Bus Éireann route 109A and Ashbourne

Colm R

On the way home last night on the bus, I saw the 109A which come from Navan via Rathoath and then onto the airport.

Why does it not use the same route from Rathoath to Ashbourne that the 103 does so as to provide an airport link as well as a link to DCU?

Why does Ashbourne not get an airport service? It might not need one, but there is a bus already operating very near to the town, so why not try and get more customers?

I'm convinced that there is some license issue that prevents this from happening, because its so simple, it makes sense!!

I'm going on holidays soon and booked the car into the airport. If I was able to get the bus, for two of us, it would cost €18.40 (going on the price for Rathoath), as opposed to €45 for 5 days parrking.

IIMII

Don't know, think Dunshaughlin and Ratoath got the nod ahead of Ashbourne. Quickest way from Navan to the airport is Navan direct via Ashbourne. I think the route was put in to service Navan and Mary Wallace diverted it to Ratoath - she spent ages flagging and waving flags about it in Ratoath anyway

Colm R

Just had a quick look on the website. The 177 operates from Clones, via Ashbourne (sometimes) to the airport. Best I can make out, there are four buses at best to the airport a day.

Heart

I think the Bus Eireann stops at the Airport mention a 107X which was to serve Ashbourne and Dublin Airport, don't think it ever came into operation and not much chance of it starting now with cutbacks pending.

H

Mill21

Colm R wrote: »

On the way home last night on the bus, I saw the 109A which come from Navan via Rathoath and then onto the airport.

Why does it not use the same route from Rathoath to Ashbourne that the 103 does so as to provide an airport link as well as a link to DCU?

Why does Ashbourne not get an airport service? It might not need one, but there is a bus already operating very near to the town, so why not try and get more customers?

I'm convinced that there is some license issue that prevents this from happening, because its so simple, it makes sense!!

I'm going on holidays soon and booked the car into the airport. If I was able to get the bus, for two of us, it would cost €18.40 (going on the price for Rathoath), as opposed to €45 for 5 days parrking.

In answer to your questions:
1. Clearly you don't live in Ratoath (Not Rathoath - THERE'S NO H!) It takes an extra 20 mins to go on the 103 from Ratoath to Dublin via Ashbourne. Which is really ridiculous. The reason being Ashbourne has 6 bus stops and you normally find one or 2 people at each. Esp. at Kellys when its busy you have to wait 5 mins for everyone to board and buy their tickets.

2. Ashbourne has enough buses. You could always get the bus from the village to the Nine mile stone and get change there.

Ratoath already has a crap bus service - you'd only make it worse by diverting it through Ashbourne. Not to mention making it far longer for anyone coming from Navan/Dunshaughlin.

109A is a good service. Although it rarely runs on time, its pretty reliable in coming (albeit at least 5-20 mins late) and I couldn't operate without it - as I work at the airport and go to DCU.

I would presume that the reason Ashbourne doesn't have its own airport bus is that it couldn't fill it. 109A has Navan, N3, Dunshaughlin, Ratoath, and N2 to pick up passengers. And its still never full - only early in the mornings during semester for DCU students does it come close.

Colm R

Mill21 wrote: »

In answer to your questions:
1. Clearly you don't live in Ratoath (Not Rathoath - THERE'S NO H!) It takes an extra 20 mins to go on the 103 from Ratoath to Dublin via Ashbourne. Which is really ridiculous. The reason being Ashbourne has 6 bus stops and you normally find one or 2 people at each. Esp. at Kellys when its busy you have to wait 5 mins for everyone to board and buy their tickets.

2. Ashbourne has enough buses. You could always get the bus from the village to the Nine mile stone and get change there.

Ratoath already has a crap bus service - you'd only make it worse by diverting it through Ashbourne. Not to mention making it far longer for anyone coming from Navan/Dunshaughlin.

109A is a good service. Although it rarely runs on time, its pretty reliable in coming (albeit at least 5-20 mins late) and I couldn't operate without it - as I work at the airport and go to DCU.

I would presume that the reason Ashbourne doesn't have its own airport bus is that it couldn't fill it. 109A has Navan, N3, Dunshaughlin, Ratoath, and N2 to pick up passengers. And its still never full - only early in the mornings during semester for DCU students does it come close.

Fair points made here. Just kind of what I was looking for in a debate. But please dont be so condescending over silly spelling mistakes!

Mill21

Colm R wrote: »

Fair points made here. Just kind of what I was looking for in a debate. But please dont be so condescending over silly spelling mistakes!

I'm not condescending! It just really annoys when people say Rath instead of Rat. (Rath - toath vs Ra-toath) Sorry thats getting conscending I know, but that what happens when you live among thousands of blowins.

