So @dublinbusnews gave some routes to @GoAheadIreland today. The timetable is awful. Times are not on the RTI. The Leap Fare is 2.60 (should be 2.50) and from the looks of it, the drivers are unsure of the routes. #transport #ireland @Shane_RossTD why the outsourcing? pic.twitter.com/gINSrxWLSi
— E.D.Gallagher (@EricGallagher10) December 2, 2018
I am currently sitting on a 17A. The driver has taken the wrong route through Connelly Hospital, he has asked passengers if he is going the right way, it’s his first day he says. We are now in a car park.
— E.D.Gallagher (@EricGallagher10) December 2, 2018
You couldn’t make this up. @dublinbusnews Outsourced bus routes to @GoAheadIreland and the driver gets lost! We’ve been circling Connelly Hospital for ages now. The driver is asking passengers for directions. #transport #dublin #bus #ireland pic.twitter.com/re0ZQXWdAO
— E.D.Gallagher (@EricGallagher10) December 2, 2018
Fair play to the driver it’s his first day. If I were taking over a public service, I’d provide the driver with a map, a SatNav or GPS. Maybe do a few test runs of the route. Not really his fault I guess.
I’d also post notices and timetables at stops on affected routes.— E.D.Gallagher (@EricGallagher10) December 2, 2018
Yikes.
Anyone?
Related: Routes 17a, 33a, 33b and 102 switching to Go-Ahead Ireland (Dublin Bus)
Are the wheels on the bus goin’ round…at least?
That is clearly a bit of a mess but instead of multiple tweets and a video it would have been quicker to tell help him out. A few years back I got a Dublin Bus from the quays to Inchicore and the driver said it was his first day on the route and wasn’t sure of a couple of turns, as I knew the route he asked me to help him out when it came to the bit he was confused about, I did, he thanked me and no tweets were sent, no driver was shamed and everyone got on with their lives.
The point is they haven’t planned this properly. The benefit of outsourcing is drivers are paid less so the service can be run cheaper. This company weren’t prepared to pay the driver to drive the route for a couple of hours yesterday or even to travel on the Dublin Bus so he would know where to go. It is not to shame the driver but you know that as the tweet says its not the driver’s fault.
As I said, this happened to me on Dublin Bus years ago so trying to turn it into an ‘outsourcing’ issue is grasping at straws. The driver quite possibly had driven the route in training but got confused or lost, we don’t know that. As for shaming the driver, he quite clearly is having a go at the driver and then tries to row back at the end with the lame ‘fair play to the driver’ when he realises he’s being a grade A berk.
+1
Was thinkin’ same, fair play to you :)
+1
Phones are weapons these days on the road.
I’ve been on a few Dublin Buses over the years where the driver asked for directions from the passengers.
On one memorable occasion a young-fella was helping the driver with the directions and then took the liberty of shouting the wrong directions (presumably so the bus would drop him closer to where he was going) which prompted an outcry on the bus. The driver had a mini-vote at each junction to see which direction to go.
Ah, the good auld days – wha’?
I remember the old days on the 40c when there’s no way the conductor would come upstairs to collect the fares on the last bus, happy memories:)
Brilliant! :)
Can remember a few bus drivers would take sneaky detours torwards the end of the route to get some of the more elderly folk home quicker.
Dublin in the 80s was a different time indeed.
I remember years back being on the infamous 103 coming from Finglas when the driver either forgot to or didn’t bother his arse taking the left turn to the Ballymun roundabout as it was then. Cue mass hysteria and bollockings of the driver until he has to stop and perform a 3-point turn using someone’s driveway and head back up to Ballymun.
The good oul days when bus paedos would venture out at 4pm to catch the buses with the schoolgirls.
Wouldn’t happen now.
( I work ’til 5 most days )
Ha! Our bus paedo would stand at our stop and flash randomly. He would then hop on his bike with his fly undone and cycle away.
As Broadbag says, it happens on someones first day regardless of their job. Shock horror, some is not 100% sure of what they need to do. Quite common on Bus Eireann as well which adds a long time to the journey. If you think he has made a mistake, tell him rather then sneeringly posting about it online. Its his first day, give the guy a break.
+1
We do love a good rant in this country
That wasn’t even a rant. That s a whiny twat hand bagging. He’d never have made it in the old days.
True. I’d say you could show us all how it’s done.
I don’t always have the attention span for it.
