Many Dublin Residents Frustrated by Phantom Buses

When the Dublin Bus Real Time Information App doesnt coincide with the real time of
the actual bus, residents who rely on this system are left abandoned. Emily Rhodes
investigates firsthand into the associated experiences.
Pull quote 1 - The bus system has improved and is getting much better.
Pull quote 2 - Despite a published timetable indicating the frequency of the buses
and a Real Time app, they are no more than a work of disingenuous fiction.

Dublin is growing exponentially. With a growing city comes growth in the

amount of traffic congesting the city centre. Because of this, alternative forms of
transportation become the better option. However with any growth in demand for public
transportation like buses or trains, also comes the challenge of providing a consistent,
reliable and plentiful system.
According to its website, the Dublin Bus serves over 110 million each year and
carries about 400,000 people on an average weekday, with a fleet of 1000 buses. (2) The

number of buses increased by 70 in the past year, yet we are still plagued with the severe
inconvenience of an unreliable system.
The Dublin Bus underwent a series of changes in the past couple of years,
including rebranding themselves as a technologically advanced system, possessing Real
Time technology in the Bus app and electronic timetables. (1) This technology
supposedly tracks every bus route and adjusts the estimated arrival time as it makes its
way through town. This technology is revolutionary and extremely helpful when planning
your transportation in and out of the city. Unfortunately, its rarely on par with the actual
bus.
Many times the bus will change estimated time of arrivals dramatically, going
from just a few minutes to 25. More disappointingly, there have been many complaints
and numerous accounts of people left waiting on a bus that never arrives, or potential
passengers that arrive to the stop by the predicted time yet the bus route erases from the
time table. These buses have earned the title known to many Dubliners as phantom
buses.
This becomes a problem for several reasons. First, it's an unsafe situation with the
amount of travelers, exchange students, and overall crowd in the city. The city becomes
congested and creates a large sense of confusion. It becomes a challenge to not only plan
how much time it will take to get somewhere, but also it poses the question of whether or
not passengers will end up abandoned in an unsafe part of town. Chloe Jefferson, an
exchange student at Griffith College, was waiting for the bus on OConnell Street after a
late movie and within a few minutes the bus route completely disappeared off of the time

table. She was left with searching for a taxi and spending upwards of ten euro to get back
home instead of waiting on another unreliable time prediction of another bus.
Second, its unreliable for those that have jobs, meetings, and appointments to get
to on time. Its understandable for the bus to come a couple minutes early or late, but its
not acceptable for the Dublin Bus to advertise technological advancements, yet have a
system that doesnt work and leaves people without a way back home and no explanation.
Before choosing to investigate further, I decided to consider different situations
that may cause this problem. First, I wanted to figure out if it was just unlucky having
more bad experiences than good in regards to the bus. I spent a morning at the bus stop
next to Trinity College, comparing my Dublin Bus App and the physical stop time table
with the bus itself. I sat inside of Costa Coffee at the College Green stop, which is always
bustling with passengers and different buses. I wanted to follow the 9, 16, 122, 83, 13,
and 123 routes, which are common routes for college students, working people, suburb
residents, and travellers connecting to the airport.
I did five different tests and watched all six routes, recording a total of 15 buses.
Out of the 15 buses, only two of them were accurate with the bus app and timetables. 13
out of 15 buses either came early or late, passed the stop, or were completely knocked off
the time table. The 122, 83, and 13 all experienced the phantom bus phenomenon and
erased off the board. The strangest occurrence was when the 122 erased off of the board
and never came back on the screen, but randomly arrived at the stop ten minutes later.

The most common situation was the bus arriving within a two minute range.
While only arriving a couple minutes early or a couple minutes late isn't a huge problem,
its still inconvenient. The purpose of a Real Time technology is to give passengers the
real time. If the bus comes even three minutes early, it unfairly makes the rider miss the
bus even though they were preparing to arrive on time. And if the rider prepares
themselves by being at least 5 minutes early every time, and the bus continues to be late
or not arrive, then theyve spent way too long waiting around for a bus.
My second question into investigating the Dublin Bus was whether or not these
frustrations are due to being new to the system, or if its truly a problem that faces local
residents. I decided to speak with Olwyn Mannix, a Dublin resident of 30 years who most
commonly takes the 46a, 66, 67, and 69 routes.
I think the bus app is brilliant. I use it all the time, said Olwyn, when asked her
honest opinion. Olwyn stated that she uses the bus every day, and totally relies on the
app. Olwyn also said that the bus arrives over ten minutes late or disappears from the
chart only five percent of the time.
The bus system has improved and is getting much better, Olwyn noted. She
explained that the addition of a bus lane in the 1990s has made a huge difference in the
system.
After speaking with Olwyn, I wanted to get a perspective from a student, new to
the system. I spoke with Meghan Griffith, an exchange student at Griffith College who
has been using the bus for about nine weeks.

Meghan uses the bus six days a week, to get to and from work and the city centre.
She stated that shes used the bus at least a hundred times since being in Dublin, and that
the arrival time of the buses shift by three or four minutes almost every time.
The bus has only been over ten minutes late a few times, and Ive only seen a
bus get knocked off the board about five times, Meghan explained.
She told me about a similar experience to Chloe, being abandoned late at night
when the bus completely knocked off the board. But when asked to rate her experience
with Dublin Bus, she gave it a seven out of ten.
However, I find it strange that the buses dont stop at every stop. And if youre
the only person waiting for that stop, you better flag the driver down or else he wont stop
for you. Sometimes even if someone flags the driver down they dont stop, which can be
aggravating if youre trying to get somewhere, Meghan added.
TheJournal.ie wrote an article in early January, including samples of complaints
written to the Department of Transportation about the Dublin Bus. (3) Many of these
complaints described similar phantom bus experiences.
Despite a published timetable indicating the frequency of the buses, and a Real
Time app, they are no more than a work of disingenuous fiction, one user complained.
Last October, another student complained to the Department of Transportation
about these phantom buses, stating that they were waiting for an hour and a half for the
bus in the city centre.