Vic_08

Mill21 wrote: »

It takes an extra 20 mins to go on the 103 from Ratoath to Dublin via Ashbourne. Which is really ridiculous. The reason being Ashbourne has 6 bus stops and you normally find one or 2 people at each. Esp. at Kellys when its busy you have to wait 5 mins for everyone to board and buy their tickets.

That is a huge exaggeration. The extra time for routing the 109A through Ashbourne would be about 10 minutes

Mill21 wrote: »

2. Ashbourne has enough buses. You could always get the bus from the village to the Nine mile stone and get change there.

Ashbourne doesn't have nearly enough buses to the Airport which is the point of this thread.

Ashbourne has a large population and more importantly a large population of regular bus users (Ratoath has neither) it would be well worth the small time penalty of diverting the 109A through Ashbourne.

Mill21 wrote: »

Ratoath already has a crap bus service - you'd only make it worse by diverting it through Ashbourne. Not to mention making it far longer for anyone coming from Navan/Dunshaughlin.

Ratoath does not have anything like a crap bus service considering it's size and location.

There are 38 weekday services in each direction to Dublin, an hourly service to Airport/DCU/Navan, a 2 hourly shuttle to the Blanchardstown shopping centre and a weekend night bus from the city.

The 105 is effectively an hourly express service exclusively for Ratoath/Fairyhouse, it is also one of the least used routes in our Garage. Outside of peak times it rarely carries more than a handful of passengers per trip and on weekdays (when there isn't even the alternative of regular 103 services) it is not unknown for numerous departures throughout the day to run completely empty.

Mill21 wrote: »

109A is a good service. Although it rarely runs on time, its pretty reliable in coming (albeit at least 5-20 mins late) and I couldn't operate without it - as I work at the airport and go to DCU.

It is nearly always late at the Airport heading for Navan, 5 minutes is not enough time to get from DCU but even with that the journey time to Ratoath and Navan is generous and without any hold ups 50 minutes Airport to Navan would be the norm. Except for peak times of course when a few places, particularly Kilshane cross can cause problems.

Mill21 wrote: »

I would presume that the reason Ashbourne doesn't have its own airport bus is that it couldn't fill it. 109A has Navan, N3, Dunshaughlin, Ratoath, and N2 to pick up passengers. And its still never full - only early in the mornings during semester for DCU students does it come close.

All of which is good reason to run the 109A through Ashbourne, the loadings on it as you say are not very high and it's future is far from secure in the current climate.

The other issue with this route is that it neads earlier and later departures to be of use for the busiest flight times at Dublin Airport.A first arrival at 5am and a last departure at midnight would be the minimum, 4.30 and 00.30 would be even better.

IIMII

Mill21 wrote: »

I'm not condescending! It just really annoys when people say Rath instead of Rat. (Rath - toath vs Ra-toath) Sorry thats getting conscending I know, but that what happens when you live among thousands of blowins.

Blow-ins? Well, they never left the Pale in moving to Ratoath, did they? And if it wasn't for them you would probably have no bus service of any type in Ratoath. Anyway, Rath is closer to how it should have been spelt, so who cares

JayeL

The 109A was always supposed to be a Navan-DCU bus which stopped at Ratoath and the airport. Ashbourne was supposed to get its own airport bus which was going to go to DCU as well. And we were supposed to get an express bus from Duleek via the Port Tunnel. Sounds amazing now and I don't think they ever officially announced it but I have an email from BE that outlines it all.

But of course, we are where we are and these days, if Ashbourne holds on to the service we've fought for since the 90s, we'd be doing well.

The 109A service is only in existence a relatively-short time. People did without it not so long ago and I'd reckon that while it's convenient and everything, BE might be looking to scrap it in their upcoming cuts as a kind of extravagance that they can't afford anymore. In that context, anything that made the service more feasible must be considered; and if that means running the 109A through Ashbourne, wouldn't it be better than cancelling the whole damn thing?

While we're on the subject of pet peeves, where are the SIX stops in Ashbourne? Coming from Ratoath, you have across from the Credit Union, Kelly's, the bridge and Deerpark. Four stops; eight if you include both sides of the road. If you were pushed, you could also count up at the Marriott and the Nine Mile Stone, but they're not in the town and not for people living in Ashbourne. The actual town, where close on 10,000 people live, only has 4 stops and none in any of the housing estates; just straight through like a country bus. But not even stops at estates along the existing route, like The Briars or Johnswood. End of rant.

Love the Rathoath debate, btw. It's obviously Ratoath but it's interesting to see how the other name gains more and more legitimacy. It was the same in Ashbourne in the 80s, a lot of people would say it as they read it i.e. AshBOURNE. But slowly and surely, everyone came round to AshBURN. It's technically incorrect, just like Rath Thò (apols for wrong fada) perhaps should be Rathoath.

But again, we are where we are.

