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Quick trip to the Airport this evening, managed to travel on the Go Ahead Ireland Pride bus. They try to spread this bus around the network and although they only have one depot for the Dublin services, you could say that they have a number of focal points were local networks radiate from, such as Bray, Dun Laoghaire, Blanchardstown and Dublin Airport. They have a parking area in the Airport, probably due to distance from the depot in Ballymount. Anyway some pictures;


VE19 Dublin Airport 14 January 2022 - One of twenty in service, one is off the road due to it visiting a road with a very low bridge.


SG340 Dublin Airport 14 January 2022 - A rattle box.


AX632 Dublin Airport 14 January 2022 - This and the SG behind are adorned with an advertising campaign for Dublin Bus who are seeking drivers on €42,000 a year if anyone is interested!


11589 Dublin Airport 14 January 2022

More here:
https://transportsceneireland.smugmug.co...uary-2022/

Visit to Kilkenny and some pictures of the TFI Town Service. Two routes operated by City Direct from Galway, the Streetlites are part of the large batch from 2019 which mostly went to Go-Ahead and Bus Éireann, with City Direct getting a small batch for the Kilkenny services. Two routes, operate in a X format such that there are four legs to the network.

192G1613 Bateman Quay, Kilkenny 19 January 2022 - Kilkenny Castle in the background.


192G2500 Dublin Road, Kilkenny 19 January 2022 - Note the new bus stops, I assume the fleet will be painted in Green/ yellow eventually.

Another evening trip to the airport:

LE3 Dublin Airport 28 January 2022 - The LEs (1 to 8) are now fulltime on the 100X Dublin to Dundalk service. Lovely coaches to travel on in their early days, I guess they are fairly worn out now, BÉ do not do TLC like Dublin Bus do.


LF325 Dublin Airport 28 January 2022 - PSO LF class seem to be standard at the weekends on the long distance route 32 to Letterkenny. This would be a reasonably comfortable journey for those travelling on this service.

VWD16 & VWD83 West St, Drogheda 24 January 2022
Route 173 is the Drogheda town service and is operated by two buses, at present. A strange service that is run for the benefit of shoppers and those attending the very busy Lourdes Hospital. A look on google maps will show a very convoluted service. In more recent times, Drogheda has gained routes D1/ D2 to Laytown and D4/D5 which provide a very useful cross town service. Note the gap - no D3 and it is expected that the 173 will become the D3 eventually. This shot was taken at 17.00 and both services (north and south) arrived together to take the passengers home in time for their tea.

AX585 DCU - The Helix 11 February 2022

Dublin City University is the major university on the northside of Dublin City - Nearly half way between the city centre and the airport. It is much newer than Trinity and UCD, both southside Unis. Basically due to some issue, DCU was not served by direct bus routes though the Ballymun Road routes passed by its original main entrance. I won't give the full history of what serves it but DB route 44 was extended onto the grounds eventually and in more recent times Go Ahead routes 104/ 220. In more recent times, peak routes 31D/ 42D and 70D were introduced, morning and evening only services - one run each way. These meander a bit around the place, but then that is the function of these routes, to provide a single bus to the Uni from different northside locations.
Anyway, AX585 was on the 42D this evening. The roll-out of the PA class, will see the AX vanish soon, no date given but it can't be far off. The AX displays the usual high standard of care that DB gives to its fleet these days. This was not the case in the 'good old days'.

Another trip to Drogheda for an evening of entertainment (football), but a quick stroll around the town to get some photographs. Drogheda bus services are primarly operated by Bus Éireann with some independent such as Matthews. The bus network was revamped here in recent times but did not receive enough new buses so operates a number of VWLs from Cork and Galway. These are very nice buses but in the good tradition of BÉ, its the small details... this time route branding that has no relevance to their new home.

VWL311 Drogheda Bus Station 25 February 2022 - Ex Cork.


