Aircoach Dublin-Cork express

highlydebased · 04-04-2012 7:22pm

Slugs wrote: »

Was wondering that myself. I know bus eir have an express from galway to limerick, but not lim to cork. Do any operators run express or late night services cork to limerick?

Cant really do an express when there's no motorway

devnull · 06-04-2012 7:03am

Services can now be booked online via the website.

The express ones show up as express in the booking engine and on a return tricket you can select both express and non express journeys which also means that paper tickets are valid across both routes.

Terrontress · 06-04-2012 7:40am

Does anyone think that toilets would encourage drinkers and lead to more serious problems?

If you know you have three hours and no facilities, you will leave that six-pack of Bulmers on the shelf in the Spar.

bk · 06-04-2012 8:52am

Terrontress wrote: »

Does anyone think that toilets would encourage drinkers and lead to more serious problems?

If you know you have three hours and no facilities, you will leave that six-pack of Bulmers on the shelf in the Spar.

Doesn't seem to be an issue on the Galway services, which do have toilets. At least not that I have heard.

serfboard · 06-04-2012 11:22am

In regard to the issue of toilets, I asked Citylink previously if there was a toilet on their stopping service. I was told by them that the non-stop service has a toilet on it because it is required to by law/licence. The non-stop doesn't because it is not required to.

Using that logic, the non-stop Dublin->Cork should also have a toilet on it as well.

Kumsheen · 06-04-2012 11:30am

Anybody tried the Express service yet? Feedback?

devnull · 07-04-2012 12:31pm

Pretty punctual and on time and using the newest coaches is all I've heard, but pretty empty at the moment, which is hardly surprising when it has not been advertised anywhere by Aircoach themselves, aside from their own website and coaches.

If they don't market it they'll get hammered when GoBus.ie come out, they really should market it as quick as possible to give them an early lead else despite being the first on the scene offering such service, that advantage is only advantage if people know about it else the first they will hear will be through GoBus and they'll go there.

Aircoach's marketing is pretty poor unfortunately, and a service like this which is intercity rather than within Dublin is going to live or die by it, they advertise the Ballinteer and Dalkey route with a press release and in all the papers, but nothing in the media for this? Very odd considering you'd say this would have a bigger target audience.

dardhal · 08-04-2012 12:53am

I know this is a stupid question, I have been around the area today for checking the exact place, but where is exactly the bus stop for this service to Cork, is it at the Aircoach sign just opposite the Westin? I may need to go to Cork for a very quick visit next week, and I wouldn't like to be wandering around the place looking for the stop and risking missing the bus. Thank you.

LXFlyer · 08-04-2012 7:51am

That's exactly where the stop is.

AlekSmart · 08-04-2012 11:49am

devnull wrote: »

Aircoach's marketing is pretty poor unfortunately, and a service like this which is intercity rather than within Dublin is going to live or die by it, they advertise the Ballinteer and Dalkey route with a press release and in all the papers, but nothing in the media for this? Very odd considering you'd say this would have a bigger target audience.

With the First-Aircoach MD now in charge of both Bristol and Aircoach for the group,and only spending one day per week with us,it's only to be expected that eyes are taken off the ball.

I would not be too amazed if an announcement from First Group Corporate HQ came quite soon.

The expected bottomless-pockets of a gigantic multi-national have turned out to have substantial holes in them,and the knock on effects for a peripheral operation such as Aircoach are only to be expected.

devnull · 08-04-2012 12:07pm

As far as I know he's Service Delivery Director in Bristol, not the overall operation:
http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/bristol_bath/about_us/

mydiscworld · 10-04-2012 11:51am

Got the 6pm non stop from Cork to Dublin last night, Easter Monday.

Bus was c. 70% full. No toilet.

Made great time. Hopped off in Dublin city 2hrs 55mins later.

After that test worked out so well, I don't see myself ever getting IR again apart from at rush hour, where the bus would get caught in traffic until passed newland's cross.

bk · 10-04-2012 12:52pm

My friends got it over the weekend, 2 hours 50 minutes to Batchelors Walk from Cork.

With the train taking an average of 2 hours 47 minutes into Hueston and then the extra cost and time of getting to O'Connell St, this new bus service is excellent and will likely cause IR a lot of problems.

devnull · 10-04-2012 1:15pm

I'm surprised it was anywhere near 70% full with any marketing, that really is good news for Aircoach, although then again it was over Easter so it may not really be that reflective of normal patterns.

A friend is on the 12pm from Dublin today, they told me it is about a third full, which I guess is not too bad. This was a Scania PB Coach but it seems the other services are by Volvo coaches that can be seen on the other routes?

dowlingm · 10-04-2012 2:08pm

bk wrote: »

My friends got it over the weekend, 2 hours 50 minutes to Batchelors Walk from Cork.

