Derry Dublin direct service has been slashed

RDM_83 again

Its no longer this timetable,
http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1282302140-33.pdf

But rather this one

http://194.106.151.94/jplan/bin/query.exe/en?seqnr=4&ident=9y.09448187.1298636633&REQ0HafasScrollDir=1

Note how some journeys now involve change and longer time. While direct journey is apparently going to take 3 hours 30 mins which to me is frankly unrealistic especially if they keep running double deckers on sundays and take a toilet break (which they will need to do unless they're running eurolines busses)

So much for trying to improve public transport!

munchkin_utd

and back again with an express service before easter that takes less than 3 hours from Derry to Dublin.

read the timetable fully.

EDIT: thought your second link was to the NEW pdf of the timetable, which has 2 parts
a) a reduced schedule for the next while
b) a NEW timetable with 10 buses each way rather than 11 from April onwards, and 2 of them are non stop expresses taking hours.

RadioCity

For information puposes the 13:15 Derry to Dublin does operate now as a through service Monday to Saturday- no need to change buses en route.

irish_goat

Got the 4.30pm yesterday. The first bus was full so they got a double decker to take the 15 or so of us who couldn't get on the first. :rolleyes:

Surely a Sunday 6pm-ish express service to facilitate students/people going back to work for the week would make sense. I might email them.

owenc

Thats a bit of a disgrace that they have cancelled it, in my opinion they should be setting up a high speed rail line for the north western side of the island which connects somewhere in the middle so you can goto dublin this would be far quicker than spending four hours on a bus, it would also be good to go elsewhere because there is no rail for there, and when i say rail i'm talking about high speed rail like they have in england not that crappy 100mph rubbish they have to belfast ewgh took me 2 hours one day! If they are going to take in buses they should bring in comfier buses not them auld translink double deckers them seats are pure hard no one could sit on them for four hours and i'd give you a golden metal if you did!?

RadioCity

Apparently the through service at 13:15 does not now operate. The change in Strabane has resumed.

irish_goat

Gave Translink and email suggesting they do an express service on the Sunday. My comments are being "passed to the relevant department".

*holds breath*

munchkin_utd

for what its worth, the service WILL be improved again next month.

Including an express leaving Derry at 2.30pm getting to Dubin in less than 3 hours with first stop Dublin Airport!!!

Scan to the 2nd half of this pdf:
http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1297440887-33.pdf

Berns

Is there no airport busses runnin at all. Think was one aircoach ran from belfast to dublin airport, thought there was a derry one before but could be mistaken.

Dont even see the Belfast route on their site now tried .co.uk instead and got some citylink site in galway -.-

Bah they cancelled the Belfast one

GAAman

munchkin_utd wrote: »

for what its worth, the service WILL be improved again next month.

Including an express leaving Derry at 2.30pm getting to Dubin in less than 3 hours with first stop Dublin Airport!!!

I have been makin this journey for over five and a half years now (shíte i should just get a car!) and even when it didnt stop in monaghan but went straight through that one time it took 3 hours 45 mins so i dont know where they are getting the less then three hours thing.........unless the bus cuts are leading to a fleet of porsches for the route

irish_goat

My reply from Translink.

first of all apologies for having to wait on an extra bus last week but we have now arranged for a standby Dublin bus to be in place every Sunday from now on to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.
Thanks for dropping us an email about this but the inspector on duty made sure that it didn’t happen again.

Thanks

Didn't make any attempt to comment on the idea of having an express service on a Sunday but I suppose that will have to do until the new timetable in April kicks in.

Berns

So ....first of all, then thanks ....... no secondly or sumfin

irish_goat

So now every Sunday at 4.30pm there's 2 Dublin buses there as they know the first will always be full. I emailed back asking why they can't have one bus leave later.

Irish_goat,we are reviewing the service again this summer and this is one of the suggestions we will be putting forward, even moving the 4:30 to 5:30 would be an improvement.
Thanks

charlemont

<SNIP>


Mod edit: The topic is "Derry Dublin direct service has been slashed." Stick to that please.

