Seems like nowhere is good enough to end the bus’ journeys in the City Centre, but money continues to be thrown away on changing bus route termini.
According to the DB web site (follow this link) routes 45, 84 and 84X will now terminate at Corn Exchange Place in the City Centre, which is supposed to be between Poolbeg Street and Burgh Quay (which means that nobody will really know where it is unless they look really hard for it—AFAIK, it is after Hawkins Street when going towards Tara Street Station on Burgh Quay). Now, I was not aware that these side-streets, like Corn Exchange Place, even had room for buses to terminate on there, but what can I say. The article also does not mention what routing the bus will take, i.e. whether it will go from Burgh Quay onto C.E.P when inbound, and when outbound use Poolbeg Street to Luke Street to Townsend Street (obviously cannot use Moss Street since Poolbeg Street was built over between Luke and Moss), or whatever bizarre route that the buses take nowadays…besides, the first stage listed after the new terminus is “Merrion Square”.
For my part, I remember the simpler days when the 45 used to leave from Poolbeg Street, and the turn-around was a simple one, using Tara Street/Poolbeg Street/Hawkins Street/Townsend Street…and with the 84, it always used to leave from College Street—its circular route in the city centre was always very simple, from Merrion Square to Clare Street, Lincoln Place, Westland Row, Pearse Street, College Street, College Green, Grafton Street, Nassau Street, South Leinster Street, Clare Street, and back outbound. Does the 84 even run on Nassau Street/South Leinster Street anymore?? Messier and messier, plus more money down the drain…
BUSRAGE Discussions » Timetables and Routes
Terminus shift for 45, 84, 84X
(9 posts)-
Posted 5 years ago #
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Al.....BAC cant really be blamed for the present Terminus Sweepstakes in Dublin City.
It is now totally at the whim of a City Council which is seriously Anti-Bus in its approach.
The decision to erect a set of pedestrian lights on Eden Quay forced BAC to decamp from the former terminus.
Ever since the last "Real" Taoiseach put a halt to CIE`s Trans-Liffey bus Terminal the Bus Customer has been cast adrift at the mercy of whatever the elements could throw at them.
The City Council for it`s part continues to maintain a stoic "Not our Business" approach to the hundreds of thousands of people whom it feels do not merit ANY form of catering for.
Present City Council policy is to remove All termini from the City Centre area in favour of Cross-City operations and much administrative time and effort is put into telling us about surveys and stuff which "Prove" the necessity of this sea change.
The reality is that the area around Butt Bridge is now under the control of semi feral drug and substance abusers and the Gardai`s mission plan is simply to keep these folks away from the O Connell bridge/Temple Bar Tourist Trail. If you disbelieve this simply spend an hour or so watching the methodology used by patrolling Gardai on OCB,take note of which direction they look in and the response they make when any Junkie/wino attempts to stray Westward from Butt Bridge...Pro Active Community Policing I believe it`s called.
Meantime,enjoy the Corn Exchange terminus....it wont last long before some Apartment owning NIMBY starts squalking about the noise,smell,and general tone lowering caused by those darn buses......Posted 5 years ago # -
The city council will have to re-think its so-called “strategy” regarding transportation to the city. People wish to end their journey in town more than elsewhere; this holds true today as it did decades ago. Continuing to make the bus service unattractive will only result in more cars coming into town. It only makes sense that many of the routes continue to terminate within the city centre, and following this to provide sufficient accommodations for them to do so. Perhaps a “Busáras II” for the DB (and other private Dublin City bus) routes? Certainly, with all the terminus shifts that have occurred over the past decade, it has been demonstrated that both DB and the City Council both have the funds to build such a thing as opposed to continuing to play musical chairs with the city centre bus termini. JMHO though; other opinions may vary…
Posted 5 years ago # -
It's infinitely more pleasant to park your bus on Corn Exchange Place than Eden Quay. Those nice appartments provide a far better atmosphere than members of the skanger community, looking for loose change on the floor of parked buses.Posted 5 years ago #
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What’s the routing to get onto and off Corn Exchange Place anyway? The way I suspect (can’t observe it due to being on the wrong side of the Atlantic Ocean) is that buses turn left off Tara Street onto Poolbeg Street and then turn onto C.E.P. and turn left onto Burgh Quay when departing…I cannot imagine another way to go.
