BusConnects Dublin - Bus Network Changes Discussion

Twice recently I've gotten the G2 at Eden Quay going towards Spencer Dock, there had been a change of driver announcement, and we've ended up on the next G2 bus behind us

Is this because the driver didn't show? Why couldn't the bus finish the route, it's only a few stops?

Interesting. I'm slightly annoyed at how the change of bus driver for the 40 to city centre is Parnell St, despite most people getting off one stop later at O'Connell St.

Funny enough you mentioned that, Ive seen that happening twice. Its a lot to take in for new drivers doing the long cross city routes.

When I was in Clontarf myself and another driver was sent to Raheny in a car to rescue a lost 27, still to this day I dont know how he got there, the grannys nearly had the poor chap in tears 😅😅😅

What? "Are you seriously suggesting a driver give up their break by driving from Eden Quay on "as far " as Spencer Dock".

I'm fairly sure it was eating into his break by sitting there for five minutes not knowing what was happening and having to wait for a bus scheduled behind him to pull up and take all the bus passengers too.

I was more interested in why it was happening and didn't suggest any form of a bus driver breaking EU regulations by god.

Maybe a bit of forward planning and knowing if there is another bus driver actually available to hand over to, would save a lot of bother for driver and customer alike.

"Simple English". No need to be patronizing.

There are plenty of companies who can manage complex rostering. Better ways of doing things are possible in Dublin Bus.

I've no wish to be eating into Dublin Bus driver break time but ultimately it's something that is really poor customer service to have to get on a bus behind you.

Let's be honest, it's not really a rostering issue which I accept is complex.

It's a communication issue. The bus driver should have know beforehand, refused to let new passengers board and told other passengers they have to wait for the new bus.

Rostering might be complex but communication is less so

It's Dublin bus staff inconveniencing other Dublin bus staff. It's not the customer who has a valid expectation that the bus will complete its route, that is eating into their break.

As has already been explained above, it is ILLEGAL for a bus driver to exceed their working hours. The only other way is to reduce the amount of journeys a driver will make in order to fit the legal requirements, but then that would go against maximising efficiency.

You can't have it both ways.

"Go against maximising efficiency" when people are boarding bus, standing around and then told to get off. That made me laugh.

This has nothing to do with the customers, it's pretty much Dublin Bus staff not respecting their colleagues time.

What happens if a bus is stuck in traffic and ends up exceeding their working hours? Can they just leave the bus and shout about the legality of it all ?

There are better ways of Dublin Bus doing stuff, but I'm starting to see why it doesn't happen,

Handover locations are chosen for a few reasons, primarily it's their accessibility to the route's home garage using existing bus services, combined with historical habits and the ability to park buses around.

From what I remember off the top of my head, the only route to officially have OCS handovers was the 747. The 11 and 44 often have their handovers in OCS, but officially they're scheduled at Parnell Square.

Unless something changed in recent months, and judging by what I'm seeing in private, nothing has: Dublin Bus scheduling is still largely manual in Excel. The only thing that has changed is in the context of BusConnects, where they get the trips timed before rostering them – beforehand it was rather obvious that buses were scheduled by terminus rather than by a point further down the route, however much this has been damaged with the subsequent silent retimings.

The first time we get actual software involved is when the schedule is entered into the AVL and rostering systems.

On the other hand, Bus Eireann and Go-Ahead both do use dedicated software: BE have the German ivu package, while GA use OmniTimes, a piece of software extremely popular in the UK (and, you guessed it, used by pretty much all the GA companies there). Another user of OmniTimes around is Translink.

@LXFlyer is quite right, scheduling a bus service is a right pain, and it doesn't even matter if you have a high frequency service or a low frequency service – you suffer either way as you either have too many options to work with (well, that's when it's handy to have proper software do the heuristics for you), or you have very little to work with, creating inefficient duties. The only thing that makes the process easier is if you have a terminus handover point rather than en-route, as that reduces the amount of potential handover points, reducing the number of options – on the other hand, routes that pull into their garage for breaks are a pain yet again, as you get even more variables.

Riiiight, so cancel the whole trip against cancelling only a section of it, so logical!

Also, you never know if the driver getting off is actually finishing the duty or merely going on their break. In the latter case you never know where the next piece of work starts. No, the cleanest solution is to maintain the schedule as much as possible and deal with the fallouts where they are predictable and manageable, rather than start incurring unnecessary no-run penalites.

Went on the W4 yesterday from Tallaght to Liffey Valley and went well.

Half an hour travel and went through Grange Cross without any problem whatsoever.

Welcome addition

Any general updates on passenger numbers for the new routes? Let's hope they are as successful as the N4.