With the train taking an average of 2 hours 47 minutes into Hueston and then the extra cost and time of getting to O'Connell St, this new bus service is excellent and will likely cause IR a lot of problems.

It absolutely will since IE doesn't operate a single non-stop service between Cork and Dublin in the current timetable. The most "express" services are the 1600 ex Heuston and 0615 ex Cork which stop twice for a run time of 2h30.

foggy_lad · 10-04-2012 2:34pm

bk wrote: »

My friends got it over the weekend, 2 hours 50 minutes to Batchelors Walk from Cork.

With the train taking an average of 2 hours 47 minutes into Hueston and then the extra cost and time of getting to O'Connell St, this new bus service is excellent and will likely cause IR a lot of problems.

An excellent service compared to Irish Rail!

Train takes over 3 hours at times plus journey time between either city and the respective station,

€80+ luas/bus/taxi fare for a train return ticket V €22 fares.

Booking online with Aircoach guarantees you a seat while with Irish Rail you may not even get to sit in the seat you have reserved!

SandyfordGuy · 10-04-2012 2:51pm

If you have sampled the service what did you guys think of the coaches and comfort as well as the punctuality of it? I have not sampled it myself yet personally but may do in the next few weeks.

The Numbers so far seem to be pretty good for a service that is a week old, but there is plenty to build on no doubt as word gets out, maybe an advertising campaign isn't required after all, which will no doubt leave a few of you with egg on your faces.

Also anyone suggesting First are selling up soon is pure speculation - if someone has some inside info it would be nice if they could share it, rather than coming up with pure hyperbole. The fact they are investing in such service indicates that they may not be selling up anytime soon, if they were then surely they are just throwing their own money away.

mydiscworld · 10-04-2012 3:51pm

SandyfordGuy wrote: »

If you have sampled the service what did you guys think of the coaches and comfort as well as the punctuality of it? I have not sampled it myself yet personally but may do in the next few weeks.

The Numbers so far seem to be pretty good for a service that is a week old, but there is plenty to build on no doubt as word gets out, maybe an advertising campaign isn't required after all, which will no doubt leave a few of you with egg on your faces.

My bus left bang on time. Very comfortable seats. The 70% full was mainly due to a lot of students going back to college.

coylemj · 10-04-2012 5:42pm

SandyfordGuy wrote: »

The Numbers so far seem to be pretty good for a service that is a week old, but there is plenty to build on no doubt as word gets out, maybe an advertising campaign isn't required after all, which will no doubt leave a few of you with egg on your faces.

Also anyone suggesting First are selling up soon is pure speculation - if someone has some inside info it would be nice if they could share it, rather than coming up with pure hyperbole. The fact they are investing in such service indicates that they may not be selling up anytime soon, if they were then surely they are just throwing their own money away.

+1 The last thing anyone thinking of selling Aircoach would do is start a new service which is bound to lose money until word of mouth and satisfied (repeat) customers ramp up the numbers and you're into profit.

If they were thinking of selling up they would have stopped introducing new services and they would have pared back on services that are not producing a large profit but they are not doing either of these. Irish begrudgery is clearly alive and well in this thread.

Anyone who has sampled the Aircoach service will tell you that when they start a service, they stick to it. They run more or less on time given the vagaries of Dublin traffic, the buses are clean and comfortable and anyone who gives CIE and Dublin taxis a run for their money is good news as far as I'm concerned. Long may it continue.

devnull · 10-04-2012 7:04pm

It's good to see that people are having positive experiences of the new service and it will be interesting to see how GoBus deal with the situation when they launch their own version of the same route. I still think that Aircoach could get out-marketed though which could be their downfall.

Also I wouldn't be that sure that the ownership of the company will be in FirstGroup long term, their share price is falling at a rapid rate, and has lost over a third of it's value in the last fortnight alone which is a huge fall. The company have said they need to raise €100M by selling off and closing down certain businesses within the group that do not bring in targeted revenues. With Aircoach having made a loss last year it's not unreasonable to think that they could be one of the businesses involved.

Seomra Mushie · 10-04-2012 10:58pm

Just found out about this and am VERY excited. This will make my life soooo much easier.

SandyfordGuy · 12-04-2012 9:59am

Seriously, I'm not sure any of you guys have any reason to think First are going to sell up any time soon, it's all based on speculation and little else. The share price is down but it's rebounded up a tiny bit since, and I'm sure that the issue is being dealt with internally by financial experts, who would understand far more than someone who posts on boards.ie with no qualification in this area.

