DART Feeder Services

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Contents

Introduction

The DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) electrified-rail service was part of a major rethink of CIE resource deployment in Dublin. The plan was for a fast, reliable rail service into the city with feeder buses allowing easy access to adjoining suburbs and thus extending the DART's target population. This would allow CIE to withdraw buses on similar routes to the city thus decreasing costs. Such plans were not received with great enthusiasm by the Trade Unions and details of the resulting disputes are listed below. However, prior to reading the following article it is important to provide an overview of two major points from this period, which are included in separate articles:

The Idea

The DART project was one of very few capital projects undertaken by the state in the early 80's during a very bleak financial period. Suburban rail services were seen as a way of relieving the city transport problem, even if by their nature, train services were less profitable to run. The target daily usage was 80,000 passengers which one could consider an overestimate, especially durihttp://www.dublintransport.com/index.php?title=DART_Feeder_Services&action=editng the early 80's.

The DART feeders purpose were to extend the catchment area of the DART service, thus making the target figure more realistic. CIE announced its feeder bus plan on the 17/1/1984 and indicated that feeder buses would link 19 Dublin Areas to the DART line using GAC KC-Class buses, thus extending the catchment area of the line to a potential 200,000 people. The 19 suburban areas were as follows:

  • Deansgrange, Cornelscourt, Galloping Green and Leopardstown to Blackrock Station.
  • Kill O' the Grange, Ballybrack, Sallynoggin and Loughlinstown to Dun Laoghaire
  • Coolock, Ayrfield, Ard na Greine to Harmonstown Station
  • Donaghmede and Grange Road to Raheny Station and
  • Offington, Malahide, Portmarnock and Baldoyle to Sutton Station

The bus services were to run on 10-minute intervals, 5-minutes during peaks and 15-minutes off-peak[1].

In reality though services to this effect would eventually operate:

  • Deansgrange and Cornelscourt would be linked to Blackrock Station by the 113.
  • Galloping Green and Leopardstown would be linked to Blackrock Station by the 114.
  • Sallynoggin and Loughlinstown would be linked to Dun Laoghaire by the 111.
  • Ayrfield and Ard na Greina linked to Harmonstown by the 101
  • Donaghmede and Grange Road linked to Raheny Station by the 101.
  • Malahide, Portmarnock and Baldoyle linked to Sutton Station by the 102

these buses would never operate at the frequency that was mentioned above. Only possibly the 101 and 111 could ever be classed as high frequency, but they never made a 5-minute service during the peak. Other routes such as the 59 and 88, which were existing services, and were later to become DART feeder services were not mentioned in the press release, possibly because they were existing services.

By February CIE were announcing feeder services to Belfield (to become 52) and a inter-station link (to become 90), however the original announcement was for a bus link between Connolly, Pearse, Tara and Heuston stations[2].

One of the main issues the Unions had with the introduction of the feeder buses was the effect they would have on the services which ran in parallel with current radial services. The Trade Unions saw such measures as killing-off existing Two-Person-Operated routes. This was CIE's plan too; existing services, where feeder buses were to be introduced over part of their routes, would be reduced in service levels. In reality only route 6 would be seen off completely (by the 114) and in truth this route was a very poorly utilised service at this stage.

CIE's plans for the feeder buses was a brand new way of thinking for Dublin City Services. Since the DUTC days, Dublin's City Bus Services were a series of radial routes all serving the city centre, with the odd exceptions such as the 18. These feeder routes would not penetrate the city centre but instead rely on the new DART service to ferry passengers to their eventual destinations. CIE envisaged a situation were at least 60% of all passengers on the DART would transfer from feeder buses[3]. This turned out to be a gross exaggeration.

With such figures for DART usage it was evident to CIE that this would allow for massive reductions in existing routes. In an article published in the Irish Times on the 20th February[4].CIE's plan for Routes 7 and 8 were explained. It would see the then 25-vehicle allocation on these routes cut down to 15. Of these 15 buses, seven would be utilised in providing the feeder buses while only eight would provide a through-service. Though these routes would eventually receive some substantial reduction in service levels, it would not be to the extent that CIE had originally envisaged.

Map indicating feeder bus plans for the Dún Laoghaire and Blackrock areas
Map indicating feeder bus plans for the Dún Laoghaire and Blackrock areas

The plans for the Dun Laoghaire area were used as an example for other areas. In the article an indicative route map was published of the feeder services in the Blackrock and Dun Laoghaire areas (This map is reproduced on the right hand side of this page). It was more substantial than the system that was eventually to operate. Something fairly noticeable was the fact that Route 46A's routing between Dún Laoghaire and Brewery Road was indicated on the map as being served by feeder buses. One wonders whether this flagship route was ever in line for the drastic reductions in service planned for routes 7 and 8, at least on the section where the feeder buses operated.

