Another week on the Swords Express
November 30th, 2007
We’ve had an interesting Express week. A lot of good things have happened. There’s been great coverage in the newspapers, especially the local ones that really count, some radio on Today FM and good passenger numbers. Most important, customers are pretty satisified with the service, and that’s what’s really important.
There are some issues though, and we are happy to tell you how we are addressing them. 1. We have plenty of capacity overall, but certain buses are passing people by. The reason this is happening is twofold. The biggest problem is that everybody wants to get one particular bus, the one that normally leaves town at 17.09. Understandably, people have gotten to work a bit earlier than they used to, and they now want to leave work on time. So sometimes they can’t get on this bus.
The second part of this is that the driver isn’t actually sure how many people are on board the bus. It’s quite hard for him to actually know this because for comfort reasons the bus isn’t brightly lit, and for security and safety reasons the driver can’t leave his seat. We have a solution for this problem on the way. In the meantime, it would be a big help if when the driver gets up to check whether there are any seats, that you put up your hand if there is a seat near you.
In general we do not have a problem with capacity. I am looking through our loading figures at the moment, and there is still plenty of capacity on every service except the 17.09. In the case of early buses towards town, we are mostly about half-full - plenty of capacity for growth. There is also plenty of space on the later buses at 17.26 and 17.40 and 17.56 from the city centre. Please try to use these services if it suits you.
We will modify our timetable at the next opportunity to take into account the fact that most people want to travel home to Swords just after 5pm. We also have bigger plans for improving the capacity.
2. Buses run late. Yes, our coaches run late for various reasons. Yesterday, the sheer volume of traffic just slowed everything up by 15 minutes. Not only that, but just after 6pm, we had our first incident - an accident where a car hit the back of our bus just after it had let its passengers off at Swords. Thankfully no one was injured although the drivers were obviously shaken. But the bus had to be taken out of commission. One service (at 1843) was missed as a result, but other buses were running late anyway and had capacity, so it wasn’t really missed by passengers. The damaged vehicle was replaced this morning with an unliveried coach (although there are sign boards on the front). One thing we are doing on this is calling for improved bus priority, implemented in a way that will have a minimal impact on the other road users whilst still giving buses (of all colours) some priority on the main junctions.
3. Season tickets. Everyone wants a yearly taxsaver ticket. We will have a solution for this in the next two weeks. (NB, we won’t sell more season tickets than we have reasonable capacity for.) We are getting a season ticket printing system that will produce a neat attractive ticket that cannot be forged easily.
4. Stops. We now have poles at all our stops in the Dublin City Area, courtesy of the DCC traffic department. We will get signs up in the coming weeks. We are working on the Swords end too. A number of people have made the (fair) comment that the first stop should be outside the Pavillions shopping centre, at the front. We are thinking about this, and it probably makes good sense.
5. Routes. Loads of comments about routes. We are thinking a lot about these and planning our next move. We are learning a lot from the actual operations and from the comments of users.
We have received some great feedback in the last few weeks. Please keep ringing us or commenting or emailing when you have an issue with the service. The feedback is really useful and is very much appreciated. One thing we are really glad about is that we have this blog and we’ve given you an opportunity to have your say, whether it is good or bad.
Please keep on telling everyone you know about the Swords Express service. Getting people to travel during the day and at weekends is particularly important for us and will allow us to sustain an all-day service.
December 2nd, 2007 at 9:08 pm
I WOULD LOVE TO TRY THIS SERVICE BUT PRICE IS A DETERRENT.I APPRECIATE THE LACK OF SUBSIDIES FROM OUR GLORIUS GOVERNMENT BUT YOU MUST REALISE THAT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN USING THE EXPRESS AND DUBLIN BUS FOR FIVE DAYS IS OVER 10 EURO,A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT.THERE MIGHT BE MORE COMFORT, QUICKER TIMES ETC BUT WITH A REVIEW OF YOUR FARE THERE IS A MARKET MONOPOLY UP FOR GRABS HERE.I PAY ROUGHLY 15EURO A WEEK IN PETROL TO CITY CENTRE FROM SWORDS SO THAT’S DOUBLE EXPENSE FOR ME,NOT VERY ENTICING.HOW ABOUT A WEEKLY TICKET FOR 20EURO,PRICEY ENOUGH EVEN IN IRELAND,PSE REPLY,JOHN
December 2nd, 2007 at 10:49 pm
I leave town at 3.30 so would love if there was a bus leaving town close to 4 pm. If that happens I am a candidate for an annual ticket.