Mill21

Vic_08 wrote: »

That is a huge exaggeration. The extra time for routing the 109A through Ashbourne would be about 10 minutes

It's not a huge exaggeration for 103, not 109a wouldn't be quite 20, but probably a bit more than 10. The 103 (although loading times are higher when people are paying, people might be loading baggage

Ashbourne doesn't have nearly enough buses to the Airport which is the point of this thread.

If needed a bus don't you think there would be one. There was one supposed to be started around the time the 109a started. So there's obviously a reason why they havent got one.
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Vic_08 wrote: »

Ashbourne has a large population and more importantly a large population of regular bus users (Ratoath has neither) it would be well worth the small time penalty of diverting the 109A through Ashbourne.

Ashbourne has a large population of bus users... hmmm I wonder why? Perhaps the reason ashbourne and ratoath are a mess in the first place.

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Vic_08 wrote: »

Ratoath does not have anything like a crap bus service considering it's size and location.

There are 38 weekday services in each direction to Dublin, an hourly service to Airport/DCU/Navan, a 2 hourly shuttle to the Blanchardstown shopping centre and a weekend night bus from the city.

The 105 is effectively an hourly express service exclusively for Ratoath/Fairyhouse, it is also one of the least used routes in our Garage. Outside of peak times it rarely carries more than a handful of passengers per trip and on weekdays (when there isn't even the alternative of regular 103 services) it is not unknown for numerous departures throughout the day to run completely empty.

Yes the 105 is usually pretty empty, but I love that bus. You can make it to town in 30mins off peak, rather than 45 mins via ashbourne and N2.
And that 104 is pretty crap. I used to work in Blanch SC and it's times were never convienient, esp the last one leaving the shopping centre at 6.45 when the centre closes at 9 3 nights a week, also for cinema etc.

I'm pretty sure Ratoath is 7,000 - 8,000 people now at this stage - not to mention the outskirts that use the buses.
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Vic_08 wrote: »

It is nearly always late at the Airport heading for Navan, 5 minutes is not enough time to get from DCU but even with that the journey time to Ratoath and Navan is generous and without any hold ups 50 minutes Airport to Navan would be the norm. Except for peak times of course when a few places, particularly Kilshane cross can cause problems.

Look I get that bus several times a week, and coming from the airport its actually on time most of the time (except 4pm -6pm maybe) Other times its rarely more than 5 mins late. I'm usually it ratoath for 5 past the hour, which is on schedule.

However on the way to the airport I thought I already said its always at least 5-20 mins late, but it's only not showed up at at all once or twice. (this mean I have to be in work and hour early because I'm not sure what time it'll actually get there at.
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Vic_08 wrote: »

All of which is good reason to run the 109A through Ashbourne, the loadings on it as you say are not very high and it's future is far from secure in the current climate.

Not high at the moment no, but its actually pretty busy during the college year (I'm in 3rd yr DCU, and its was considerably busy this yr than last. Presumably people who would have moved up are commuting instead)
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Vic_08 wrote: »

The other issue with this route is that it neads earlier and later departures to be of use for the busiest flight times at Dublin Airport.A first arrival at 5am and a last departure at midnight would be the minimum, 4.30 and 00.30 would be even better.

Can't agree with you more there. I work at the airport and my earliest start is 4.30 am - the rush usually starts round 5am so one for that would be really great. Also the last bus is only 21.30 but that one its usually pretty empty so I doubt they'd get the no's for any later despite the late flights, tho it might when college starts back.

Mill21

JayeL wrote: »

While we're on the subject of pet peeves, where are the SIX stops in Ashbourne? Coming from Ratoath, you have across from the Credit Union, Kelly's, the bridge and Deerpark. Four stops; eight if you include both sides of the road. If you were pushed, you could also count up at the Marriott and the Nine Mile Stone, but they're not in the town and not for people living in Ashbourne. The actual town, where close on 10,000 people live, only has 4 stops and none in any of the housing estates; just straight through like a country bus. But not even stops at estates along the existing route, like The Briars or Johnswood. End of rant.

There's 5 stops + the marriott and 2 at the 9 mile stone.

There's one before after you turn on the N2 from ballybin - across from the credit union you say
Dunnes
Kelly's
opposite the turn for garden city
community centre
(i think there's another small one but I'm not sure)
and one before the roundabout at the nine mile stone and one after

You may not consider that ashbourne but it ashbourne to me since they are why the bus is routed that way, and theres normally a good few at each for the 103

And look BÉ obviously looked at running a ashbourne-airport bus and there must not be anyway in making money from it otherwise they would

Mill21

IIMII wrote: »

Blow-ins? Well, they never left the Pale in moving to Ratoath, did they? And if it wasn't for them you would probably have no bus service of any type in Ratoath. Anyway, Rath is closer to how it should have been spelt, so who cares

Clearly a blow in then. Our bus service may not have been have good without ye, but that would have been small price to pay have out village back.

