I've always been a firm believer that providing a bus service is not just about the buses. How you present yourself to your customers is important... one aspect of this comes in the form of street furniture, however, its a bit up and down in Dublin!A couple of weeks ago Dublin Bus began to install Transport for London (TfL) style bus stops, manufactured by Trueform Engineering, in O'Connell St. These were highly successful and the second phase of the roll out is expected shortly.
Following on from this last week, private operator, Swords Express has installed new, also Truefrom manufactured, bus stops around Swords. These look brilliant and its great to see private operators investing in this infrastructure for their customers.
However, what goes up can often come down (at some some part!). Getting back to O'Connell Street and Aircoach (or First Aircoach now!), have been operating a luxury coach service from the city to the Airport for years... however, while the coaches maybe luxury, the bus stop on Dublin's main thoroughfare is not... in fact its hit rock bottom, or the timetable carousel has...
To add insult to injury the stop also promotes 'serving Park n Ride sites en route'??? So while you journey to the Airport on a luxury Setra coach maybe worth the luxury price, the profit made isn't going back into infrastructure...