The Dublin Bus Real Time Information App was displaying buses on the routes
13 and 151 that were simply non existent. They would appear on the app and count down
all the way until they were due and then disappear.
With a system as popular and flooded with passengers as the Dublin Bus, its
apparent to see the variation in experiences. I tried to meet with the board of directors
from the Dublin Bus system as well as the creator of the real-time technology, however
during my time in Ireland no one responded to my inquiries.
In conclusion, it seems hard to pinpoint a specific problem because there are so
many different routes and traffic patterns that occur in a bustling city. As the city grows,
the Dublin City Council on behalf of the National Transport Authority states its
commitment to improving the bus at the same time. (1) For now, it seems that the best
solution against these phantom buses can only be to arrive as early as possible, and
hope for the best.

Critical Analysis
Investigative Journalism, according to John Pilger, is the idea that journalism not
only keeps the record straight, but holds those in power to account. Within my research,
my goal was always to keep the record straight and show both sides of the equation. I
included a Dublin resident of over 30 years and a new Dublin resident, who both use the
bus everyday. They both agreed that the bus and Real Time Information app are accurate
most of the time, but one has had more experience with the phantom buses. I also used
anonymous complaints published in TheJournal.ie who state specific negative
experiences with the bus. I included an experiment where I witnessed the bus commonly
arriving within two minute intervals from the expected time, and experienced the
phantom buses three different times. I aimed to get the record straight on the accuracy of
the time tables through first and second hand experiences. In return, I can hold those in
power, the Dublin City Council, to account, if this problem doesnt get better in the
coming months. Investigative Journalism in its essence is learning different sides to the
communitys problems, and then using that knowledge to make changes, which I feel is
the backbone of my story.
If possible, I would aim for my story to be published in TheJournal.ie. First, I
think that my story would be of interest to readers because of The Journals relevance and
reach to all demographics, just like the passengers of the Dublin Bus. Second, there have
also been similar articles in The Journal that have been tracking changes in technology

and ticket prices over the past year. One article mentioned in my story includes specific
complaints to the Department of Transportation in the past year.
In order to get my article published, I would need to contact TheJournal.ie.
Unfortunately, even though deeply searching their site, there was no specific person
mentioned to contact. However, there was a button that links you to a contact form if you
want to submit a story or picture, and they also provide you with an email address,
tips@thejournal.ie, if youd like to email them more personally. I also think it would be a
good idea to continue the story that was previously written and contact the writer from
the article I mentioned in my story, that highlights complaints to the Dublin Bus. His
name is Michael Sheils McNamee and his email is michaelsm@thejournal.ie. At the very
least, he could give me information on another writer or editorial staff to contact with my
story.
When deciding how to conduct my investigation, I considered focusing on one
general audience range and interviewing 5-10 people on their experiences. But when I
really thought about the true spirit of the investigation, I realized my emphasis needed to
be on the life of a passenger from their own viewpoint because I needed to see all
different sides of this issue. The first question I needed to answer was a tough one
because it often gets lost in between subjectivity and bias. How does one measure
satisfaction with the bus? Interviews overall went well and gave me clear insight into two
different experiences with the bus. However, when speaking with Olwyn, the Dublin Site
Director of my study abroad program, (olwyn@academicstudies.com), I realized how
hard it is to measure whats actually satisfying passengers. Olwyn is okay with the bus

being early or late if its in small amounts, because shes used to it. One thing to take note
of is that she may be more likely to be pleased with the app technology, because its a
definite improvement from none at all. However with other Griffith College exchange
students like Meghan, (1 618-980-6400), that have used other current transportation apps
in other cities, the Dublin bus app becomes less satisfying and more of an issue. In order
to avoid basing my story solely on other peoples opinions, I decided to do my own
experiment, where I sat in the coffee shop and recorded the accuracy of the app and bus
together. This is when I got the best information to draw a conclusion from. Only two of
the buses were on time, however most of the buses were only a few minutes early or late.
There were three cases of phantom buses, with no explanation to them. I also looked into
the Dublin Bus Annual Report and Financial Statement (2) that talked about adjustments
to the technology, additions to the bus fleet, and some basic statistics about the increase
in passengers per year. This shed light on how much the city, and overall passenger
audience is growing every year. The previous article from TheJournal.ie gave me hope
that there are more people seeking answers, and provided me with the reassurance that
Im not the only one confused by this occurance. Looking back, the only thing I would do
differently is to speak with a few people in charge of the bus, and to seek a better answer
on why the disappearing buses happen. My only regret is not speaking to the councilman
I planned on speaking with, because I think that his information and face-to-face
discussion would help me figure out the missing puzzle piece of this story. After all of
this, I truly understand the value of a well-rounded investigation, and hope to continue to
seek an answer and solution to the problem. I want to pursue the things that may seem
like there is a puzzle piece missing. For right now, Ive definitely learned that sometimes

you have to accept that not everything is going to be on time like stated, and you have to
prepare for those situations.

References
1.

RTPI FAQs: http://www.dublinbus.ie/RTPI/RTPI-Help-Page/#11

2.

Dublin Bus Annual Report and Fiancial Statements:

https://www.dublinbus.ie/PageFiles/2430/CIE-Bus%20tha%20Cliath-AR14.pdf
3.

Article from TheJournal.ie: http://www.thejournal.ie/dublin-bus-information-

routes-service-freedom-of-information-2479063-Jan2016/