And there hasn't been the pale since the 17th Century so I don't see how that's relevent.

And you'll have to complain to the british about the old spelling. It is Ratoath in English, and you can't change that. No ones stopping you from speaking all irish and calling it Rath Tó.

JayeL

Mill21 wrote: »

There's 5 stops + the marriott and 2 at the 9 mile stone.

There's one before after you turn on the N2 from ballybin - across from the credit union you say
Dunnes
Kelly's
opposite the turn for garden city
community centre
(i think there's another small one but I'm not sure)
and one before the roundabout at the nine mile stone and one after

If there's a stop when you come out from Ballybin, it's not an official one i.e. has a BE sign on it. And there's no small one after the community centre, that's the area there should be one but isn't. Anyway, I digress.

Mill21 wrote: »

Clearly a blow in then. Our bus service may not have been have good without ye, but that would have been small price to pay have out village back.

Oh dear, giving out about "blow ins". I suppose then that Ratoath is a local town, for local people.....

Just to stick to the point for a minute - for a bus service to work, it needs bums on seats. As much as a Ratoath only bus - or native Ratoath only as you might prefer, maybe keeping the "blow-ins" down the back - might be a source of local pride, buses at the kind of frequency the area needs is something that can only be provided if the buses can be filled.

Now for the off-topic rant.

I grew up in Ashbourne, never lived anywhere else and went to St. Declan's back when it was the best school in the town (so that's a good while ago then). I remember Ashbourne in the 80s, with a narrow kerb for a footpath all the way from Garden City to the village. A big useless field in the middle of town, one bus an hour if you're lucky, a line of buses from the Ashbourne House to the Fox's Den, loaded with the entire teenage population as we headed to school in Dublin at 7am and a crap supermarket that shut at 6pm. At one stage, the water went orange and we had to use the old village pump that was somewhere around where Pizza Hut is now. There was no And we pitied Ratoath, which had it even worse. Both towns had nothing and people couldn't wait to leave them.

But since the influx of blow-ins, the resulting population has justified more facilities, more businesses, more industry in both towns. Ashbourne has a secondary school with close on 1,000 students, there's no shortage of supermarkets, we have wide footpaths from one end of the town to the other, we have more shops, restaurants, a motorway linking us to the M50 and now even a cinema.

Ratoath hasn't got quite as much, but at least there's more shops, a secondary school and a bank now. There's even a theatre where you could catch the odd gig - unthinkable 10 years beforehand. They could have made a better job of the roads in Ratoath, but it's a better place to live in because of the extra "blow-in" population and coupled with that, you get a better bus service. If the blow-ins weren't there, you'd be back to a single figure number of buses per day and you probably wouldn't care if it went through Dunshaughlin, Littlepace, Dunboyne and every hamlet in between.

So before you condemn people for having the cheek to live in the place you grew up in, think about the strength in numbers they bring to an otherwise forgettable part of the country like south Meath.

Mill21

JayeL wrote: »

Both towns had nothing and people couldn't wait to leave them.

But since the influx of blow-ins, the resulting population has justified more facilities, more businesses, more industry in both towns. Ashbourne has a secondary school with close on 1,000 students, there's no shortage of supermarkets, we have wide footpaths from one end of the town to the other, we have more shops, restaurants, a motorway linking us to the M50 and now even a cinema.

Ratoath hasn't got quite as much, but at least there's more shops, a secondary school and a bank now. There's even a theatre where you could catch the odd gig - unthinkable 10 years beforehand. They could have made a better job of the roads in Ratoath, but it's a better place to live in because of the extra "blow-in" population and coupled with that, you get a better bus service. If the blow-ins weren't there, you'd be back to a single figure number of buses per day and you probably wouldn't care if it went through Dunshaughlin, Littlepace, Dunboyne and every hamlet in between.

So before you condemn people for having the cheek to live in the place you grew up in, think about the strength in numbers they bring to an otherwise forgettable part of the country like south Meath.

Oh please Ashbourne and Ratoath are both soulless holes now. I would much prefer to have it make the way it was than to have tesco, aldi, lidl, mc donalds, or in ratoaths case 4 hairdressers, 4 chemists, schools - some of which are just prefabs, and 1000's of horrible houses in estates, and a mediocre bus service. I don't see any amenties. Yes the community centre theatre is good, but really not worth the hype. There's not even a sports community centre anymore.I have no interest in GAA Ratoath really has nothing to offer people, and it really baffles me why so many people moved here. Personally, They have made me hate Ratoath and I can't wait to move out of it. If I lived in the actual village I'm sure I already would have, they're welcome to it now at this stage. There's community to the place anymore. Ratoath and ashbourne are just commuter towns, for people who no longer commute.