Late night DART

[ccos]

From todays Irish Independant.

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Attention: : . . . the last DART leaves at 11.30pm

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IARNROD Eireann will not be running any late-night DART or commuter service this Christmas because there is no demand.

The company said yesterday that despite an extensive marketing campaign last year, take up of services had been "very low" and so it was decided not to run a service this year because it was too expensive.

"There will be no late-night DARTs this year, the numbers were extremely poor and there was very little take-up last year.

"There's a very big cost to us in terms of manpower and security. We will put on additional capacity for shoppers but the last trains will be at 11.30pm as per the schedule."

Yesterday model Roberta Rowat (right) announced Bus Eireann's Nightrider late-night service to Newbridge, Drogheda, Navan, Enfield and Wicklow will be extended to run six days a week from next Thursday.

Buses depart Busaras at 12.30am and 3.30am, and the cost is between €7 and €10. The service will not run on Sundays.

The Nightrider buses will operate until December 23, and then on December 29 and December 30.

Dublin Bus has also announced its Nitelink service will operate every night, apart from Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day, until January 6. The service will be extended from December 14 until December 23 with all 24 Nitelink Routes operating from 12.30am to 4.30am. On New Year's Eve all 24 routes will run until 4.30am.

The Luas weekend service has also been extended.

PAUL MELIA

[markpb]

It's funny how Dublin Bus, Luas and Bus Eireann all think there is a demand for a late night service. Or maybe (but less likely) they recognise the social value of such a service.

Just proves how rubbish Irish Rail are.

[Mark Gleeson]

What IE didn't say is the line from Dun Laoghaire to Bray is closed from 24:00 to 05:00 to facilate testing of trains

Passenger numbers are crap and to be honest the only reason I used it last year was since the 12:30 service was normal fares while Dublin Bus charged €4. The normal fares thing is thanks to the RPA since I argued it with the suburban office last year and they changed it on the website an hour later, http://www.platform11.org/successes/#latenight

Dublin Bus provide a service on nightlink that is very good and centrally located in the city and its fast and gets you closer to home in most cases, there was always the joke that certain routes got a better service at 3am than at 8am

I have travelled on late night DART every year the service has been provided and the passenger numbers on one train would be less than on a busy nightlink route, but the train carried 2 ticket checkers, 2 security and a driver all on overtime, Dublin bus its a rostered turn no overtime

Who fancies walking from Temple Bar to Pearse afterall you pass the nightlink stop on the way it can't work, Dublin Bus have cornered the market with a better product which has a 10+ year history

[markpb]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Passenger numbers are crap and to be honest the only reason I used it last year was since the 12:30 service was normal fares while Dublin Bus charged €4

That's hardly an excuse. If every other transport provider (buses, trains, taxis, commuter buses) in the county can make an absolute killing over Christmas, there must be some reason why the Dart can't do the same. I'm going out on a limb here and guessing it might be IR's fault.

Is it because no-one knows which years they run late night trains and which years they don't? Are the trains are infrequent? Do they bother hiring enough staff for the stations and trains?


Blaming passengers for not using a service is a very blinkered way of thinking that a lot of transport companies have. If the service is rubbish, people don't use it. But because people don't use it, they cancel the service and blame the passenger.

[Brian Condron]

Maybe there isn't a demand for special late night trains and they need the downtime over night for testing, maintenance etc. But 11:30pm is just too early for the last train, especially at Christmas but the whole year round it is a problem. Most regular pubs shut the bar at 11:30 monday to thursday, and if you leave then you miss the last DART home. I think the last Luas at 12:30 is perfect, it let's you finish up when the bar shuts, and not be rushed drinking the last pint and rushing for the door. Plenty of bar entertainment finishes at 11:30 too, anybody who goes to see the comedy in the International Bar know's that at 11:15 while the show is still going on people start to leave. Surely having the last DART at 12:30 would make more functional sense?

[Mark Hennessy]

Obviously a big problem is that most people have to walk past taxi-ranks and nite-link stops to get to the Dart station.
When the metro/interconnector are in place, it will make life easier for everyone to jump on in the city centre and transfer to their respective lines.

