Dublin and Public Transport

W

Westbound

Registered User
Messages
81
Am going to rant about getting around this city by bus. I happen to be staying in Park West at the moment. Like other parts of the city, it has seen huge development and there are lots of apartments and offices out there. There is one bus serving the area and according to the timetable it takes 55 mins to get to town and I'd hazard a guess that you could add 30 minutes to that.

I wanted to get to Sandyford and was willing to consider using the bus and Luas, til I saw that it would take that journey, plus the walk to the luas, plus luas and so in total about 2 hours to do the journey. it was 20 minutes by car.

How is this meant to encourage use of public transport?

There is no orbital service around the city, most buses follow a direct line into the city centre.
There is no link to the Luas from those places adjancent to the Luas, the luas near Park West being a short journey away. The Luas is frequent and reliable.
On the Nangor/Killeen Road there is a barely used 24 hour bus lane - yet there is no such thing as a 24 hour bus service, there are other such lanes throughout the city as well.
The bus I thought about getting didn't actually turn up at the appointed time and this was at the terminus at 7am.
On a similar vent, when I try to get a train from Sallins on the few occasions I have needed to, it did not turn up on time (25 minutes late the last time).

Why is there a dearth of reliable, clearly needed, frequent and fast services. Is it down to the Unions, who will not allow private enterprise to operate new and currently non existentent routes?

Cycling is an option for a few, but buses and trains are the preferred option for many if they could actually get a bus/train/luas away from the usual routes direct to the city.
 
Ok, I'm not from Dublin but just to let you know it can be worse - I live in an area (like many) which is completely unserved by public transport. I have a half hour each way daily commute by car.

Put it this way - if my car doesn't start in the morning I can either
  • Pay about €50 on a taxi
  • Don't go to work
...and BTW I don't doubt for a minute that Dublin's transport leaves a lot to be desired!
 
West bound there is an AMC bus that takes 20 minutes to get to the city centre that leaves from park west (am working there) see [broken link removed]
 
You know where the plaza is, and the traffic lights - there is a bus shelter there.
Sometimes it also leaves at the round about beside the apartments.
The drivers are failry nice and once they get to know you they will make sure you know where to go.
 
Interesting that AMC get positive feedback there, as I was about to reply to the original post to say that I think a lot of the problem is the fact that public transport in the main is not privatised. I would glady pay more for my train ticket every month if I could rely on the service. As it is now my arrival each day varies by anything up to an hour. I am totally unreliable to my employer if he wanted a morning meeting, not to mention the stress it causes me!
 
Trafford said:
Interesting that AMC get positive feedback there, as I was about to reply to the original post to say that I think a lot of the problem is the fact that public transport in the main is not privatised. I would glady pay more for my train ticket every month if I could rely on the service. As it is now my arrival each day varies by anything up to an hour. I am totally unreliable to my employer if he wanted a morning meeting, not to mention the stress it causes me!
Click to expand...

Try the UK rail network and see how privatisation has worked there!!
 
is now my arrival each day varies by anything up to an hour. I am totally unreliable to my employer if he wanted a morning meeting, not to mention the stress it causes me!
Click to expand...
Really - I know they usedn't be great - but they have improved over the year.
I get the 7 am - 7.15 bus and maybe once or twice has there been an issue.
Yes when you leave at peak there are issues - but this is down to city traffic...I have been using the bus for the past year and a half and I am always early.
The bus going in town in teh evening can be irregular - but I will always get the 4.20 bus home. And if I have to I log on from home...
 
Last edited:
pinkyBear said:
Really - I know they usedn't be great - but they have improved over the year.
I get the 7 am - 7.15 bus and maybe once or twice has there been an issue.
Yes when you leave at peak there are issues - but this is down to city traffic...I have been using the bus for the past year and a half and I am always early.
The bus going in town in teh evening can be irregular - but I will always get the 4.20 bus home. And if I have to I log on from home...
Click to expand...

I was referring to the rail service and the line I use - Portlaoise to Heuston.

To the other poster, is that true what you are implying, that privatisation hasn't worked in the UK?
 
