The 39a bus from Ongar keeps skipping stops there to make up time, messing up local residents’ journeys into town

On a good day, Wictoria Fraczek’s bus from Ongar into the city centre should take an hour and fifteen minutes.

But in recent months, she has had to give it two hours, and leave her house early just to make sure she gets in on time, Fraczek says. “It’s become a part of my routine that I don’t even notice anymore.”

“I work an afternoon shift, but I’ve found it’s got a lot worse travelling into town, especially around the hours of 10 and 11,” she said.

The bus she takes is the 39a, from Ongar Square. It travels from Ongar to Stoneybatter, across to Baggot Street via Dawson Street before terminating at University College of Dublin.

While Fraczek might know for sure when her bus is scheduled to arrive at her stop, what is less certain is whether it will actually come at that time, she says. “I might be waiting twenty, thirty minutes, so I need that extra time.”

But she and other locals have been frustrated by the frequency with which the 39a services Ongar – and how it deviates from promises on timetables.

When traffic is bad, the bus has been skipping over multiple stops around the village so it can get back on schedule, by beginning one town over in Hartstown, says Sinn Féin Councillor Angela Donnelly.

It isn’t uncommon that the 39a bus would pass by a stop because it was full, she says. “But in the last few weeks, I’ve been made aware that the bus is skipping stops to stay on schedule.”

A spokesperson for the National Transport Authority says Dublin Bus are aware that journey times are creating an issue on this route. They will look at options to address the issue in 2024, subject to available funding, they said.

A spokesperson for Dublin Bus said there are instances its services need to be regulated due to reasons beyond its control. “We consider various factors such as diversions, protests, or accidents, not just late arrivals.”

Erratic waiting times

From Ongar up to Hartstown, the 39a is too erratic a service to be relied on, says Majella Reilly, who lives on Hartstown Road. “If they’re not in sequence, or scheduled on time, they will bypass us here.”

Her daughter, who is a student, depends on the service to get to UCD, she says. “My daughter will pull up the bus times on the schedule, but there’s no guarantee they’ll show up on time.”

“What’s showing up on the app, and what’s reality are very different,” she says.

One weekend back in November, Reilly was travelling into the city centre for a concert, she says.

She stood out at her stop on Hartstown Road for almost 30 minutes to grab the 39a, she says. “We were waiting at the screen, and it was flickering, saying it would come in 24 minutes, then 20, then 24 again.”

Sometimes, passengers can jump on a 39 bus. But that isn’t a feasible option for Reilly’s daughter, as it terminates at the Burlington Road.

“She has to depend on the 39a, even if it is hit-or-miss,” Reilly says.

The wait for a 39a, which may not show, coupled with a longer journey time on a 39 for those who can take that, tests people’s patience, says Claire Louise Holding, another bus user. “Getting into the city centre is an absolute nightmare, and I’ve had to resort to taking a taxi a couple of times.”

Filling the gap

“I rang Dublin Bus today and the representative told me that when traffic is bad, the 39a bus starts in Hartstown and does not serve the Ongar loop,” said Sinn Féin TD Paul Donnelly at a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications on 29 November.

“They said that this allows the bus to catch up to the original timetable by leaving out half the stops,” he said. “They said it is a one-off, but it has been going on for weeks.”

Why are these buses leaving people at stops along the Ongar loop, he asked. “Why is it more important to be on time?”

Billy Hann, the chief executive of Dublin Bus, said the decision to keep on schedule isn’t made lightly and is to ensure punctuality across the whole network.

“We would seldom ask a bus driver to pass by stops if those stops were not going to be served by other buses behind that one, or buses coming from another area,” he said.

Gareth Quinn, Dublin Bus’ chief operations planning manager, said that some 24 buses head out along the 39a route each morning. “If one goes out of sequence, a gap is created. Somewhere along the line, you have to get it back on sequence, no matter what.”

In the first half of this year, the percentage of scheduled kilometres on the 39a route that were “lost”, or not served, more than tripled from from 1.8 percent to 5.7 percent, show the National Transport Authority’s performance reliability data for 2023.

Donnelly, the Sinn Féin councillor, says it’s “appalling” to cut out the bus stops on the Ongar loop – of which there are 11 – especially as quite a few don’t have a shelter. “Even if that is for only 10 or 15 minutes, that can be a big difference to someone’s schedule and movement.”

“You can’t differentiate between two sections of an area,” she says. “You can’t say, ‘We have to make sure we’re on time for commuters at stop B’, and sacrifice stop A.”

A spokesperson for the NTA said Dublin Bus is aware of journey times creating an issue on this route, and will look at options to address this in early 2024, subject to funding availability.

When buses don’t appear, this could be caused by traffic, the cutting or cancellation of services to get back on schedule, a shortage of drivers or a bus not being available due to a mechanical fault, they said. “Dublin Bus had significant problems in the second half of last year in recruiting sufficient drivers to operate services.”

That however, has improved this year, with a loss of approximately three percent of services in recent reports, they said.

BusConnects could resolve some of these issues, they said.

Under the new BusConnects network, which is the NTA’s programme for improving bus services, Ongar is listed as a terminus on the B-spine, which links with UCD via Clonsilla and the city centre.The spokesperson said the NTA has significant plans to provide more priority in its road space for buses through the rollout of sustainable transport corridors, enhanced walking, cycling and bus infrastructure on key access corridors.