VWL320 Bridge of Peace, Drogheda 25 February 2022 - Ex Galway.
More here:
https://transportsceneireland.smugmug.co...uary-2022/

The weather has been terrible recently. Good weather in Scotland was followed up with poor weather in Newcastle and appalling rain in London on the 1st of March with a tube strike mixed in. Anyway, I had to visit Cork today and again heavy rain was due at 15.00, unfortunately it can two hours earlier so I rapidly curtailled my trip. Cork City and County bus services continue to be interesting with lots of recent additions but secondhand from Galway and Limerick due to the arrival of the E400ERs there. These are only three to four years old, but Cork people like to give out!
Some pictures.


VWD401 Merchant's Quay 12 March 2022 - A transfer from Galway and the first of the VWD400 class. These are slightly shorter than their predecessors and are two door buses. Spread between Galway, Limerick and Cork. Three of them however, VWD423 to 425 have been based in Drogheda on delivery even though they are Limerick registered and it can be assumed were to be sent there.


VB443 Cork Kent 12 March 2022 - The modern Bus Éireann stage carriage coach/ bus.


VWD70 Parliament St 12 March 2022 - Standard Cork Bus.


MC316 Washington St 12 March 2022 - For a city dominated by single-deckers in the past, they are rare now. The MC class are the only single-deckers in service now. Similarly Galway is all Double Decker, Limerick is going that way also. Double deckers are also found in Dublin to Ashbourne services, Dundalk, Drogheda and Waterford. Sometimes also in Balbriggan on the B1 town service.

More here:
https://transportsceneireland.smugmug.co...arch-2022/

There are at least two operators in the Dublin Area with somewhat unusual operating practices and generally odd carry on. Dublin Coach is one. They have been in operation for a number of years and have built up a reasonable sized network. They operate a number of very long distance services. Dublin to Cork for example is one service, but operates via Waterford, thereby ensuring direct competition with Bus Éireann routes 4/X4 and 40 as well as JJ Kavanagh, GoBus and Aircoach. Limerick is served with services continuing to either Tralee/ Killarney and Ennis. The 726 Dublin Airport to Red Cow to Portlaoise was their original service and they have built this up to a 24 hour/ hourly service. The fleet is varied with a mix of Merc Tourismos, ex Stagecoach Astromegas and some Plaxtons also ex Stagecoach, clearly so by their interiors! A batch of unusual Ayats have recently arrived and I include a photo of one at the Red Cow on route 600. Fleetnames are an optional extra when it comes to Dublin Coach.

221KE1605 Luas Red Cow 20 March 2022

AX589 Pearse St 23 March 2022 - Operating Peak Hour route P29 to Adamstown Station.


AX585 Pearse St 23 March 2022 - Operating Route X27 to Salesian College.

Rumours are that the Broadstone AXs (ALX400s/ Volvo B7TLs) are due to be withdrawn this week. These two are part of the fleet and seem to operate peak hour only services at present. As far as I am aware, Summerhill are the only other garage operate the AXs, mostly on the 16 to the Airport/ Ballinteer but they do roam onto other routes. Summerhill also operated the last of the RVs (Volvo Olympians) and the D Class - Van Hool Atlanteans back in the day. The 16, of course, operated both classes on their last day.

RV560 Rathfarnham 19 December 2012
I have no shot of the D!

A busy week with trips to Derry, Coleraine, Belfast and Newry to name a few places and then on Friday I went to Sligo. Not the busiest of places but still interesting with a town service, inter regional services and Local Link routes. Other than the Expressway buses, the fleet is generally in the blue and yellow TFI livery, though one VWL single decker is based here on stand-by in the standard Bus Éireann red and white livery. It doesn't leave the depot much!


VB424 Lord Edward St, Sligo 1 April 2022 - 458 operates between Ballina and Enniskillen


211SO354 Markievicz Road Sligo 1 April 2022 - Seems to have wandered off its normal route.


WM411 Markievicz Road Sligo 1 April 2022 - Operating S1 town service.


LC309 Sligo Bus Station 1 April 2022 - A big surprise this. The 23 is an Expressway route and there should be a Scania Coach (SE type) on this. LC309 was a regular on the PSO route 245X to Cork, so it is not a stranger to long distance routes.

https://transportsceneireland.smugmug.co...pril-2022/