How does it work in places like Germany or Japan etc? They seem to have reliable public transport. What are they doing right that we are doing wrong? Why is it that the LUAS is so dependable but yet they dont seem to be expanding on it? 3 or 4 years since it opened and they still havnt even begun working on a new one. Surely a sensible option would be for someone to goto a country/city where public transport works and ask them to come here and implement it. Or is that too obvious?
 
elefantfresh said:
How does it work in places like Germany or Japan etc? They seem to have reliable public transport. What are they doing right that we are doing wrong?
Click to expand...
Probably not that we are doing anything wrong as such, but Germany and Japan have far higher concentrations of population in our urban areas than we will ever have, especially now as the Dublin commuter belt now stretches as far as Gorey and the same pattern of sprawl is evident in Cork, Galway and elsewhere.
 
elefantfresh said:
How does it work in places like Germany or Japan etc?
Click to expand...

I dont know either, I would guess though that in a lot of places they didnt have to cope with the growth that dublin has had to cope with. Appartments have been flying up when really infrastructure for public transport should have been laid down first.

The area that was dunlaoghaire golf club will soon be appartments, I was reading (last christmas) the notice outside, there are to be 800+ residences (ranging from one bed, 2 bed, 3 bed to duplex), "bus stop" was listed as an ammenity! That is not fore-thought into public transport for the couple of thousand more residents in that area.
 
pinkyBear said:
West bound there is an AMC bus that takes 20 minutes to get to the city centre that leaves from park west (am working there) see [broken link removed]
Click to expand...

And there is also a shuttle in the morning/afternoon between ParkWest and the Luas Stop in Kylemore road. Officialy it's on Luas-ParkWest in the morning but the drivers take you back too. Takes only a couple of minutes (instead of walking). Also run by AMC, more [broken link removed].
 
elefantfresh said:
How does it work in places like Germany or Japan etc? They seem to have reliable public transport. What are they doing right that we are doing wrong?
Click to expand...

Urban Planning ! ......but we do not do that here. So now we have urban sprawl without adequate infrastructure (not to mention amenities) and not enough population density to retrofit mass transit systems even if we wanted to. :(
 
Trafford said:
Obiviously not! I don't use the system in the UK so wouldn't know. Shame to hear it though.
Click to expand...

Recently stayed in St. Albans, 35km north of London Centre for a few days and went into London every day for sightseeing.

For my example i'm going to contrast this with Maynooth (25km to Dublin CC) and Greystones (27km to Dublin CC)

Peak time return ticket to London was £15 (€21.30) and Off Peak £8 (€11.40). The DART return ticket from Maynooth is €5.10 and you can travel at any time during the day... in London we could'nt leave before 10:30am or return before 7pm otherwise it was peak fare! The regularity was every 5-10min... not that much better than the DART... but a good 400% dearer. Did I mention the London trian only brought us to King's Cross... a good tube ride from the city center.

Next, The tube. Without being clever and getting an Oyster Pass - the poor average Joe would have to fork out £4 (€5.70) each way for each single trip. Makes that the €4 the Luas eats up for a return trip to Tallaght look very good.

In the few days we spent in London we spent as much on Trains and Tubes than on Flights, Food and Entertainment combined... and it could have been much more unless I'd researched it so well.

Now I know operating costs are higher in London than Dublin but the difference is enormous... the people we stayed with spend about £4000 (€5,700) EACH on an annual travelcard to cover the train and tube to work - and that's just for that line/route... if they wanted to travel to somewhere else in London with a different train company they'd have to buy more tickets!

In contrast the annual train and dublin bus commuter card to Maynooth costs just €980 for all DART and Suburban Rail... not to mention Dublin Bus.

There is no doubt privatisation has made British Public Transport much faster, more reliable and more pleasent to take... but by God it is very very expensive... and in the end of the day it is people on lower incomes who traditional are more dependent on it.
 
The 'problem' happens when some bright spark tries to make a profit out of public transport. Why not use some of bertie's ill-gotten wages to improve the public transport system? That should certainly propel us into the 22nd Century.

In the meantime, get a car like everyone else.
 
The main problem with privatisation in the UK was that the government there also privatised the rail network. Railtrack owned the complete network. They charged the train operators large sums to use the tracks, but as a monopoly had no incentive to upgrade or even properly maintain the tracks. The state of the tracks was one of the main reasons for the unreliability of the train system there. In the late 90s the British government was effectivly forced to renationalise the rail network. The trains are still in private hands. Some companies offer good and reliable services, others are quite poor.

In Germany, higher population densities and very strict zoning laws makes it easier for them to organise decent public transport. Not that it doesn't have its problems. There's also a discussion there about privitising Deutsche Bahn, and one of the big arguements is whether the rail network should be included in the privatisation. Hopefully it won't be.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top