[Mark Gleeson]

The passengers use Dublin Bus since they have used it frequently in the past, it is faster for me to get home by bus than by train at 2am and its more frequent and its a lot safer walk from the bus stop than from the train station

Name any major nightspot in Dublin and you will almost certainly find the Nightlink bus stop is closer

I can see a market for a 12 and 12:30 train Thurday/Friday/Saturday year round but 2am nightlink rules and even it has seen a drop off in demand in the last few years. After a few pints all you want to do is get home and that extra 10 minutes around to Pearse is a killer

Its a bit like the WRC
Faster by bus
More convenient location
Bus is more accessible to most people
Bus is a profitable service

What we should be more worried about is getting a 23:30 to Maynooth which is a serious omission from the timetable

[Brian Condron]

Little known fact, Annual Commuter Taxsaver Bus tickets work on the Nitelink, the only non Nitelink tickets that do. I recon I saved my money from the annual ticket in Nitelink fares alone when I had that ticket last year.

[Nigel Fitzgricer]

Originally Posted by markpb

If the service is rubbish, people don't use it. But because people don't use it, they cancel the service and blame the passenger.

You have perfectly summed up the entire history of CIE in one sentence.

[alek smart]

Perhaps the London situation may be of interest to Mr FitzG......News Analysis: Vision for the future



Can other cities follow where London vision leads? Stewart Brown reports.

T2025 report describes London's bus network as "a big success story".


It's easy to dismiss long-term transport plans as pie in the sky. But before doing that with Transport 2025, a vision for the future produced by Transport for London and mayor Ken Livingstone, just consider how much has been achieved in the capital in the last six years.

And while the London experience does not carry over directly to the rest of Britain, it does show what can be done when you have clear political focus, strong leadership and - oh, yes - lots of money.

So while acknowledging that London is different, there are still lessons to be learned. And, like it or not, operators in other conurbations may soon be learning them as there seems to be a growing inevitability that we will see some form of franchising, even if only as a trial, in response to the alleged shortcomings of the deregulated bus market.

No one would ever accuse Livingstone of hiding his light under a bushel, but his claim that T2025 contains "the most comprehensive, robust and well-argued plans for London's transport network in the capital's history" is probably true. And if anyone can turn them into reality it is he, along with his transport commissioner Peter Hendy.

Says Hendy: "Expanding the bus network will be critical to support London's growth, achieve mode shift in outer London and complement the introduction of road user charging."


Expanding the capital's bus network will be
crucial to support London's growth, says
transport commissioner Peter Hendy.

Growth is one of the big issues facing London, and T2025 predicts that by 2016 – just 10 years away – there will be an additional 440,000 jobs and 530,000 extra people in London, generating up to two million extra journeys every day. "Bus is the only feasible and available option to support this growth," the report says, and it suggests that bus demand measured in passenger kilometres could increase by around 35 per cent by 2025. Bus boardings could increase by almost 50 per cent.

The high level of investment in London's bus fleet in recent years has focussed on accessibility and improved service frequencies, but there are environmental benefits too, and T2025 plans to build on this. It says: "Continually improving the bus fleet to be more environmentally efficient will also improve air quality and reduce noise pollution. TfL is at the forefront of implementing new technology for buses. Since March 2006, 59 per cent of buses comply with the Euro 3 standard and the first Euro 4 [models] have now been introduced, with nitrogen oxide (NOx) abatement technology fitted as standard."

It says that continuing investment will result in a more rapid transition to a low carbon fleet by utilising hybrid technology, which should deliver CO2 emission savings of up to 40 per cent per vehicle. There could be even greater emissions reductions if technological advances allow – such as the use of hydrogen as a fuel.

TfL considers differential pricing to discourage peak travel – something raised by Sir Rod Eddington in his transport review (see news, page 6) – but says that this would have only a marginal impact on demand unless unacceptably high increases were applied to peak fares. It also notes this would also affect many workers who had no choice but to travel in the peak, pointing out that those least able to pay would face a greater barrier to accessibility to services.

