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RE: Dublin & Ireland - redstar - 09/08/2024 22:54

Hello,
Apologies for the lack of updates, I was away on a number of trips to a number of interesting places, hopefully will post some pictures over the next few months. At long last the Dublin Bus EA single deckers have appeared on the 99, which has a PVR of one and some of the local routes in West Dublin/ East Kildare. Hopefully I will get pictures soon. Some photos from this month:
The Galway Races draw a big crowd over race week and Bus Éireann operate a shuttle service from the City Centre to the race track in Ballybrit - north east Galway. Demand has reduced as high frequency route 409 provides a much cheaper alternative to the shuttle. Also the 'quality' of coach provided can be interesting, these are mostly school vehicles having a rest over the summer.
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SP78 Eyre Square, Galway 3 Auugst 2024 - former Expressway Coach and one of the SPs painted in this livery. To be fair, the school bus logos are removed.

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SR40 Galway Station 3 Auugst 2024 - This was on the 424 on service work, perhaps running back home in service, though its age would suggest that it doesn't have long left in service.

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EW88 Waterloo Road 9 August 2024 - Back in Dublin, the EW class continue to roll out. EW100 is in service, however EW1 and some of the lower numbered batch have still not appeared.

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GT124 Waterloo Road 9 August 2024 - Southern Circular S2 is operated by Dublin Bus.

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11628 Roebuck Road, UCD 9 August 2024

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11589 Roebuck Road, UCD 9 August 2024 - S4 is operated by Go Ahead and the routing through UCD allows for nice photographic opportunities.

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11905 Blackrock 9 August 2024 - S6 is also operated by Go Ahead.

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VT48 UCD Bus Park 9 August 2024 - The VT class live on. A high proportion of the Dublin Bus fleet is in TFI livery but the figures are skewed by buses that should be withdrawn by now, including the AXs, VTs, VGs and EVs, many of which are in DB livery, though not all.
Note the ad on the side of the bus encouraging public transport use - this is a Department of Transport ad, usually these would be TFI ads.

More here:
https://transportsceneireland.smugmug.com/BusSceneIreland/BSI-August-2024

RE: Dublin & Ireland - redstar - 14/08/2024 21:55

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WM436 Sligo Station 11 August 2024
Another Streetlite - boring. Well not quite. GAI were given 40 of the longer types and Bus Éireann a mix of longer and medium sized ones. City Direct who operate the Kilkenny City Services have a small fleet of medium sized ones, really part of the BÉ allocation. That was all fine, we knew about all of those. Then last year Carlow was given a new town service and a mysterious Streetlite with white LED displays and TFI interior appeared in publicity shots. To cut a long story short, it seemed that when Wrightbus went bust, TFI bought three streetlites that were going at a good rate, they were put in store and appeared last year. This one is Cork registered and was rumoured to be for a Local Link service in Cork. Sligo is a long way from Cork..

RE: Dublin & Ireland - redstar - 21/08/2024 21:46

There was a bit of musical chairs regarding route allocation last weekend. Route 150 moved from Ringsend to Summerhill depot and I include a photo here of SG194 on the 150. I would assume that subject to Summerhill having enough EWs (Electroliners) they will be the main bus on the 150.
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SG194 Hawkins St 21 August 2024 - Waiting for time.

And the opposite direction? Well its not so clear. Ringsend have gained extra C1/ C2 duties I think, but what is certain is that Summerhill have lost the very long route 33 to Harristown. Summerhill is in Dublin 1 and Harristown is on the northern edge of the city, it is clearly visible when using the southern airport in Dublin Airport. The 33 operates from the City Centre to Skerries/ Balbriggan. This is where it gets complicated! The NTA introduced short working 33As, operated by Go Ahead, a number of years back and these operate either Balbriggan to Swords/ or Skerries to Dublin Airport. Technically it gives Balbriggan an hourly service either to Swords or the City Centre and Skerries gets a 30 minute frequency. Balbriggan is also served by Bus Éireann route 101 at least every 30 minutes. Both are served by train also. Now for the complicated bit! There is an outstation in Skerries with a shed for four buses. Due to vandalism/ arson in the past, only four buses are left here and they are put in the shed for the night. And they have their own drivers who are based in Skerries. Up to last weekend they went to Summerhill to pay in cash, get the bus cleaned out etc. Due to Summerhill going over to electrics, and fear over their range, the Dublin based 33s are now in Harristown. It seems that the Skerries buses will continue to be based in Summerhill but outstationed in Skerries. Summerhill will probably keep at least 6 diesel double deckers. Long term...the 33 and 33 is to be replaced with a local bus from Balbriggan to the Airport every 30 minutes. Time will tell.

In other news, bus services between Limerick and Shannon/ Ennis are to be revamped with a new 24 hour service. Info here:
https://buseireann.ie/service_updates.php?id=8784&month=Aug

RE: Dublin & Ireland - redstar - 08/09/2024 20:23

Had a quick spin around the city today and saw some interesting buses:

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GT92 Patrick St 8 September 2024 - Operating on the 54A out to the south western edge of the city.

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AH3 James St 8 September 2024 - The Hybrid demonstrators have stretched their wings over the years. Originally on the 25A, the replacement of this route with the C corridor services found the AHs moving to other routes including the G corridor.

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ZV 11165 Bellevue 8 September 2024 - Probably dropping off people to the Guinness Brewery - do they want tea after a visit there?

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00D70156 John's Road/ Heuston 8 September 2024 - Former DB AV156 is now with the fire brigade though it may technically be owned by DB, certainly the driver in this view is not in DB uniform.

