BUSRAGE Discussions » Topic: 14/14A to Dundrum: Good or Trouble?

BUSRAGE Discussions » Topic: 14/14A to Dundrum: Good or Trouble? http://busrage.com/forum/ BUSRAGE Discussions » Topic: 14/14A to Dundrum: Good or Trouble? en Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:30:27 +0000 AlekSmart on "14/14A to Dundrum: Good or Trouble?" http://busrage.com/forum/topic/4429#post-4430 Sat, 26 Nov 2005 13:51:37 +0000 AlekSmart 4430@http://busrage.com/forum/ I dont know whether I would go as far as ascribing the term "Grand Scheme" to ANY Public Transport related scheme in the present day Republic. A "Grand Scheme" would imply a high degree of focus and of preparation with the impetus coming from one committed body or individual. The modern day Irish reality features none of this. What it does apparently feature is pots and pots of MONEY. Now having discovered ourselves to be flush for no apparent reason we have granted our political representatives carte-blanche to spend this dosh. it is this spending that perhaps gets confused with a "Grande Scheme" in cosmopolitan European terms. Presently the Transport portfolio Ministers are having a bit of a bad time of it with the Chief of the National Safety Council,Eddie Shaw resigning over major policy differences with Minister Cullen on the amount of resources which are required for effective Road Safety Policy implimentation. Meanwhile,back at the mansion,Junior Minister Ivor Callelly`s personal secretary is clearing her desk after a very public difference with him on the issue of Civil Service ethics vis-a-vis Political administrative support. Rather alarmingly it now appears that Junior Minister Callelly is now on his 7Th Private Secretary in less than 2 years....?? However,to return to the Ballinteer issue,one can immediately see that any and all changes which are currently being made are Sticking Tape and Splint jobs which address very local issues while contributing little to the development of a cohesive Citywide Bus Network. Its largely conceeded that the 14/48A consolidation was not the high point of Dublin Bus`es operational plan to date. From almost every angle, both internal and external this merging and re-alignment of two high profile routes left much to be desired. By far the greatest failing IMO was a total absence of proper on-the-ground planning beforehand which in turn translated into total confusion for both passengers and crews from day one. Even to this day a serious fare anomaly exists in the fares to the same destination (Dundrum) from the City Centre. The 48A fare from An Lar to Dundrum village being ¤1.50 whilst the fare to the same destination on a 14/A is ¤1.75. The reason of course being the long and winding road taken by the 14 whilst the 48A takes the bleedin obvious route. This sort of ABC stuff SHOULD have been top of the agenda when the thing was being devised. The two routings should have had their stage points revised to give a clear and equal fare structure. Indeed this revision COULD have been used to REDUCE the Maximum fare to the ¤1.50 level which would give the Bus a substantial advantage over Luas in price terms. The issue of Scheduling then arose with all sorts of oddities being crammed into a somewhat hastily devised setup. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the evening time departures from An Lar which saw occasions where up to four departures were timetabled with 15 minutes with a gap of 35 minutes then following before the next departure. The principle of "Frequency Selling" does not,as yet, appear to be fully grasped within the hallowed portals of 59. To be fair the timetabling issue has been addressed within the past week which now sees a much more sensible allocation of departure times. BUT..It should not have happened ..full stop. IMO the reasoning behind the merger was never really thought out. The collapse of business post Luas was serious but not irrecoverable. The company thinking appears to centre around using an O Connell St destination as the big attractant for the plain people who of course are denied this destination (FOR NOW) on their Tram. My thinking was,and still is,that the 48A should have been sent cross-city alright but on a different axis utilising Pearse St/Dame St/Lord Edward St/High St/Thomas St/ to terminate at either James Hospital or Heuston Station. The 14 could similarly have been routed straight down Aungier St/Georges St/Lord Edward St/to terminate in or around the Smithfield/Manor St area if space could have been found (A totally different thread). However thanks to present Route Planning thinking it appears that O Connell St MUST be served by every new route or realigned route. This will eventually rebound on Bus Atha Cliath with a vengeance especially when the next stage of Luas begins it`s construction phase. I have been told that the reason for the O Connell St fixation is that OCS is where the peeple want to go.....I believe they only go there because there`s no bloody alternative in Bus terms for them ! Again to be fair to BAC,it`s senior management have as little idea of what the company is expected to do as we on Busrage have. This stems directly from a total lack of central planning at Govermental Level and by this stage should have resulted in several Polticial Heads being hoisted onto spikes outside Trinity College. However since this is Eire,the concept of responsibility for ones actions remains a dubious one and best left to the likes of the oul Brits....a la David Blunket et al....... Al on "14/14A to Dundrum: Good or Trouble?" http://busrage.com/forum/topic/4429#post-4429 Sat, 26 Nov 2005 11:17:33 +0000 Al 4429@http://busrage.com/forum/ We all know about the grand scheme of DB to replace the 48A with the 14/14A terminating at the Luas station...but since the 48A is still there and going strong, I'm assuming that the move has just caused redundancy for DB, which of course helps passengers but upsets the cut & retreat scheme for DB. How has this affected the reliability of the 14/14A time-keeping, though? Was it better when they terminated at Broadford, or what...?