but that's honestly DB's problem.

It honestly remains to be seen what will happen as a result of the Drogheda electrification, but I personally imagine the current diesel slots would just end up being replaced with electric slots. Connolly station probably isn't half the problem, at least nowhere near the Connolly-Howth Junction section itself IMHO - the next prime candidate for quad-tracking.

They could always expand the frequency to every 15 or 20 minutes to try and compensate for the loss of direct service

Either have Dublin Bus operate that or have Dublin Bus operate both the L1 and L2 circular routes in North Wicklow and have GAI operate the L85. I think someone suggested a while back that it would make more sense to have DB operate both the 33 and 33a and have GAI operate both the 84/a and 184.

My money, were I a betting man, would be on your first solution: L1/L2 in DB, L85 in GAI. Keeps the senior men in Bray garage happy, which is probably one of the reasons why the 84 stayed in DB - it's one of the most senior routes in the company altogether.

I know I said a few posts higher that Skerries shed is really DB's problem, and hence I shouldn't be bringing Bray garage into it now, but I do think that GAI getting the L85 mileage and PVR in lieu of the 184/L1/L2 is the better solution. GAI will probably keep the 102/L81 and 33B/L83 as well, and with the L81 meant to operate f-20, I think that will probably balance out. Worst case scenario, the L14 will go to GAI and they'll keep the 185/L15, and I would suspect the L3 will go to whoever gets L1/L2.

Personally, and I might have said it here before, I might have not, I do strongly believe that the likes of Rush, Lusk, Skerries, and Balbriggan are WAY too far from Dublin to be getting a direct service like that, much like Greystones, Newtownmountkennedy, Kilcoole, and Newcastle are, and frankly so is Blessington, except that one doesn't have a rail alternative. Otherwise we might as well make BÉ's 103 to Ratoath part of the city network. It's political, yet these are locations that in any other capital would be fed to a rail link that would take them there far less time than the bus would - and now that most of these locations are within the 90 minute transfer fare, well.... it's just my opinion though.

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Another worthwhile topic: with the G Spine reportedly next, which I understand will comprise of the G1, G2, and the 60 in this phase, does anybody have any inkling as to whether G1 will receive 24/7 service, or will the 25N stay in place for now? (Hopefully the 29N and 31N eventually disappear in favour of some H1/H3 night service, even if f-60.)

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The trains for DART+ will be bi-mode (i.e. battery packs and OHLE). That would not be an issue for DART+NC.

I want to move away from about the 33 at the moment. There was an announcement by a FG councillor in Dun Laoghaire on Twitter yesterday that Georges St in Dun Laoghaire will become fully pedestrianized on a permanent basis from next summer in 2023.

Summer 2023 is also coinciding with the rollout of the E-Spine which has the E2 from Charlestown to Dun Laoghaire.

Here's the tweet showing the announcement yesterday.

Not a perfect start when searching from the Dublin Bus website homepage currently states that the N4 runs between Sandymount and Adamstown........