Aircoach Dublin-Cork express

Given the nature of some recent posts relating to Aircoach's future,it's perhaps worth noting the latest FirstGroup briefing to investors.

http://www.firstgroup.com/assets/pdfs/investors/presentations/pre_close_trading_update_Q4_March_2013_press-release.pdf

Whilst there is a substantial disposal of it's London Bus operations,there is no mention of Aircoach or of any intentions to withdraw from Ireland.

UK Bus

We are working through our comprehensive plan to recover performance and equip our UK Bus business to
achieve sustainable revenue and patronage growth, and are seeing early positive signs in some of our markets.

During the period we achieved steady growth with like for like passenger revenue expected to increase by 2.4%.

As previously stated, we expect the full year operating margin to be approximately 8%.

In line with our strategy to pursue selected business and asset disposals,todaywe are pleased to announce the sale of five of our London depots to Metroline,an existing London bus operator, and three of our London depots to Transit Systems Group,an Australian transport company,for a combined consideration of approximately £80m.

Both disposals are subject to the necessary regulatory approvals including contractual obligations with Transport for London.

It's interesting to note that 8% margin figure,as it perhaps indicates that Aircoach is maintaining a level at or above that figure.

The disposal of First Group's London Bus assets looks uncannily like what Stagecoach did some years ago,even down to the involvement of the Australian investors.

It is however a significant shift in First Group's Bus operations and will be interesting to observe from this side of the liquid barrier.

The view from down-under is equally chipper...."Tower Transit"....not bad at all.....?

http://www.swantransit.com.au/

Bus Eireann's new SE class have sockets at every second seat and Callinan's (who operate the Citylink services) new VanHool's also have.

Glad to see that the usual individuals are posting misinformation about Irish Rail.

Since the last timetable change, the following trains are operated by ICR sets with sockets at each seat:

Weekdays:
Dublin/Cork: 0800, 0900, 1100 (except Fridays), 1500, 1600, 1705* and 2100.
Cork/Dublin: 0600, 0800*, 1120, 1220, 1420 (except Fridays), 1820 and 1920.

Sundays:
Dublin/Cork: 0830*, 1500, 1905* and 2100
Cork/Dublin: 1240*, 1435*, 1820 and 1845*

* requires a change at Mallow

foggy_lad wrote: »

I thought there were only 2 services a day which were operated by 22000's so I didn't bother to mention them, but I see now that the service has been cut back a lot more with 7 services a day each way operated by the (some say better) 22000's. That is half the services daily and 1/3 of the services on Sundays.

Is there a train host on these services and the same catering services?

The healthy competition from the bus companies is affecting this service in a big way.

I presume you meant to say that capacity has been reduced rather than services cut, as services haven't been cut, just a little accidental mis-use of language :rolleyes:

foggy_lad wrote: »

So the Aircoach services have had a big impact on train services to Cork with half of the mark4 services being cut back on weekdays and only 4 services ex Dub and 3 ex Cork offering full meals service. But at least now more customers on the train can avail of power sockets at their seats.

Yet again you are posting incorrect information.

There are full meals on the following trains:
Ex Dublin: 0700, 1200, 1300, 1700, 1705 and 1800
Ex Cork: 0700, 0800, 1320, 1620 and 1720

If you are going to play the railway down it would help if you got your facts straight first.

devnull wrote: »

Really though, a lot of this kind of discussion is off-topic.

Clearly Irish Rail passengers are down, but some people are vastly overplaying it IMHO.

And amazingly, this enormous tangent started out from someone asking the simple question as to whether there were sockets on the bus.

lxflyer wrote: »

I don't agree that it is an enormous tangent.

Enormous might be a stretch, but I meant it more in the way that rather than getting a simple answer, the original question asker managed to get a personal budgetary/battery analysis as well as a brief causal-effect review of the significance of Irish Rail running ICRs on the Dublin - Cork route.

It is valid to correct errors that are being posted that suggest reasons for the train being inferior to the bus.

Agreed completely.

One of the ICR's on some Cork services is not down to demand but because they have to find cut in costs for another route to have capacity restored. This have resulted in meal service being withdrawn on one of the Cork-Dublin services.

devnull wrote: »

Of course it is part related to the capacity - saying otherwise is just pure spin. I'm not saying it's the only reason, but it as at least part of it since if the old trains were very busy then they wouldn't be able to put on smaller ones without causing overcrowding.

The trains replacing the ones being removed carry less passengers therefore they are able to put smaller trains on which meet the demand more which is sensible to do for any train company here or elsewhere. It's good business sense.

They had to resotre capacity to Waterford services and when that happened it saw a Mark4 roster change to an already operated 6 car ICR route and the old Mark 4 roster replaced with a 3 carrage ICR which has resulted in First Class and Meal service being withdrawn. Not capacity related the 06.00 from Cork has always had the same level of usage never packed before any express bus operator started on the route but what is clear is that they could not reduce capacity on the 9.20 from Cork so capacity has nothing to do with it.

devnull wrote: »

So this is why this service was picked yes, because it had excess capacity that is not being used. Which is a sensible business decision and something that IR should be praised for.

They picked the service they did to take a mark 4 off because it is the one that has the most excess capacity beyond needs rather than the 9.20 which was more full.

So it was related to capacity, or to be more specific, better use of rolling stock due to the removal of excess capacity on a route where it was not needed.

I didn't bring anything up about whether it was caused about the bus or not, just that Irish rail passengers are down which they are.

A good level of revenue from that service would be from first class not as much as the 07.00 but sizeable amount. It was never packed before other operators started on the route, If passenger numbers were published for it you would see that, the Mark4 only operated on it because of the branding ie CityGold, Meal service but with the times decisions like this come at at a cost which IE can't cover. Just like first class business has dropped. It carries the same level of passenger to seat ratio as the 06.30 from Galway and 07.10 from Waterford limited stop services do. Does that mean the X4 from Waterford is taking from the 07.10 and Go Bus from Galway services. Remenber revenue per passenger is much higher than that of a bus passenger. Bus operates would need lets say 2 passenger for every 1 passenger Irish Rail carry.

At the end of the day its yield/revenue per passenger that counts and not the number of passengers.