I almost spat out my cornflakes when I heard the news about the DARTs this morning.
Don't get me wrong - I fully support the improvements being made and believe that they are long overdue.
In particular, wheelchair access is essential to ensure that all our citizens are treated equally.
It also makes sense to perform the engineering works at the weekends when fewer people work.
And I guess, if it requires 18 months work, so be it. So long as it doesn't follow the precedent of LUAS and deadlines are met.
But the public deserves better than four days notice of such a significant change.
More importantly, we need decent replacement services.
I live in Dalkey which as you know is an affluent area. However, I'm not personally rich. I recently moved back to the parents' house to save money. That's not an easy decision to make when you're 30 years old. I currently can't afford to keep a car on the road. Now that I've moved home I don't want to be stranded there at weekends.
I read that the number of buses will be doubled. But do any go to Dalkey? Two times zero equals zero. Will the number 8 bus be reinstated?
BUSRAGE Discussions » General Issues
Reinstate the number 8
(4 posts)-
Posted 5 years ago #
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I never understood why the 8 was withdrawn and replaced by the 7D and a re-routed 59. In my estimation, you never withdraw a bus service unless there is a serious fall-off of patronage…and the 8 never, during its existence, ever demonstrated any such thing east of Dún Laoghaire.
Withdrawing bus service from a certain area due to its being supposedly “affluent” makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Have they removed the railway station in Dalkey? No. Could they have gotten by without re-routing the 59 to take up at least some of the unexpected vacuum created when the 8 was suddenly withdrawn? No again. Is the 7D enough? Not enough people have been banging on the doors of 59 Upper O’Connell Street yet to say that it isn’t, seems like, because the 8 was not put back on after it was taken off. Is this going to be a problem in years to come? It already is.
The only way things will be solved is for the people in Dublin to stop being so complacent and start raising big stinks over what CIE in general, Dublin Corporation (who has been narrowing the streets in spite of the increasing number in cars, along with the NRA) and the rest of the Leinster House Gang (stuff like bin charges are the tip of the iceberg) have been doing to the transportation scene in Ireland. Stand for nothing less than the restoration of eliminated and/or severely-curtailed bus routes, the removal of inefficient once-per-day buses (e.g. 117), restoration of passenger train service through the Phoenix Park Tunnel, double-track railway lines all the way to Galway and Sligo (and that’s just the beginning insofar as the railway scene is concerned), and to start it all off, restore the bus route 8 to what it used to be…
Anyone else want to get on the soap-box?Posted 5 years ago # -
From my observations of passenger loadings on the 59 to Kiliney via DALKEY, it would appear that the majority of customers who use the bus are elderly and in possession of free travel passes while the majority of remaining passengers tend to be those under 18 who are legally unable to drive. The 59/59A service would seem to be adequate enough to provide transport for those who use it. those who do not use it most likely never have any intention of travelling by bus owing to thier fortunate affluence.
Surely, a doubling of the present 2 buses on the 59/59A route is plenty enough to cater for existing bus customers and potential DART users?
The 8 is gone - move with the times folks and leave history in the past where it belongs!
DD.Posted 5 years ago # -
The 8 is gone - move with the times folks and leave history in the past where it belongs
Yes sir, Mr Robert Moses.
Funny how in rich urban areas in other countries, such short-range bus service is never tolerable…? I suppose the so-called affluent can put up with the horrendous traffic conditions that Dalkey even experiences. Oh well, just have to wait until smog levels rise to those of Los Angeles before they will demand route 8 back.Posted 5 years ago #
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