Dundalk - Belfast bus

annex

Has anybody taken the Belfast bus at about 2am? Is it reliable?
I have a 7am flight out of Belfast International in a few weeks and I would rather not spend €50 on a B&B but I don't want to stand at the bus station waiting on a bus that may or may not arrive.

Carawaystick

I'd ring the dundalk bus station and busarus to see if you can "book" it to let them know you'll be there. The service was advertised as hourly round the clock, so I'd hope they'd want customers to use it!

annex

Thanks.
The guys in Dundalk bus office are not at all helpful, they will tell me a bus is due in at a certain time because its on the timetable but at 2 or 3 in the morning you can't guarantee it will arrive. I have been let down by Bus Eireann on a few occasions so I am reluctant to trust them, especially when I am going to the airport.
I tried to book a ticket on the Bus Eireann website but its only for Republic destinations.
It's actually a good idea to buy tickets in advance for these early morning journeys so the driver will know if there is going to be somebody there or not and the passanger will know the bus will arrive.
Thanks again for your help.

amacachi

It goes from Dublin to Belfast. It's not meant to drop-off in Dundalk but I've gotten it several times as far as Dundalk. I can say with 99% certainty it'll turn up, obviously I can't guarantee it though.

ardmacha

Aim for the 1am bus then, two buses are not likely to go missing.

Victor

How are you getting from Belfast to Belfast International at that hour?

Terrontress

Are these late night / early morning buses not run by Chambers? More reliable than BE?

annex

There is a bus from Belfast to the airport every hour on the half hour during the night. Its a 24 hour service.

annex

Terrontress wrote: »

Are these late night / early morning buses not run by Chambers? More reliable than BE?

Now that I think of it I did see a Chambers bus pick up at about 6.30 on morning.

Vic_08

ardmacha wrote: »

Aim for the 1am bus then, two buses are not likely to go missing.

There is no 1am bus from Dundalk. The Dublin-Belfast route operates every hour but not all stop at Dundalk or Drogheda.

Nobody can guarantee that a particular departure will run on schedule on any given day, buses do occasionally break down, severe weather happens, roads can be closed due to accidents, etc.

It would be very rare for any of these to happen but if catching your flight (which is not 100% guaranteed to operate either) is essential then leaving yourself plenty of time is a good idea.

the 3.25 from Dundalk and 5.00 Belfast-Airport would get you there 90mns before your flight so aiming for the 2.25 gives you added security.

The 2.25 is a Bus Eireann service and is always rostered to run, either by one of our own buses or a contracted operator. The 3.25 is an Ulsterbus service which is on a permanent contract to Chambers coaches. For one of these to not run would be very rare, for both not to run except in severe weather conditions would be extremely unlikely.

Buying Bus Eireann tickets online does not guarantee a seat nor make any difference to the running of the service, tickets are sold for any journey on a given day not allocated to a particular departure and drivers are not notified if any have been pre-bought.

Vic_08

annex wrote: »

There is a bus from Belfast to the airport every hour on the half hour during the night. Its a 24 hour service.

They depart from Belfast on the hour, from the airport on the half-hour.

amacachi

http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1233051340-1.pdf

L1011

Terrontress wrote: »

Are these late night / early morning buses not run by Chambers? More reliable than BE?

Run by Chambers for BE and UB, never had one not turn up but a few times they've failed to turn the AC on - leading to a sweatbox with 15 people sleeping in the bus on the way down...

Actually looking at the timetable it looks like all the Northern bound overnighters are UB/Chambers now. Should definately be more reliable than BE.