Awaiting Introduction

The trade union issues regarding the introduction of the DART Feeder services is well covered in the OPO article, an issue which the introduction of DART feeder services got caught up in. It would be eighteen-months after the introduction of the DART service before the feeder buses would run.

Here are a couple of note-worthy points:

  • The first DART feeder service was to be the inter-station link between Heuston and Connolly and was to begin on the 19th November 1984. Announcements were made in the press but the decision was eventually withdrawn as negotiations with the unions were not complete.
  • The next date set for the introduction of the DART feeder services was the 8th December 1985, but as indicated in the OPO article drivers refused to operate them. However the routes were still technically official and in press announcements at the time, detailing the cancellation, or curtailment, of certain services due to a lack of drivers, these routes were included in the list of services not operated.

The Introduction

The following DART feeder services began operation on February 2nd, 1986:

These were followed by:

Operation and Withdrawal

The visions that CIE had of 60% of DART passengers transferring onto/from DART feeder services was a misjudged conception. In reality the plan of the 10min frequency feeder buses never materialised in the manner wished, through services were kept for the most part and this competition hindered any success that these feeder services could have had.

In reality, the feeder buses ran to a schedule, buses were not timetabled to meet certain trains and therefore would not wait for a particular DART service to arrive. Such timetabling would have allowed passengers to plan their journeys as a whole, with seamless interchange between the two modes of transport. The downside of this is that passengers for these services travelling between intermediate points (i.e. not connecting from a delayed DART service) would not appreciate the inherent unreliability of these services.

With no guarantee of a connecting bus at the station, or vice versa a connecting DART service, there was the chance of waiting 15mins or more (even for the more frequent of DART feeder services), and a further 15mins or so at the station for the DART service itself. With competing through bus services, the idea of waiting a possible 30 or so minutes for two modes of transport meant that most would opt for the more convenient one-mode bus option.

Route 101 was the first route to see major reductions and route variations but the first service to be withdrawn was Route 88 on the Saturday 17th September 1988 replaced on the 18th by new Route 31B. Route 113 was also badly performing at this stage and saw a major reduction in service at this point confining it to just the morning and evening peaks.

Route 113 was to hang on officially until the 27th December 1989 (in reality due to Christmas operations the last day this service operated was Friday 22nd December 1989). Route 59 would lose its feeder bus status on and from the following Sunday (30th December), while the 103 (since it had no Sunday service) would lose its feeder bus status on and from Tuesday 2nd January.

Routes 52, Route 101|101]], 102 and 111 lost their Sunday services on and from Sunday 3rd March 1991, leaving Route 90 as the only feeder bus route with a Sunday service, something which has changed only recently with the addition of a Sunday service on Route 102 following its amalgamation with Route 230.

Route 52 was next to go on the 20th July 1998, the 101 following on and from Sunday 16th April 2000. This leaves routes 90, 102, 111] and [{Route 114|114]] as the remaining DART feeder services. CIE's great concept of feeder buses never achieved the results that were envisaged, and for the most part, the services which have survived owe their existence to patronage mostly not related to connecting DART services.

Fare Structure

This somewhat differed for most services.

Routes 52, 59, 88, 102, 103, [{Route 111|111]], 113 and 114 had fares calculated on the amount of stages travelled.

Routes 90 and [{Route 101|101]] had a flat fare structured, the same regardless of distance travelled.

With regards to these services, if a DART connection was to be made then you bought a DART Ticket on the bus to wherever you were going. The fare was worked out with regards to the location you boarded a service. For the most part the feeder service was free, the fare to the city being the same as the fare from the feeder DART station to the city.

However certain situations arose where this was not the case. One such case, used by CIE as an example, was Route 52. If you boarded a feeder bus at Redesdale Road headed for the city, the standard bus fare was 85p. However, if you boarded the DART service at Sydney Parade the fare was 60p (note: 1986 prices). This was 25p cheaper and hence you were required to purchase an 85p ticket.

References

  1. ↑ City Bus Rail Links Planned, Irish Times, 18/1/1984
  2. ↑ CIE's New Weapon to Confound the Begrudgers, Irish Times, 20/2/1984
  3. ↑ CIE's New Weapon to Confound the Begrudgers, Irish Times, 20/2/1984
  4. ↑ CIE's New Weapon to Confound the Begrudgers, Irish Times, 20/2/1984
  5. ↑ Buses Magazine, September 1986
  6. ↑ Buses Magazine, February 1987
  7. ↑ Buses Magazine, March 1987
  8. ↑ Buses Magazine, October 1987
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