Late night buses Cork/Limerick - Dublin?

embraer170

What bus companies operate late night Cork / Limerick to Dublin? I can only find JJ Kavanagh at 1am from Limerick but nothing from Cork?

Had a Kerry - Frankfurt flight booked tomorrow and seeking an alternative since I need to be in Cologne early Monday morning. Thinking of a Ryanair flight to Brussels or Berlin tomorrow morning. Also wondering if Ryanair will allow me to change flights if it's confirmed my flight is cancelled....

KC61

No late night services on Cork/Dublin I am afraid.

Last buses are Aircoach ex-Cork at 7pm, Bus Eireann at 6pm and the last train is 2030.

dowlingm

A bit bizarre really given that BE services between Dublin Airport and Rosslare Harbour run all night that BE can't justify running a bus from Cork to Dublin after 6.30pm.

Victor

dowlingm wrote: »

A bit bizarre really given that BE services between Dublin Airport and Rosslare Harbour run all night that BE can't justify running a bus from Cork to Dublin after 6.30pm.

There is no airport in Rosslare. Anyone from the south east is likely to go to Dublin to fly to the UK/continent, whereas most people in the south west would either fly direct or via Dublin.

dowlingm

Fair point, but that just draws attention to the lack of equivalent catchment services to Cork Airport - only Skylink serves before 0730 and there are over 1000 seats gone from ORK before anyone outside the inner city can use public transport to get to check in in time.

parsi

Well if the privates don't do it they must feel that there isn't a market for it.

dowlingm

If we operated purely on what the private sector felt there was a market for there wouldn't be much of a network.

BenShermin

Victor wrote: »

There is no airport in Rosslare. Anyone from the south east is likely to go to Dublin to fly to the UK/continent, whereas most people in the south west would either fly direct or via Dublin.

I have actually heard of somebody in Rosslare harbour getting the bus to Dublin Airport for a flight to Bristol, so he could get a train from Bristol to Swansea to meet up with a friend. If there was a way to get to the UK/continent from Rosslare Bus Eireann would lose thousands:rolleyes:.

Market for it or not it's a disgrace that for almost 10 hours of a day it's impossible to get from Dublin to Cork by public transport. For God's sake they are the two biggest centres of population on the Island.

If an all night service isn't feasible surely there has to be scope to introduce some sort of a service from Dublin to Cork that gets you to Cork city centre BEFORE 9am, you know, the time that most offices open for business!!

Vic_08

BenShermin wrote: »

I have actually heard of somebody in Rosslare harbour getting the bus to Dublin Airport for a flight to Bristol, so he could get a train from Bristol to Swansea to meet up with a friend. If there was a way to get to the UK/continent from Rosslare Bus Eireann would lose thousands:rolleyes:.

Doesn't surprise me. There was some dopey woman on the news this evening saying she was stuck in Dublin 'til Tuesday as her flight to Birmingham had been cancelled.

BenShermin wrote: »

Market for it or not it's a disgrace that for almost 10 hours of a day it's impossible to get from Dublin to Cork by public transport. For God's sake they are the two biggest centres of population on the Island.

If an all night service isn't feasible surely there has to be scope to introduce some sort of a service from Dublin to Cork that gets you to Cork city centre BEFORE 9am, you know, the time that most offices open for business!!

Aircoach used to run an earlier bus at 6am in both directions but have removed it, presumably due to poor loadings.

Before the change to Hourly departures there was a Monday only train from Heuston to Cork at about 5.30. It ran in the time of the Tues-Fri Mallow-Cork commuter service arriving around 8.30. It also had a connection to Limerick.

I used it occasionally over a few years and it was never particularly busy, had maybe 70-80 people at most. I used to head straight to the Buffet and always had the carriage to myself until Mallow. That was the first casualty of IE's slavish adoption of rigid clockface timetabling.

BenShermin

Vic_08 wrote: »

Doesn't surprise me. There was some dopey woman on the news this evening saying she was stuck in Dublin 'til Tuesday as her flight to Birmingham had been cancelled.

I saw this also, what a dope:rolleyes:! I doubt a ferry and train ticket would have cost her as much as two nights bed and breakfast in Dublin. Although with more ash restrictions people like her could actually save Ireland's hospitality business.

Vic_08 wrote: »

Aircoach used to run an earlier bus at 6am in both directions but have removed it, presumably due to poor loadings.