December 3rd, 2007 at 10:52 am
Hi There, Congratulations on what looks to be a very sucessful launch. As a Ridgewood resident, my girlfriend and I have been walking down to get the bus on an intermittent basis and find it to be a quite reliable service. I guess like so many others we have been wondering about alternative routes and in particular the possibility of an express going up by Ridgewood or even down by Boroimhe as it is evident that there would be interest judging from the steady stream of people walking down that way. Hopefully this is a route you are considering. All the best for future expansion. Kind Regards, Stephen.
December 4th, 2007 at 10:58 am
This is a really great service - quick and comfortable.
I would hope that the bus route will expand into other areas of swords - Swords Manor etc. as at the moment I have to drive to the stops which is not ideal for parking!
An annual ticket will be of huge benefit for tax-saving reasons. I do hope that the price will not rise further anytime soon, as €6 a day is really hitting the max that a lot of people could pay. Overall, a fantastic idea…
December 4th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
I am enjoying your service immensely and its great to be in town so much quicker than ususal.
Just to comment on the Boroimhe situation. Part of the reason why I dont like taking 41C buses are that it takes effectively 20-25 mins to get to Airside from Swords Main Street or 41 as they do the same at the airport. I think that if you are planning to do through this area all the time that the point of the service would be lost (well on people not from there)
Obviously the people in Boroimhe would benefit from the service so would you run 2 buses. I can say that I and I`m sure people getting it at Penney`s just wouldnt use the service if they all went through as the journey times would be quite similar then to Dublin Bus. Nothing against Boro people by the way - Expres bus into town in 55 mins doesnt sound half as good!!
December 5th, 2007 at 10:29 am
I reckon there is a strong need for the frequency of your service from Town to Swords between 16.06 and 17.09 to increase. I think it is a big mistake not to have any bus departures during this period while there are 8 bus departures between 17.09 and 19.15.
Yesterday I went to get the 17.09 from the Laughter Lounge and as I saw the traffic was bad coming up North Wall quay I knew there was going to be a delay. The bus eventually arrived at 17.30 but unfortunately not everyone could get on. That would mean that some people who had arrived for the 17.09 bus would not be getting a bus until 17.50 and then with the chance of not even getting that bus due to the demand (not to mention the unseemly clamour to get on board.
If there were bus departures every 15-20 minutes between 16.00 and 17.00, even with the enevitable delays that Dublin traffic can bring there would be a steady stream of busses arriving around the peak departure time of 17.00. I also reckon there is a market for bus departures between 16.00 and 17.00 ( a lot of people in the IFSC work 8.00 - 16.00 shifts, college students, school students, people with flexible working hours, parents rushing home to pick up children from the creche)
I am a big fan of this service and want to keep using it but if I have more experiences like yesterday I will return to using the train from Malahide.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Hi service is brilliant and has made a real difference, I think swords is so big now it would be impossible to go everywhere so is best starting where it is.i do feel the gap between the servicefrom town after 4 and the bus at 5.10pm is to much one about 440pm would excellent
December 6th, 2007 at 11:00 am
I’ve been using the Swords Express to get home the odd evening and whilst it’s normally bang on, Tuesday evening was a bit of a mess. I was there at 4.50pm in plenty of time for the 5.09 service. this however did not show up until 5.29pm. At this point there were far too many people at the stop than the bus could cater for. Whilst I got a seat many others were left behind. I tried to call your customer service number and nobody was answering phones (surely you need someone at the end of the phones while your buses are in service???
Anyway the bus drivers excuse was “traffic”!!!! You are supposed to be the ones providing a service that means traffic does not impinge on us as much as before! How can a bus with full use of bus lanes in the city centre manage to be 20 minutes late? I presume the 5.26pm bu was late too.
This service can be great but if you fail to make departure times as advertized then people will stop using the service. We’re paying the couple of quid extra for convenience. Maybe if this happened again you might charge people a reduced fair?
December 6th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
These are good questions. The answer is basically that we do not have a bus lane all the way. We don’t have a bus lane or any sort of priority at all along North Wall Quay/Custom House Quay and this leads to a minimum of 5 minutes delay, usually longer on peak journeys. Traffic on George’s Quay and Burgh Quay gets very heavy at times, and as a result it just takes a long time to get around the corner. There is also often a delay to reach the roundabout at the Point Depot. We don’t control these things. I wish we did!
We do try to provide a telephone service and we try to answer any calls. Any messages that were left were returned if possible. Sometimes there wasn’t a return number or we couldn’t hear the message clearly.