Reduced congestion is one of T2025's aims, and with it reduced CO2 emissions. To achieve this there needs to be more effective bus priorities to support increased capacity on bus services. The report notes: "More reliable and faster bus journey times can be achieved if congestion levels are reduced. This is essential to achieve mode shift from car travel at the lowest possible bus operational cost. If congestion continues to rise, bus costs will increase just to maintain current levels of service."

T2025 describes London's bus network as "a big success story" since 1999, achieving a patronage increase of 40 per cent, and four per cent modal shift from car. And while the shifts have been highest in central London, assisted by congestion charging and bus priority measures, there has also been modal shift in outer London despite the absence of pricing measures to influence car users.


London has seen modal shift from car to bus of four per cent
since 1999.

A key factor in providing extra capacity on the bus network will be the implementation of more bus priority measures. T2025 wants to see end-to-end priority provided over a substantial proportion of travel corridors to ensure continuing reliability in the face of increasing traffic congestion. It warns: "Effective bus priority will be needed to get more capacity for the same cost – through higher speeds and greater reliability."

Which all sounds good for London. So what are the lessons for city regions elsewhere in the UK?

One is that you need a vision, and someone with the force of personality to see it through. How many local politicians actually have vision – let alone the nerve to stay the course when the going gets tough?

And perhaps you also need a transport commissioner who can back up the political leadership, look at the whole picture, and help steer a course round partisan politics.

And you need a body which not only manages infrastructure investment, which the current PTA/PTE set up does very well in terms of funding bus and rail stations, but has highway responsibilities too and can ensure that bus priority measures are put in place regardless of the views of bickering local councils.

All of which, of course, sounds dangerously like setting up a recipe for transferring control of local bus services from operators to some other authority.

When you look at the London experience and at the grand vision of T2025 there comes an awareness that it may not be franchising as such which worries the bus industry, but franchising within the existing PTA/PTE framework where there is at times a high level of mistrust – running in both directions, it has to be said. Neither side is confident that the other will deliver on its promises.

Is that what makes London different? It's important not to lose sight of the billions of pounds spent on London's transport system, but there's more to it than just money. By and large, TfL and London's bus operators (who are the same groups as are serving most other conurbations) trust each other. They are working together, heading in the same direction.

If franchising is coming elsewhere in Britain, and if it is to work, it will need cool heads and common sense both from operators and franchising authorities. Can they rise to that challenge?






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[PaulM]

The London bus network is excellent though. Most of my friends in London use the bus rather than the tube.

I do think there are far more busses needed in Dublin. I just wish the bickering would stop. Private or DB, if there are more buses, well and good.

[Colm Moore]

Operating Nitelink as a local service, picking-up and setting down at all stops would require 2-3 times as many buses and crew, which would affect the economics of it, while only serving a tiny amount of extra pasengers.

One thing that has been in favour of one-way operation, was that it was usually easier to get a taxi into the city.

Then you have the security issue. It can be hard enough to get some people to pay their €1.35 fare, nevermind some incensed drunk being asked for €4.-

[markpb]

I know it's unfair to compare Dublin to London but it's worth noting that the London Mayors Office and some businesses chipped in to keep public transport (the entire bus and rail network) running until 4.30am on New Years Eve while also making it free for passengers.

[alek smart]

No A Bfhictùr I`m not suggesting any such thing for Nitelink.
My point is Nitelink as a concept has had it`s day (or Nite).

I am suggesting the conversion of Core Routes into full 24 Hr operation.
Initially for example,the 7,14,25A,27B,42B,45A,48A,51B,77,78A,123,145. would have an hourly service from 00.00 until 05.00.

The list can be as flexible as one requires and ideally focused on having some form of reliable and interwoven scheduled Bus service.

The issue of the Drunken Politician ooops..sorry Passsenger is one which would obviously require addressing but I would not see it as being any worse than the present situation on the Nitelinks.

The fare would have to be a flat single of €2 as IMO this would attract quite a lot of short hop clients a la the €1 to everywhere merchants.

Dublin has changed beyond recognition since Nitelink began and I fear its about time Dublin Bus began changing with the City also ???