It's good people are enjoying the service, and if anyone else can post their experiences here and numbers on the coaches, or if they have seen any more adverts for the service, it would be nice to get some actual evidence on what is happening on the ground rather than hyperbole which is coming from people on here.

foggy_lad · 12-04-2012 11:16am

Why would they have stopped the Belfast route if they were even considering selling up? if selling they would surely have flogged the route making it appear a roaring success which it could never be. There is just too many buses on the Belfast route already to justify them keeping the service going, this is a sign of a company looking towards their future by ensuring they are not wasteful and not duplicating services which they can just barely compete with because of the good times on the Belfast route.

devnull · 12-04-2012 5:42pm

The Belfast route was stopped in October 2010 and was not helped by two monopoly state owned operators joining together to try and make sure that nobody else could muscle in on that route which killed Aircoach passenger numbers.

Since then the financial performance of Aircoach and First as a whole has not performed as well as they would like. In the most recent accounts to March 2011 it seems they made a loss but in the previous accounts to March 2010 they made a small profit and large profits in the three previous years.

SandyfordGUy should also relax and remember this is a discussion forum where people air their views, and if he does not like that maybe boards.ie is the wrong site for him.

call the police · 13-04-2012 1:44pm

looks like they're taking cash customers only, leaving the freebies out of it

"We regret to advise that the Free Travel Pass is not accepted on the Express services". http://www.aircoach.ie/table.routes.cork.php

markpb · 13-04-2012 3:53pm

devnull wrote: »

SandyfordGUy should also relax and remember this is a discussion forum where people air their views, and if he does not like that maybe boards.ie is the wrong site for him.

I'd tend to agree with SandyfordGuy - there seems to be a small number of people on this forum who take every opportunity to attack Aircoach, discuss their apparent staffing and financial problems and predict their eventual demise. Just as people are free to discuss things here, others are just as free to question their motives when they do so (although thankfully some of them have given up and gone away so it's improved lately).

I'm not suggesting there's anything wrong with discussing Aircoach critically but the same doesn't happen for GoBus, JJ Matthews or any other operator. I'm not sure why their annual returns are less interesting and less worthy of analysis than Aircoaches.

Victor · 13-04-2012 4:15pm

devnull wrote: »

The Belfast route was stopped in October 2010 and was not helped by two monopoly state owned operators joining together to try and make sure that nobody else could muscle in on that route which killed Aircoach passenger numbers.

Is this accusation sustainable? In particular that the Bus Éireann/Ulsterbus operation was in competition with Aircoach, Enterprise and the private car?

coylemj · 13-04-2012 4:35pm

call the police wrote: »

looks like they're taking cash customers only, leaving the freebies out of it

"We regret to advise that the Free Travel Pass is not accepted on the Express services". http://www.aircoach.ie/table.routes.cork.php

Blame the IMF, same thing applies to the Aircoach service from Balinteer whch post dates the bailout.

No new bus service anywhere in the state will accept the free travel passes while the bailout lasts, it has nothing to do with Aircoach.

Anyway, the airlines don't accept free travel passes so why should the bus to the airport take them? If someone can afford to fly they can afford €7 or whatever to get to the airport.

parsi · 13-04-2012 4:41pm

call the police wrote: »

looks like they're taking cash customers only, leaving the freebies out of it

"We regret to advise that the Free Travel Pass is not accepted on the Express services". http://www.aircoach.ie/table.routes.cork.php

That will certainly increase the chances of your reserved seat being available rather than occupied by Decco going down to visit his brother in prison.

AlekSmart · 13-04-2012 9:22pm

coylemj wrote: »

Blame the IMF, same thing applies to the Aircoach service from Balinteer whch post dates the bailout.

No new bus service anywhere in the state will accept the free travel passes while the bailout lasts, it has nothing to do with Aircoach.

Anyway, the airlines don't accept free travel passes so why should the bus to the airport take them? If someone can afford to fly they can afford €7 or whatever to get to the airport.

It's actually a tad simpler coylemj,the DSP has frozen the Free Travel Scheme allocation at 2010's level.

Effectively this means that the DSP cannot fund any new entrants in the time-honoured fashion.

The DSP's decision would also have caused some upset for Dublin Bus Free Travel Scheme customers had it not reduced it's fleet by some 200 vehicles,which essentially allowed it to retain full coverage within the 2010 constraints.

It should be noted that the standard (Stage Carriage) Aircoach Cork service continues to accept the Free Travel Pass as normal.

However,the fact remains that the DSP Free Travel Scheme as currently structured,is in some considerable difficulties in relation to ongoing funding with substantial change now inevitable.

Aircoach Dublin-Cork express

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