Sir, – Dublin Bus says its real-time information system “will show you when your bus is due to arrive at your bus stop so you can plan your journey more accurately”. I have long been misled and frustrated by this system which, in my experience, is an unreal-time information system or maybe even a surreal one.
So I carried out a small audit of the system as I waited for the number 14 bus at stop 7581 in Dame Street.
At 14:10 the display informed me that the next bus was estimated to arrive in seven minutes. At 14:24 the estimate was the same – seven minutes. In the intervening 14 minutes the display alternated between seven minutes and six minutes, making one wonder was the bus alternately reversing and proceeding between stops at some strange place along its route. At 14:25 it fixed on six minutes but also showed another number 14 due in 10 minutes.
Estimates for the arrival of these two buses dropped a minute at a time until at 14:29, when the first bus disappeared from the display while the second one now showed eight minutes to arrival.
One minute later, at 14:30, a further bus appeared on the display with an estimate of 25 minutes.
A number 14 bus arrived at 14:38, parking a bus-length back from the stop so that those who queued at the stop were the last to get on!
The estimate of seven minutes at 14:10 turned out to be 28 minutes, not a very realistic way to help you plan your journey more accurately. – Yours, etc,
JACK MORRISSEY,
Dublin 16.