Public transport in Dublin. Chaos - close to breakdown?

[Howth Head]

Had to be in the city centre for 6pm (or just after0 yesterday. Starting journey at Cornelscourt stop on the N11.

Checked the TFI App just before 5pm - E1 bus due in 12 minutes. Grand, I thought - should get me in around 6pm at the latest.

Was still showing "due in 9 minutes" when I got to the stop (7/8 minutes walk from the house) It stayed stuck at 9 minutes for ages - then disappeared. Out-of-service bus sailed by...

Another due in 7 minutes - that one disappeared too, another out-of-service bus.

Eventually got on a packed/standing room only bus at 5.30pm. It crawled along, took ages at bus stops due to crowds pushing off and on and got into town (Dawson St) at 18.22pm.

Lesson: If you have to be somewhere at a certain time - leave earlier. It's not reliable...

 

[Howth Head]

This is frankly unbelievable...

Thousands of city apartment dwellers head to Dun Laoghaire, Bray, Greystones etc on sunny bank holiday weekends. Local hospitality businesses will lose a fortune. (The likes of Howth, Malahide and Skerries will of course reap the benefits - and the massive high-spending crowds.)

Southside Dart services closed over May bank holiday weekend

Irish Rail has announced that southside Dart services will be suspended this weekend due to engineering works between Grand Canal Dock and Greystones.

www.independent.ie

On May 3, 4 and 5, there will be no Dart services between Grand Canal Dock and Wicklow. Services will only operate between Grand Canal Dock and Howth/MalahideDublin

Dublin Commuter Coalition shared the news on X, writing: “For the SIXTH May Bank Holiday weekend in a row, @IrishRail will be shutting off Southside DART services.

 

[Leo]

This is frankly unbelievable...

Or good planning... user numbers are lower on Bank Holiday weekends so doing the work then is less impactful than any other time. They've always reserved major interruptions like this for bank holiday weekends for that reason.

 

[Peanuts20]

As part of the move to "Next Gen Ticketing"- ie the use of debit and credit cards to tap and go, all of the buses will have to be fully wi-fi enabled so that they can send the request to the bank and get an "ack or nack" message back. Currently most Dublin buses are not enabled, Leap transactions are stored on a device on the bus and uploaded when it gets back to the garage.

It should therefore be hoped that as an add on bonus of the move to contactless payments, Dublin Bus and therefore it's app, should be able to have a better idea of where the buses are in reality.

Contract to deliver the Next Gen ticketing solution was awarded to a Spanish company, Indra, in April last year and they are targetting a 2027 go live, which means knowing the NTA, sometime around 2030.

Meanwhile, if anyone wants to find out where a London tube train is, try this.

Live Tube Map - Real-time London Underground Trains

Watch London Underground trains move in real-time on an interactive 3D map. See live tube trains across all lines including Central, Northern, Victoria, and more.

www.londonunderground.live

 

[mathepac]

Contract to deliver the Next Gen ticketing solution was awarded to a Spanish company, Indra, in April last year and they are targetting a 2027 go live, which means knowing the NTA, sometime around 2030.

Indra

Perfectly suited to doing business in Ireland then. Quote from Wikipedia link above:- "In 2018 and 2019 Indra was fined for participating in a 14-year cartel rigging the contracts for Spanish railway infrastructure and leading a 15-year cartel rigging the offers of IT services to several public administrations in Spain."

 

[Dr Strangelove]

As part of the move to "Next Gen Ticketing"- ie the use of debit and credit cards to tap and go, all of the buses will have to be fully wi-fi enabled so that they can send the request to the bank and get an "ack or nack" message back.

Tap and go would be nice but Leap works pretty well already.

Currently most Dublin buses are not enabled, Leap transactions are stored on a device on the bus and uploaded when it gets back to the garage.

Well they are tracking their buses one way or the other.

I've been back using buses frequently enough in the last few months for the first time in about 20 years and it's been an absolute quantum leap:

1. No pay the driver anymore and messing around with change;
2. Real-time passenger information is reliable;
3. Use of middle doors for alighting;
4. Increased frequency particularly on orbital routes.

 

[Leo]

Well they are tracking their buses one way or the other.

They are and it works pretty well most of the time, but there are issues with ghost busses where the tracking will still show a bus for the first few stops before the system is updated to confirm it never left the depot. That's due to operators not informing the tracking system in time - two separate systems and 15 years old at this stage.

 

[Corola]

Use of middle doors for alighting;

The downside is the driver doesn't get thanked as much.

 

[Howth Head]

I travelled over the Bank Holiday weekend (LUAS Green & Red Line, bus - and Irish Rail from Euston (Kingsbridge when I was a kid!)

In fairness, I have to say it worked out perfectly - although the train was packed to capacity, with standing room only on LUAS even at lunchtime from Heuston into town on Tuesday.

The mainline (Waterford) train was spotless, on time and air-conditioned - credit where it's due. Heuston was clean and efficient with plenty of shopping/eating options and clean toilets etc. (I'm old enough to remember the drab, grim interiors of Connolly and Heuston in the 1970s.) I did however notice quite visible security around the station - a de facto Transport Police.