Time honoured FG practice: take an idea that’s been shown not to work in the UK and impose it in Ireland. Whereas ideas that DO work here in Britain – a free at the point of delivery uinversal health service, for one – we ignore.
Go ahead have great service on loads of London bus routes. Privatising the bus services made a hugely positive difference in UK.
You maybe thinking of the railway privatisation, which made private monopolies on the various railways. Which didn’t and does not work.
London is the only place where privatisation didn’t royal decimate services. And that’s only because London was to be the last place privatised and they decided not to do it because it had been such a failure everywhere else.
TFL bring in private operaters but they still set all the routes, times etc etc
I’m sorry but you’re talking complete rubbish here, qwerty123. Buses in London are regulated which is why the fares there are the cheapest in the country. Away from the capital though is a completely different story. In my town in Suffolk a three mile journey costs £2.70 (3 Eur) and virtually no buses run in the evening because First Buses are only interested in running services where they can make a profit.
Across the country most towns are served by just the one bus company which means in effect they run as a monopoly and can set whatever fares they think they can get away with.
Your experience is different to mine. London was as you said a flat fare, 1.50. Services were regular and fleet new and frequent and for some (not all) 24hr. Probably should not have said UK but in London is has been positive and they can lose routes as quick as they can win them. 8 million people in London and much more congested. Buses are the way forward in Dublin, we just need a lot better QBC’s, more frequent services and this in my mind can only be done via private bus operators. I never said 0 regulation, in fact there needs to be more regulation of all public transport in Ireland. For e.g. Taxis not accepting cards, age of cars etc etc. It can be done.
it’s standard blushirt following of thatcherite doctrine..
Social media and a degree in journalism has brought us here. Money well spent. Help the guy, dont get him sacked for a few likes. House rules wont let me write what a F n W this tweeter is. The future is bright indeed.
“We’ve been circling Connelly Hospital for ages now” – This seems to be 12 minutes after boarding the bus?
Tweeter is a willy
This statement is more or less always true, regardless of context.
– but yes, he is. “Fair play to the driver it’s his first day” – didn’t stop you posting a photo of him on the internet earlier, you d|ck.
We are talking about him though so E.D. Gallagher’s approach has worked!! Anyway, its not unheard of with drivers not knowing where they are going. If you outsource work then generally it will effect the service provided in the negative (not a given but I would argue its a side effect).
Helping the driver would have been more productive but wheres the story in that!!
“We’ve been circling Connelly Hospital for ages now. The driver is asking passengers for directions” – a 2 minute conversation would have helped him get the right directions.
“If you outsource work then generally it will effect the service provided in the negative” – this actually appears to be his point as he says:
“So @dublinbusnews gave some routes to @GoAheadIreland today. The timetable is awful. Times are not on the RTI. The Leap Fare is 2.60 (should be 2.50) and from the looks of it, the drivers are unsure of the routes. #transport #ireland @Shane_RossTD why the outsourcing?”
He then suggests it is bad planning that has let the driver down. So suggesting the passengers help the driver is besides the point which a bigger one about the approach to delivery of a public service both at a policy level and by the management of this company.
I cannot recall any large-scale roll-out of a service that did not have any initial teething problems – maybe this is why, and it’s unrelated to the fact that it was outsourced.
I was also on a 17a yesterday and today. Driver yesterday didn’t know how to use the leap machine so let me on free.
Driver today undercharged me.
That said, it’s a fairly important route. It serves 2 hospitals that a lot of people along it’s route might struggle to get to otherwise.
He was right about the RTI. Hasn’t been quite updated to the new schedule, but it shows up the RTI for what it is. It’s not real time. It’s expected time. A bus that hasn;t left a depo, still shows as though it’s coming all the way to the end of the run.
People should tell Eric the above on his twitter, as most of the people on there are oblivious and seem to encourage this kind of poo
That’s Twitter, for you.
This is the problem with people today. A normal, socially adjusted, person would have walked up to the driver and offered him directions. Instead of passively aggressively commenting about things on social media and remaining quiet in real life.
Brings back memories.
I was a clippie on the old Routemaster buses back in the day earning a few bob to put myself through college.
Discovered an aul’ fiddle with the ticket machine so that when the bus was packed I could knock out a ticket so it didn’t register on the machine.
Made a handy few quid that way for my beer money.
Good times.
Cool story, bro.