Dublin Bus

Re: DB

Let the refund tickets mount up in a drawer and every 8/9 weeks or whenever you get a chance, go into town (that office is open Saturday mornings until lunchtime) and reclaim your money.

Easy.

Yes but

tell me this and tell me no more
It's only easy if the driver actually GIVES you the refund ticket - that's the whole crux of this thread.

Re: Yes but

This morning I experienced a new slant on this. Woke up, found I had no change for my bus to work, no time to get change so I grabbed my jar full of coppers and counted out 1.45 in 5, 2 and 1 cent coins. Put it in an empty pocket and went for the bus. The driver got really narked, said that there were too many coins. I assured him it was all there and he said that he "had to be able to count it". Big pause while he stared at me presumably waiting for me to crack and admit it might only be 1.41. Eventually he gave me my ticket. They introduced the coin only system but apparently they only want the bigs ones now. For God sakes, why cant you just buy a 10, 20 or 30 journey ticket anymore?
MoodyToo.

Change

I was recently on an Aer Lingus flight and I had great difficulty getting them to take a few 5c coins off me as part payment for a sandwich. I was told that they were not allowed to take copper coins and only after I spent a couple of minutes explaining to the attendant that copper coins were in fact legal tender did she grudgingly take them. Why is this an issue? Why won't tolls (i.e. M50, Eastlink etc) take copper coins? This is all a little bit off topic..........

Re: Change

For God sakes, why cant you just buy a 10, 20 or 30 journey ticket anymore?

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I'd love to know the answer to this, I went to buy one a few weeks ago and I was met with blank stares. What ever happened to these tickets, you used to be able to get them.

travel 10's

Hi read on here a while ago that these were scrapped because they had so many chancers saying 'the ticket wouldn't swipe' etc etc. Dunno why they couldn't just tell them that if it doesn't work, its not a valid ticket. In any other city i've been in, if you damage your ticket, its your tough sh!te.

Those tickets work extremely well everywhere else, and also usually they are a sold at a good discount to 10 single fares to encourage their use.

BTW, looks like Luas have it just about right with there tix - hefty discount for buying the weekly tickets, in line with good international practice. Weekly tix €14, only 5 return journeys are €19/€20 paying singly.

Driver, refund ticket, etc.

A couple of years ago I was getting on no. 39 bus early about 8:30am on a quiet morning near the beginning of the route.

Tendered IEP1.50 for a IEP1.35 route, driver hit the buttons and the machine just spat out the first stream of tape, i.e. no second spurt to indicate the 0.15 refund section. With me so far?

I said nothing, just waited, he got aggravated, I (too meekly) said "Aren't you supposed to give me some more ticket?" etc. etc. Anyway, he got reasonably abusive - not the worst I've seen from DB drivers though - but I got my full ticket and took my seat.

That very day I wrote a letter of complaint to Dublin Bus giving time, stop and bus route and exact dialogue. A week or so later I got a letter of apology and two multi-trip tickets (can't remember how many, but I do recall that they were worth IEP6 each, ie IEP12 altogether).

Then, a month later, I received ANOTHER letter of apology and another two tickets!

Moral of the story? Ummm, a rolling stone gathers no moss. Or something.

Re: Driver, refund ticket, etc.

Anyway, he got reasonably abusive - not the worst I've seen from DB drivers though

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Why is it that so many DB drivers are so churlish ?

I appreciate that it's a busy and stressful job, but many of us work in busy and stressful jobs, but don't feel the need to bark and snarl at customers. Is it just the unionised environment, that drivers feel they can act with impugnity ?

Once proper competition comes to the Dublin area bus network, with multiple suppliers on each routes, hopefully we will see some sort of improvement in customer service, and bus drivers' manners.

Re: Driver, refund ticket, etc.

> Why is it that so many DB drivers are so churlish ?

As a reasonably regular public transport user I haven't had a bad experience with a bus driver in ages now. Quite the opposite in fact. Same on Bus Éireann. Very helpful and friendly.

Re: Driver, refund ticket, etc.

You've obviously been lucky.

I've seen all sorts of things on the buses recently, between drivers shouting at a tourist who produced a five euro note, and physically throwing off an obviously elderly and confused person who couldn't find their bus pass. On both occasions, when I remonstrated to the driver, I was told that it wasn't any of my business.

Alternatives

I wonder if competition really will improve matters. As a user of some of the recently licenced routes in Dublin I find their drivers can be just as bad as the worst of Dublin Bus and, unlike DB who will at least chuck you a few tickets when you complain, customer service departments don't seem to exist.

And what about breakdowns? The smaller operators don't seem to have adequate fleets to provide a replacement bus. The best I was offered was directions to the nearest DB stop and a phone number for refund of fare.

Re: Alternatives

The problem in Dublin is that there's little head to head competition on these privatised routes: that's when you'll see differences in terms of service and value.

Replacing a State monopoly on a route, with a private one is, as you point out, of limited benefit.

Irrespective of who runs the route, though, such bad manners is inexcusable.

Re: Alternatives

> I've seen all sorts of things on the buses recently, between drivers shouting at a tourist who produced a five euro note, and physically throwing off an obviously elderly and confused person who couldn't find their bus pass. On both occasions, when I remonstrated to the driver, I was told that it wasn't any of my business.

Fair enough. Did you or the other people involved consider making a formal complaint to Dublin Bus on foot of incidents by any chance?

Re: Alternatives

> Why is it that so many DB drivers are so churlish ?

A friend of mine is a driver for Dublin Bus. From several conversations with him, he'd say himself that they've got absolutely no reason to be polite, or focused on customer service, or on time, or reliable - they're guaranteed their job no matter what they do. The union guarantees that they'll never lose their job. If a driver even accumulates enough driving license penalty points to be banned from driving, Dublin Bus have to just transfer them into an office job until the ban has expired.

The simple fact is that Dublin Bus is run for the benefit of its employees, not for the benefit of commuters.

One of his routes goes from the DART station out to local estates - its timetable is synchronized with the DART timetable. I've observed him drive off from the station with an empty bus because the DART arrived in 1 minute late, leaving the DART commuters with a long wait for the next bus. He could have had a full bus, and saved them waiting around for a half hour if he'd just waited for 60 seconds longer. I asked him about it and he just shrugged and said something about it not being his problem!

-- James

Re: Alternatives

And remember that these same drivers are going to strike and bring the city's transport system to its knees, cause untold hassle and inconvenience for hundreds of thousands of people, even though:

Their Jobs are guaranteed
Their Salaries are guaranteed
Their Benefits and Conditions are guaranteed

-- James

Re: Alternatives

The simple fact is that Dublin Bus is run for the benefit of its employees, not for the benefit of commuters.

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Like most other semi-states !

Roll on a bit of competition, which amounts to more than replacing a public monopoly with a private one