Green Party Dublin West candidate, Roderic O’Gorman has called on Dublin Bus to reprint its Local Service Guide for the Blanchardstown area, to reflect the changes that have been made to the services on the Maynooth rail line. The current Local Service Guide for the Blanchardstown Area was printed before the Docklands service was added and as such, contains a number of inaccuracies.
“I first realized that the Dublin Bus guide was out of date when I went to get an 11:26 AM train from Castleknock, only to find that the service had been replaced by earlier and later trains. I contacted Dublin Bus on this issue, and they informed me that the Local Service Guides are only published once a year in August/September as students are going back to college. However, as Irish Rail usually changes its timetable during January, this means that for large portions of the year, the train timetable printed on Dublin Bus Local Service Guides is incorrect. These booklets are still being distributed at Dublin Bus offices on O’Connell Street. What if a tourist picks one of these up, presuming that she can rely on the accuracy of the information given out by the head office of Dublin Bus?”, asks Roderic O’Gorman.
“I know that some may consider this to be a small issue, but I think it points to a wider problem of lack of consideration for commuters. Like many others, I’ve been critical on a number of occasions of the level of service that is provided to the Dublin 15 area on the Maynooth line. It seems a real pity that when Irish Rail finally increases the number of services, Dublin Bus doesn’t change its Local Service Guides to reflect this. It’s small wonder we can’t achieve integrated ticketing in this city, if we can’t even integrate the bus and train time-tables”.
“The Green Party is proposing the creation of a new Public Transport Regulator. I believe that such a position would permit for greater coordination of the various modes of public transport in Dublin, and tackle basic issues such as integrated ticketing and ensuring that all timetables distributed to the public are up to date”, concluded Roderic O’Gorman.
Ends
Hi Roderic,
I found that all 184 buses do not meet D.A.R.T.S. at Bray station to my total frustration.In fact some are so well timed that the bus leaves to coencide with the DART crossing the level crossing adjacent to the station, what coordination?I approached an inspector to be told that the services were not designed to be integrated.
yours faithfully,
Peter