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EA15 Parkgate St 8 September 2024 - As I have reported, the 99 has gone over to EA single deckers though double decks still appear. Single deckers remain very rare on Dublin Bus routes - WS1 and 2 operate the 44B and 44D. I have only heard of EA15 and 34 on the 99 to date. Single deckers are more numerous on Go-Ahead outer suburban services.

https://transportsceneireland.smugmug.com/BusSceneIreland/BSI-September-2024

RE: Dublin & Ireland - Metroline1511 - 14/09/2024 11:27

I rode the E400H on an orbital route from Liffey Valley shopping centre, I think to Hazelhatch.

I did see an E200EV by the river, almost outside Basaras, probably on training duties.

RE: Dublin & Ireland - redstar - 18/09/2024 21:24

An evening trip to Finglas village and a spin to Ikea allowed for some photos. Finglas was a small village which was swamped by housing from the 1950s on. A partial by-pass cut the place in two and the actual village is a bit grim these days. Bus with buses, I intended to photo the N6 northern orbital but managed to see none. The N6 and the N4 were born out of the 17A, the new routes are more successful. New route N2 from Clontarf Road to Heuston will be starting at the end of the month.
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AV46 Glasnevin Avenue 18 September 2024 - DB has a constant training programme in place, the AVs are kept busy.

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SG412 Main St, Finglas 18 September 2024 - The village looks ok in this picture. The 40D is part of the 40 group of services but really should have had a different number, Tyrrelstown is an expanding area to the north west of the city, heavily reliant on buses and in particular the 40D. The 40E goes from there to Broombridge Luas stop and is also successful.

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LF430 Finglas Road 18 September 2024 - One of many evening express services operated by Bus Éireann

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VWD23 Finglas Road 18 September 2024 - A not uncommon display these days.

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PA197 & SG5 Ikea 18 September 2024 - Fabulous weather this week and warm also. There is only one Ikea in the Republic and one in Belfast. Everyone knows what the Ikea destination means.

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PA186 St Margarets Road 18 September 2024

more here:
https://transportsceneireland.smugmug.com/BusSceneIreland/BSI-September-2024

RE: Dublin & Ireland - redstar - 10/10/2024 22:53

New route N2 started on the 29th of September, I was in Liverpool so missed the start. So far I have managed to get no pictures due to the usual issue of the destination display not coming out in the picture. The route is one of the Northern orbitals and runs from Clontarf Station to Heuston Station, via the northern inner suburbs. This is operated by Go-Ahead with a peak frequency of 15 minutes but off peak is disappointing at every 30 minutes. Reliabilty with Go-Ahead is never as good as with Dublin Bus.
https://www.transportforireland.ie/getting-around/by-bus/n2-orbital-route/

RE: Dublin & Ireland - redstar - 06/11/2024 22:50

Evening, I haven't posted for a while, catching up from a trip to Scotland and the 100s of photos to be sorted. Buswise in Dublin, the next phase of the network review is running a bit late should be up and running in December. This will see the demise of the famous 46A and the 145, 155 and a number of alterations to existing routes. I will give more info later in the month. In the meantime, Dublin Bus have added extra peak departures to the 37/ 38 and 39A routes and interestingly some are operated by the EA (E20E) single deckers. What has happended is the National Transport Authority have questioned why brand new buses are in store for so long. Took a spin this evening on the 37 on the EA, it was fine, they are nice buses. They are meant to operate the O inner orbital route but that is delayed to 2025. Some pictures:
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EW63 Leeson Street Upper 6 November 2024 - As far as I know, all EWs of the first batch are in service with the next batch on delivery. As is often the case, its the lack of chargers that is the problem.

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GT123 Waterloo Road 6 November 2024 - The S2 southern orbital gets a decent mix of buses. Loads are good also.

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SG173 Burlington Road 6 November 2024 - Evening line up for the peak departures.

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AX582 Burlington Road 6 November 2024 - still hanging in and I expect AXs to survive into 2025.

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EA34 Baggot St 6 November 2024 - Its a long time since single deckers appeared on the 38.

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EA31 interior 6 November 2024 - These are high capacity buses and are meant for the O orbital route.

More here:
https://transportsceneireland.smugmug.com/BusSceneIreland/BSI-November-2024

RE: Dublin & Ireland - Metroline1511 - 09/11/2024 18:15

Nice to see the interior of a BYD single-decker.

I wonder what will replace route 46a and the other (probable) southernmost routes from Dublin city centre.

RE: Dublin & Ireland - redstar - 13/11/2024 21:56

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LF230 Burgh Quay 13 November 2024
As I sometimes mention, never worry about the reg on TFI buses, they don't really give a true reflection of a bus/ coaches age! The EA single deckers are an example having had a long time in store somewhere. This LF is slightly different, though again the story is complicated. The public service obligation (PSO) 245X replaced the commerically run Expressway 8/ X8 between Dublin and Cork. Frequency is similar and to be fair the LF is a very comfortable coach. The inital contract was put out as an emergency and surprise surprise Bus Éireann won it. New LF2xxs were put on it. The service was put out to tender and a batch of 5 or 6 of the LF2xxs were stored for the winning contract. And what happended, BÉ won it. So no change in the operator, bus type is the same though there is now a dedicated batch on it all with C for Cork regs. Other tenders are out at present and these may provide for some more interesting changes. City Direct who are from Galway won the Kilkenny City tender a few years back and have recently won the tender to operate the new Portlaoise town service. More about that again!