The whole terminal access system at Dub is a disaster, not just T2
The entire access system at Dublin is a disaster, not just T2. The T1 departure set down road is a shambles, anyone dropping off children takes their life in their hands every time they go in there, it would make a lot more sense to make the centre road of the 3 the through route with no stopping on it, and have the no 1 and No 3 lanes as the set down lanes, as they would then both have paved walkways adjacent to the vehicle, and no vehicles would have to cross other traffic lanes to park or leave the area. The other thing that would make a huge difference would be to get rid of the pedestrian crossing in the middle of the departure road, and segregate vehicles and pedestrians so that they are not mixed as at present. If necessary, put the pedestrians on a bridge over the departure roadway, the traffic flow for both vehicles and pedestrians will be MUCH safer.
The concept of having nowhere to collect passengers from without paying to park is offensive and inappropriate. Passengers have paid to use the airport. I for one am not prepared to pay an exorbitent charge to collect an inbound passenger who is waiting to be collected. There are signs all over the T1 departure road saying that collecting passengers is not allowed. At one time, it was not a problem to collect passengers on some of the roadways behind the multi storey car park, but DAA have now put railings all over the place to make that impossible.
T2 is even worse. There is a set down road, a bus lane, and nowhere to collect people. and the road that is supposedly for arrivals leads to the T2 multi storey car park that has no avoidance, so if you end up on that road, you have to go through the car park to get out, and the signposting of the exits is about as clear as the rest of the DAA signposting, in other words, a shambles.
The majority of passengers these days have mobile phones. It is thus very simple to communicate with them and confirm that they are in a location to be picked up. Loading passengers takes about as long as unloading them. That needs to be facilitated, and the requirement to use and pay for a car park to collect someone that's waiting to be collected is unacceptable, both in terms of time, and cost. The most recent "improvements" at Dublin make it even harder than it used to for people to be picked up.
Ok, there have been problems in the past with pre booked taxis and the like blocking the set down road when waiting for passengers, but that's easy enough to deal with, move them on if the passenger is not there, or make them use the car park, they at least are being paid for the service they are providing, so they can charge for the service.
Maybe things will be easier and better once the Metro is built, but somehow I doubt it, given the inability of DAA to listen to the users and act accordingly. For the forseeable future, road transport is the only way to get all of the passengers to and from their flights, so making that process as simple, easy and fast as possible should be their first objective, but they seem determined to ignore the passengers that are arriving, probably because they are earning next to nothing from them on the way in, so they don't care about making their experience a pleasant one.
The airport used to be a pleasant and enjoyable experience. Now, with the problems of getting in and out, the hassles of security that can't make their mind up what the rules are, or which ones they are going to enforce today, the huge distance out to the D pier, and the very limited number of seats compared to passenger numbers when you do get there, the experience is far from pleasant, especially with small children, or for the old or infirm, or even those that have any form of mobility problems. Then of course there's the Ryanair scrums at the gate, which are a disaster in the making for families trying to stay together.
Trying to get to the aircraft early enough in boarding to get a row of 3 seats together as a family are all pressures that are unhelpful, and even paying for "priority boarding" is no guarantee of getting a row, and why should if be necessary to pay extra to facilitate family safety with small children? with small children, it's often a good plan to take them to the toilets as boarding starts, to try and make the flight as easy and comfortable as possible, but with "free boarding", this doesn't work, with pre allocated seats it does.
Ok, this last point is not altogether DAA's problem, but for sure the rest of it is. It's the final straw in what has become a much less than enjoyable process that should be as stress free as possible. Most of this is under DAA's direct control, and if they had any real interest in passenger satisfaction, it would have been addressed a long time ago.