And just how wide is that street anyhow? I don’t recall streets in that vicinity being any wider than Temple Bar was when open…but if they widened Cork Street, I suppose they can widen any street they want (except for O’Connell Street and Talbot Street, right…?)Posted 5 years ago # -
Yes indeed. That's the route.
The street is almost, but not quite wide enough to fit two buses alongside eachother. It gets a bit wider nearer the junction with Burgh Quay. That's the pick up point, so buses can overtake eachother. Ideally, the buses are strategically lined up so that the first due to leave is parked up front. It doesn't always work out though. I've often had to go for a quick lap around the block while waiting for other buses to leave.
Posted 5 years ago # -
There seems to be a terrible fixation on the part of DB or the glorious Dublin City Council (none of whom use the bus) to terminate bus services in the city centre. This means that buses have to collect together both arriving and departing from these termini, in the traffic filled city centre area.
Would there be anything wrong with some of those buses continuing their journeys a little further across the river. How about a terminus near the Phoenix Park for the 46A, and maybe in Belfield for the 38 or 39, Ringsend for others, Fairview, East Wall, etc, etc, etc.
Then it's a simple matter of placing bus stops in the city centre area for people to board and disembark.
Another idea would be to rationalise the bus services like the 39 on the entire route from Clonsilla to say Dun Laoghaire or the 46A continuing on to Clonsilla.
It seems an awful shame to see a bus that spends such a lot of time trying to get into the city centre and then it simply turns around and goes back out again.Posted 5 years ago # -
The thing about keeping the bus routes short is efficiency and ability to maintain timetables. The longer a bus route gets, the more unreliable it gets. Not to mention that longer trips mean additional stress on drivers.
Besides, the hub-and-spoke system of having routes start and end in the city centre is tradition; there never used to be half as many cars in the city centre as there are nowadays; and the primary destination of bus riders is still the city centre.
On the other side of the coin, making a number of bus routes into cross-city also has the advantage of expanding the scope for passengers travelling beyond the city centre to other destinations. It also has the welcome side-effect of shrinking the size of the bus route database in the computer system, allowing for some cost savings plus use of computer memory and storage for other vital functions. (And if DB did it right, it could also mean eliminating a lot of those superfluous alpha suffixes that they seem to have added over the past few years…)Posted 5 years ago # -
Happy New Year
Al, I certainly understand your points about length of bus routes versus reliability and stress, and also the tradition element.
I'm not sure that I would stick to tradition because the travel needs of the public are changing all the time. I wouldn't either envisage any additional stress on the drivers if they continue to work to the same rules as at present, and are allowed to take appropriate breaks and rest periods and with substitution of drivers along the routes.
Bus termini in the city centre take up valuable road space and can in certain circumstances result in traffic having to funnel in order to get by. This funneling also affects other buses while moving in traffic.
Distance of route should not necessarily affect reliability. There are many factors that affect reliability and while the route distance may be a factor, if there is a suitable and appropriate number of buses, and drivers, then reliability should be maintained.
The 39 is a reliable service despite the tortuous circular route it has to undertake around Blanchardstown. It must exceed 10, maybe even 12 miles. It even, on many occasions, has to combat with severe taffic congestion both entering and leaving the Blanchardstown centre (following the same route in both directions) and I'm sure this places a lot of additional stress on drivers (and passengers).
I think such a system of extending particular routes could be beneficial. If there were a good degree of planning and coordination they could release road space in the city centre for bus lanes/corridors and they could also provide for cross route transfers outside the city centre area.
Another benefit would be a reduction in the number of individual routes and also the elimination of the confusing alphabetical suffixes to route numbers.
Oh, Oh. As this would involve a reduction in the number of routes it could never be accepted by the Minister for Transport as it might not be in keeping with his policy of Privateering (privatising) some of the most lucrative bus routes.Posted 5 years ago #
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