Was It For This?

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Among the 24 routes are the 185, which connects Bray with Newtownmountkennedy, the 76a, which connects Blanchardstown and Tallaght shopping centres, and the 220, which travels from Ballymun to Mulhuddart….

UK Firm Go-Ahead To Operate 10 Per Cent Of Dublin Routes (RTÉ)

Go-Ahead?

Rollingnews

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41 thoughts on “Was It For This?

  1. Andyourpointiswhatexactly?

    That bloody 75 route is the most circuitous ever. Why go in a straight line when you can go up this hill or down that dale.

      1. Andyourpointiswhatexactly?

        Cripes. I didn’t even know that’s what I was saying. A real cry for help. I’m an awful pity, as me aul dear might say.

    1. edalicious

      75 goes right outside my house but it actually makes more sense for me to walk to a stop twenty mins away because it also takes the bus that long to get to that same stop and I’d far rather walk it than be sat on a stinky bus for no reason.

      I despise buses.

  2. Cian

    The 24 routes are:

    17 Rialto to Blackrock
    17a Blanchardstown Centre to Kilbarrack
    18 Palmerstown(Old Lucan Road)to Sandymount
    33a Swords to Balbriggan
    33b Swords to Portrane
    45a Dún Laoghaire (Rail Station)to Ballywaltrim
    59 Dún Laoghaire to Mackintosh Park
    63 Dún Laoghaire to Kilternan
    75 The Square Tallaght to Dún Laoghaire
    76 Chapelizod to Tallaght (The Square)
    76a Blanchardstown Centre to Tallaght (The Square)
    102 Sutton station to Dublin Airport
    04 Clontarf Road (Conquer Hill) to Santry (Shanard Road)
    111 Loughlinstown Park to Dún Laoghaire
    114 Ticknock to Blackrock Station
    161 Dundrum Luas Station to Rockbrook
    184 Bray Rail station to Newtownmountkennedy
    185 Bray Railstation to Shop River (Enniskerry)
    220 Ballymun (Shangan Road) to Lady’s Well Road
    236 Blanchardstown Centre to Damastown
    238 Tyrrelstown to Lady’s Well Road
    239 Blanchardstown Centre to Liffey Valley Shopping Centre
    270 Blanchardstown Centre to Dunboyne
    One New Route
    175 Citywest to UCD

    1. mildred st. meadowlark

      The 33 is a pox of a service.

      Always late, infrequent, and it goes to town via Timbuktu. It shouldn’t take 2 and a half hours to get from town to Balbriggan.

    2. Otis Blue

      Is there any significance in that all routes are suburban and do not pass through the city centre?

  3. Kolmo

    Public transport going to the lowest bidder and it’s shareholders, now the question is – will the services improve or disprove to meet profit targets?

    1. Cian

      I imagine that as part of this deal there will be a Service Level Agreement, and this is what the vendor will aim to achieve (at the lowest cost). There will probably also be financial incentives too.
      As far as I know, at the moment there are no SLAs for Dublin Bus to meet (or no penalties if they don;t).

      The chances are the bus services will improve with this.

      1. Milk Teeth

        Having lived in Wales for the last 8 or so years with private companies running the trains in, out and around Cardiff, I can tell you although it sounds nice in principle it simply doesn’t work. There is no accountability except to share holders so no impetus to improve service and they just suck money out of the system. There is so little scope for competition on public transport its a total fallacy to say it will drive up service or down costs.

        1. Cian

          In Dublin the Luas is run in this way.
          I’m not a frequent user of the Luas – but any time I’ve used it I have been impressed.
          I believe that most people think it has a great service (except for the hassle that a certain cohort of young people cause).

      2. David

        Optimist.

        Maybe they’ll be ‘guaranteed’ a certain number of passengers and we fork out when those expectations aren’t met. 8)) You know, like the farcical Limerick tunnel.

        1. Cian

          I don’t know what the current setup is. But if Dublin Bus does have a SLA – I’m not sure who it would be to

  4. Pip

    They won’t be red buses though, they’ll be ours.
    But…. what becomes of the current drivers on these routes?
    Will they be redeployed on other Dublin Bus routes retaining terms and conditions?

      1. Pip

        Agreed. What do you think of the new one, the New Bus 4 London (erk), which echoes the RM, sort of?

  5. Anomanomanom

    So just a thought, why not leave dublin bus but allow open competition against them. If a company competes and does a better job than dub bus it’ll prove dub bus is not needed. And if dub bus prove its better then people will keep using it. Its really a no brainer

    1. Rob_G

      The private companies would just run buses on certain routes, and only between 7-9am, 4-6pm, no service on Sundays, etc. Bidding for the route as a whole ensures that the operator will fulfil the public service remit as well.

      1. Anomanomanom

        But how would that effect Dublin bus. If the private company only runs certain hours it would give people a choice for those hours, if the service during those hours are poor then people can still use dub bus. It won’t happen because any private company could out preform dub bus, even if its just selective hours.

        1. Zaccone

          If Dublin bus loses out on the revenue from the most profitable hours then it won’t be able to afford to run the not so profitable hours. Its pretty simple.

          1. Anomanomanom

            Exactly, it is that simple. So if its service is bad enough people choose a different transport supplier thats good for the customer. So like any other company it should be forced to get its poo together. Sell the so called non profitability routes, but with the same terms dub bus have now, I guarantee a private company would make money

      1. DeSelby

        That’s not likely. Go Ahead are responsible for the Southern Rail network in the UK. They pay their drivers a pittance and were dogged with Industrial action all last year. They were considered very unreliable and lost the contract last week.

         

        Interesting side note. They were also the company that experienced a serious bus crash this morning in London.

         

        So it’s been a strange week of swings and roundabouts for them.

      2. Cian

        Luas is set up in the same fashion. They had strikes last year (I’m not sure if they were wildcat tho)

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