Before the change to Hourly departures there was a Monday only train from Heuston to Cork at about 5.30. It ran in the time of the Tues-Fri Mallow-Cork commuter service arriving around 8.30. It also had a connection to Limerick.

I used it occasionally over a few years and it was never particularly busy, had maybe 70-80 people at most. I used to head straight to the Buffet and always had the carriage to myself until Mallow. That was the first casualty of IE's slavish adoption of rigid clockface timetabling.

I remember that Aircoach on the timetable, it still wouldn't have got to Cork before 10am though.

Ah yes the aul MO "early bird" train, I remember them well, had the pleasure of the Cork to Dublin one once back in MK2 days:(. Never done the Dublin to Cork one though.

Have to say 70 to 80 passengers seems like a good load to me. I'd say IÉ could make some money scrapping either the 9am or 10am OAP express which are 3 car 22K run afaik and running a 6am train instead. If they throw a €20 single fare on it instead of €36 they could grab more "early bird" custom. Advertising on the timetable the fact that 22K trains have powerpoints at every seat could see more business passengers.

parsi

dowlingm wrote: »

If we operated purely on what the private sector felt there was a market for there wouldn't be much of a network.

I was adhering slavishly to this forum's line that the privates can/will do absolutely anything better than the incumbents and that every CIE group decision should be prefaced with "What would the privates do ?"

dowlingm

parsi - I believe that in the main, government should legislate and regulate. I also believe that they must own and be responsible for core infrastructure. In Ireland's case, I'd love to see Translink and CIE pool their rail infrastructure on a 32-county basis which continuing to operate NIR and IE as separate TOCs.

But after that - I'm all for private sector operation. LUAS and Aircoach are examples of generally well regarded transport which helped consumers see there was life beyond CIE. However, it is for government regulation - not necessarily at national level - to decide priorities, and where the numbers don't yet add up offer inducement to the private players. Is BE's 0130 ex Rosslare really a money maker? If not, that's coming out of subsidy.

Mrs OBumble

BenShermin wrote: »

Market for it or not it's a disgrace that for almost 10 hours of a day it's impossible to get from Dublin to Cork by public transport. For God's sake they are the two biggest centres of population on the Island.

If an all night service isn't feasible surely there has to be scope to introduce some sort of a service from Dublin to Cork that gets you to Cork city centre BEFORE 9am, you know, the time that most offices open for business!!

It does seem rather odd, given that Galway - Dublin has services basically through the night.

Doesn't anyone from Cork ever go up to Dublin for a concert etc and need to get back for work the next day?

BluntGuy

I've always found the lack of even an 8:00 pm service from Cork to Dublin (especially with their late services to areas like Mitchelstown and Waterford) to be rather frustrating. I'm not sure though whether demand would justify adding a service there though.

Lapin

BenShermin wrote: »

Market for it or not it's a disgrace that for almost 10 hours of a day it's impossible to get from Dublin to Cork by public transport. For God's sake they are the two biggest centres of population on the Island.

There are about half a million people in the Belfast area who might disagree with the second part of that sentence .

However the first part is spot on. It is ridiculous that there are no bus connections from Cork to Dublin after 6pm.

devnull

Lapin wrote: »

.However the first part is spot on. It is ridiculous that there are no bus connections from Cork to Dublin after 6pm.

Aircoach has a service at 7pm:
http://www.aircoach.ie/table.routes.cork.php

Lapin

Lapin wrote: »

There are about half a million people in the Belfast area who might disagree with the second part of that sentence .

However the first part is spot on. It is ridiculous that there are no bus connections from Cork to Dublin after 6pm.

devnull wrote: »

Aircoach has a service at 7pm:
http://www.aircoach.ie/table.routes.cork.php

The extra hour might be handy for some people, but 7pm is still very early for the last departure out of Cork.

Looking at the timetables of both Bus Éireann and Aircoach it appears that neither operator takes advantage of the motorway for non stop services between the two cities.

I reckon there is a market there for such a service as stopping at all the intermediate towns on the journey puts a lot of potential passengers off travelling on the existing route.

This strategy was successfully adapted by Gobus on the Galway to Dublin route with an hourly or 2 hourly service operating 19 hours a day.

KC61

We don't know if any operators have applied for a licence to operate services - based on previous experience this can take some time.