Our timetable is also not perfect. We need to move buses a little bit earlier so that the load can be better spread.
December 6th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Re the frequency between 16.06 and 17.09, you are right, this is not working well. There are a few issues here that make it difficult to just change this though. We can’t just change the timetable instantly (because other services in the timetable get knocked off and there are issues about getting government approval for any change, even a minor one). Also, we have to allow time for breaks and so on. Also, there is the expense of adding extra buses to be considered, because we obviously have to keep fares proportionate.
One thing we are thinking about for the next timetable is moving all the buses a few minutes earlier. This will mean that the load will be better spread between the buses. At present we have plenty of capacity.
December 6th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Got the 18.39 yesterday from Swords. It arrived just a minute or 2 late, left very promptly. I was dropped off at George’s Quay at 19.04. The driver was very professional and polite. The bus is clean, comfortable and modern. Overall it was a pleasure to use this service and I hope it is a great success!
December 6th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
Hi there, I want to say well done and thank you for this new service!
I understand that the priority of this service is to transport passengers from Swords to city center, however can not understand why there is not a stop at the Point Depot on the Journey into town but one on the way back? I commute to Ringsend on a regular basis and would avail of this bus service if it stopped at the point depot as it is only a 10 minute walk over the toll bridge to my destination from there.
Google and many other businesses are based in Ringsend or surrounding areas and there are a lot of people currently commuting from Swords to Ringsend on a daily basis who would could avail of this service if it made the stop at the point depot? Could you introduce this stop on the way into town?
December 7th, 2007 at 12:30 am
I am working on this. Basically, we are waiting for permission from Dublin Docklands Development Authority to go ahead with planning stops along the campshires (which is what the area between the road and the water is called). We are very anxious to get this done. We are also waiting to get a stop arranged on East Wall Road.
Best,
Antoin.
December 7th, 2007 at 12:31 am
We had a tough day today. There were a lot of delays with traffic. This is basically because of Christmas, Thursday late night shopping and bad weather all hitting us together. We just don’t have any bus priority on the quays, and this is holding us back. We also need to look at our timetable as many people have said, and we will review this for the new year.
December 7th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
The main problem I have with the service is where to park. I parked the car in Airside a couple of times but then one day hada sticker left on my car staing that it was for customer and staff use only and that my car may be clamped. This despite the fact the car park in Airside is never full and the fact that there is are no signs indicating that the carpark is for customer use only. This is an issue that really does need to be sorted out.
December 7th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Hi, I hate to give out about the service because in general it is very efficient and comfortable. However every day this week has been a nightmare getting home. I was getting the 5.09 bus but because of the demand decided to wait till the later one however the 5.09 bus has not turned up on time once this week. 5.40 yesterday, so as you can imagine it was mayhem, then 2 buses 10 minutes later in quick succession. I understand that you are going to rework your timetable however could a quick fix not be put in place to send in the 5.09 bus earlier and then avoid the traffic
December 7th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
The problem is that to do that, we have to skip a service in Swords that is already on the timetable. The people out in Swords will be pretty annoyed if we do that, quite a lot of people want to come in to shop. Really, this service is going to be running late in the heavy traffic running up to Christmas. I would suggest showing up for the bus a bit later. We plan to improve the information on our phone system so that customers can find out quickly what’s going on.
Changing timetables is a big issue for us. We need to get departmental approval for changes as well as properly publicising them.
December 10th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Thanks for responding to all the gripes including my own! Having the info available over the phone would be a major plus. Most of the frustration is the “not knowing” feeling.
Keep up the mostly good work!
December 11th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Hi, I’m abig fan of your service quality of my commuting life has vastly improved since Nov 07 however to my dismay last friday 7th dec I went to catch the 12.52 from swords outside penney’s and it had left early it was going by the lord mayors at 12.47!! i was looking at it going by from a car I know i had the correct time stuff like this would put peolpe off using the sevice - i’m one of the 5.09 users and can understand late & busy buses but ones leaving 5 mins early not willing to accept!!:(
December 12th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Alison,
Thanks for this, we are dealing with this with the driver involved. Not leaving early is really important. As you can see, we are dealing with the city centre issue too.
December 15th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Hi,
I think the express service is great and if there is a taxsaver ticket, I will definetly go this way to town in the future. I have been using it some days every week since it started. I think delays in town at this time of the year are inevitable and the service can’t really be judged until January. Anyone who regularly uses 41/41c at this time of year will know that leaving town around 5/6 in the evening can result in up to 2 hours on the road home. Not to mention the sheer comfort of actually having a seat! Keep up the good work.