Transport for Ireland needs to wake up and smell the coffee

Public transport has improved

A Dublin Bus hybrid vehicle, PA class.

beyond recognition in Ireland over the past last number of years; the number of services has increased as has the number of routes. Buses and trains are clean and bright. Most rail and bus stations are maintained relatively well.

Transport For Ireland is responsible for many aspects of public transport.

Last week a number of new routes were introduced and there were some timetable changes. The advertising of the changes seems to have been kept a secret from the public.

There are too many glitches with the real time display boards. It is acceptable and understandable there will be errors and problems with the display boards but TFI urgently needs to develop a system whereby  when there is a problem the display boards can revert to a default mechanism, which can inform passengers there is a problem.

Yesterday across Dublin City many of the display boards were showing blanks and those that were working were inaccurate.

At stop 1352 on Dublin’s Camden Street Lower the display board advised passengers that a 122 was due in 19 minutes. The TFI smart phone app said the bus was arriving in four minutes. The bus arrived in 25 minutes.

It is essential that public transport is perceived to be reliable, otherwise it is not fit for purpose and all it will do is drive frustrated passengers back to their cars

Yesterday it took over two hours to travel by public transport from stop 2999 in Dublin 6 to the Navan Road in Cabra.

Wake up Transport For Ireland.