Page 23 - Linkline Autumn 2016

Dublin Bus Control Centre and Garage Visit
Richard Butler CMILT
On the 1st June 2016, the Eastern Section of CILT Ireland was happy to organise a visit for 25 members to the Dublin Bus Operations Control Centre at Broadstone Depot, as well as a tour of the bus garage located nearby.
It was explained by a number of members of the operations team that Dublin Bus has long been an innovator and early adopter of new technologies for bus operations management and custom- er-facing services, which later came to be collectively known as “Intelligent Transport Systems” (ITS).
Over the last decade much progress has been made with ITS and other technologies, along with a changing cityscape where there is less space for buses than ever before and more congestion as the fight for road space increases. Projects such as Network Direct had to be implemented in order to streamline the network, to remove most city centre terminal points and to make the network perform more effectively, with shorter journey times for passengers with more direct routes, across the city.
Along the way they have also implemented improved computerised systems for scheduling, rostering, maintenance, inventory manage- ment and many other back-office functions, resulting in massive improvements in customer service and overall performance of the company. It was explained that all these systems are integrated by the operations centre so that they can share information and work in a consistent way for drivers, management and, most important- ly, the customers. In the background the data gathered from the various ITS systems provides managers, planners and operational staff with information needed to both optimise the services and to manage the business.
Dublin Bus generously showed us around the complex of Broad- stone by bus, giving attending members an appreciation of how Dublin Bus provides services to its customers and what is required to provide a quality service. We toured the garage area, seeing the vehicle maintenance area and workshop.
We also visited the team in charge of dealing with social media and the area where they outlined the business, operational and cus- tomer-service objectives on which these operations, set up in 2010, are based. With the use of Facebook and Twitter they are using the advances in technology to communicate vital live information to customers via their smartphones, so significant improvements in customer service has been achieved. Over the past decade Dublin
Bus have also updated and enhanced previous systems (e.g. ticket machines) while also introducing new technologies and services (e.g. real-time information, smart cards), in conjunction with the National Transport Authority and with the Leap Card, Intelligent Ticketing Program.
We would like to thank Donal Keating CMILT Operations Manager Dublin Bus and Robert Ryan MILT for helping make the event pos- sible and facilitating a bus being made available to get to/from the Eastern Section AGM at CILT Offices.
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DUBLIN BUS