Bus Eireann services

T Corolla

Are the bus services getting any better with the timetable changes. I use the X20 from Athlone to Dublin Airport and I thought it was good and got the same bus home. I see on the website today and the Donegal-Dublin service has been changed.

foggy_lad

hard to see any real differences between the old and new donegal timetables? but the new x20 is great just a pity it goes to the airport first before dublin.

They removed the enfield 6.50 bus so now I have to get the 7.20 :mad:

candy19

By the looks of the new Donegal timetable, the midnight service/s during the week have ceased which is no small loss because nobody was using them anyway!

veryangryman

foggy_lad wrote: »

hard to see any real differences between the old and new donegal timetables? but the new x20 is great just a pity relief it goes to the airport first before dublin.

Fixed that for you. Any gods amount of other buses go to the city first (Citylink and Gobus plus the BE services either side not to mention the baffling , baffling number of people who use the train which doesnt even goto the city centre)

Athlone now has a direct service to the airport and this is a wonderous marvellous, zip-zoop zabulous thing. Dont knock it or ill get the heavies after you!

One knock id give it is the timetabling not covering night flights but overall a massive improvement.

So long Moate.
Arriva Dachi Kinnegad.
See you in hell Maynooth!
Screw you Burgh Quay!

foggy_lad

ah i suppose it uses the port tunnel so it is not too bad:)

KC61

candy19 wrote: »

By the looks of the new Donegal timetable, the midnight service/s during the week have ceased which is no small loss because nobody was using them anyway!

Those services still operate.

The change to route 30 is that the 1500, 1700 and 1900 services ex-Dublin will now be allowed to carry passengers to Virginia and Cavan from Dublin.

markpb

KC61 wrote: »

Those services still operate.

The change to route 30 is that the 1500, 1700 and 1900 services ex-Dublin will now be allowed to carry passengers to Virginia and Cavan from Dublin.

I presume that's because competition from a private operator has ceased?

KC61

markpb wrote: »

I presume that's because competition from a private operator has ceased?

Not sure Mark - I just compared the old and new timetables!

I don't know of any private operator on the route. It could be that this was a protective measure for longer distance customers and that loadings have fallen so that it is no longer needed? Virginia and Cavan are served by commuter route 109.

markpb

A private operator from Cavan used to do Cavan - Dublin runs. AFAIK when BE increased the Cavan services, DoT stopped them from running their hourly bus service at times which matched the private company.

KC61

markpb wrote: »

A private operator from Cavan used to do Cavan - Dublin runs. AFAIK when BE increased the Cavan services, DoT stopped them from running their hourly bus service at times which matched the private company.

That was some time ago Mark (as in years).

markpb

KC61 wrote: »

That was some time ago Mark (as in years).

True but forgive me for assuming that the DoT move at snails pace

Vic_08

KC61 wrote: »

Those services still operate.

The change to route 30 is that the 1500, 1700 and 1900 services ex-Dublin will now be allowed to carry passengers to Virginia and Cavan from Dublin.

I don't know if the removal of that note is intentional, the carriage of passengers from Dublin to Navan, Kells, Virginia and Cavan as well as local traffic between those towns is catered for by the 109 and the 30 will only take Virginia and Cavan passengers at Busaras if there is plenty of space. Enough capacity needs to be left for passengers from Dublin Airport where Kells, Virginia and Cavan passengers will be taken as well as points north of Cavan.

The changes to the 30 timetable are relating to the connections to west Donegal which have changed as well as the removal of the daily Donegal-Cavan via Ballyconnell service which reduces the Eniskillen-Ballyconnell-Cavan route to 3 return services and removes the daily service from Pettigo and Laghey which will now only have a Friday and Sunday peak service. This service was a McGeehan operated service.

Vic_08

markpb wrote: »

I presume that's because competition from a private operator has ceased?

The issue you both are referring to was resolved many years ago and it involved a small operator in Cavan who operated a once a day Cavan-Dublin return service, when Bus Eireann expanded the 109 to hourly from Cavan they were forced to run the first service of the day out of service from Cavan to Kells.

There is at present no competition on the Dublin-Donegal town route. For some time McGeehans operated a competing service but they entered into a joint operation with Bus Eireann which has run successfully for some time now.

markpb

Vic_08 wrote: »

The changes to the 30 timetable are relating to the connections to west Donegal which have changed as well as the removal of the daily Donegal-Cavan via Ballyconnell service which reduces the Eniskillen-Ballyconnell-Cavan route to 3 return services and removes the daily service from Pettigo and Laghey which will now only have a Friday and Sunday peak service.

Are the numbers poor on those towns which are being removed? Ballyconnell - Swanlinbar used to rate their own separate bus (McGeehan) most evenings but are now reduced to a connection at Cavan. I can understand keeping the express buses on the main road but not the poor connection times. Trip times there have gone from 2h30 to between 3h30 and 4h35 for a 140k journey.

Vic_08

markpb wrote: »

Are the numbers poor on those towns which are being removed? Ballyconnell - Swanlinbar used to rate their own separate bus (McGeehan) most evenings but are now reduced to a connection at Cavan. I can understand keeping the express buses on the main road but not the poor connection times. Trip times there have gone from 2h30 to between 3h30 and 4h35 for a 140k journey.

The Daily 6pm Dublin - Swanlibar is still operating, the other services are just to/from Cavan. Southboubd all 3 have connections within 20mns to either a 30 or 109 at Cavan Northbound there are quicker connections from 109 services although these are not printed on the route 30 timetable.


As for the passenger numbers, although (thankfully) I haven't driven that road since the main 30 was switched to the more direct Derrylin road I would guess that passenger numbers are quite low. When it was used by all the services I only recall taking small numbers in that section and it would mostly be local traffic to either Eniskillen or Cavan.

I have no idea about the numbers in Laghey or Pettigo as this was always McGeehans route, they used it when they were independent and even with the joint operation only McGeehans operated services were booked this way. I can only assume the numbers were very low to remove all but 2 weekly services.

markpb

Vic_08 wrote: »

The Daily 6pm Dublin - Swanlibar is still operating, the other services are just to/from Cavan. Southboubd all 3 have connections within 20mns to either a 30 or 109 at Cavan Northbound there are quicker connections from 109 services although these are not printed on the route 30 timetable.

That's fair enough, I was working from the journey planner, perhaps it's missing some of the connections. 20 mins isn't too bad for a connection time.