GAAman

munchkin_utd wrote: »

for what its worth, the service WILL be improved again next month.

Including an express leaving Derry at 2.30pm getting to Dubin in less than 3 hours with first stop Dublin Airport!!!

Scan to the 2nd half of this pdf:
http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1297440887-33.pdf

I got this "express" service on saturday unknowingly of course and i will explain why its of course.

I did not realise that the half 2 service was a "Super Dooper Trooper Premium" service. My normal ticket is 20 sterling thats a student return iirc it is around 23 sterling for an adult return but i am open to correction on this.

So i try to buy the ticket as normal at the ticket desk and am told to get it on the bus, no problem says i and i go to the driver. I nearly have a baby when he tells me that it will be 32 sterling or 35 euro! No student rates one price for all. Because the next service would have me in Dublin too late for something important (and by some miracle i decided to bring more cash then needed just in case) i paid it.

Three hours to bus aras he tells me, "three hours my hole" i say when i get off the bus three hours and forty minutes later. So for an extra 12 quid i saved a whopping gigantic twenty minutes off the normal journey of four hours

Robbing basterds :rolleyes:

][cEMAN**

This annoyed me on my way back from dublin. I'd lost my return ticket and thought i'd be OK because I had about €25 left in my pocket (hadn't gotten more out cause I didn't think i'd need it), and a few £. I just threw all my change at him to get on, cause it was too late to catch another bus and be home for work.
So half way along the trip this conductor comes on to check everyone's tickets....wtf? No stops - we stop to pick him up. Check our tickets? The driver didn't already do this? Premium service, and you're bugging me? Then he starts quizzing me for a survey - GET OUT OF MY FACE!

Yeah I might just get the train from now on.

Dun

GAAman wrote: »

My normal ticket is 20 sterling thats a student return iirc it is around 23 sterling for an adult return but i am open to correction on this.

Not far off - £23.50 return. Not much saving for a student ticket.

RadioCity

Be aware theres a new timetable for this Derry-Dublin service from Sunday 30October:


Off the top of my head these are the times (Mon-Sun)
From Derry
04:30 274
07:30 274
10:30 33
12:30 274
16:30 274
23:00 33

From Dublin
06:00 33
10:00 274
13:30 274
17:30 274
18:00 33 (yes, a 30 minute gap)
22:00 274

I heard conflicting stories about whether the X33 will remain operating over the winter, so watch this space. I know there was a lot of annoyance at the €5 premium (or surcharge as I call it) and refusal to accept 65+ passes on the X33, particularly as the Belfast-Dublin Airport non stop equivalent, the X2 had no extra cost and accepted all passes.

GAAman

RadioCity wrote: »

Be aware theres a new timetable for this Derry-Dublin service from Sunday 30October:


Off the top of my head these are the times (Mon-Sun)
From Derry
04:30 274
07:30 274
10:30 33
12:30 274
16:30 274
23:00 33

From Dublin
06:00 33
10:00 274
13:30 274
17:30 274
18:00 33 (yes, a 30 minute gap)
22:00 274

The highlighted part is gonna be one bus (the bus eireann 33 one) serves monaghan stops and the other does not. Anyone who has gotten either the 4 or 6 bus to derry on any day will see a huge line and alot if not most people are heading to monaghan rather than derry.

Whoever came up with that "premium" service should be <SNIP>



Mod edit: Careful now GAAman

ah i was only jokin............ maybe

LXFlyer

Here is the new timetable.

All services will serve Monaghan as per the timetable.

The X33 is suspended for the winter.

RadioCity

Ideally, you should aim for the 17:30 departure at all times, rather than the 18:00.

The Ulsterbus drivers will be making every effort I'd imagine to make sure everyone going north of the border would be accomdated by boarding anybody for points of the border north on busy days- thats what I used to do on it anyway.

In addition the 17:30 is the Ulsterbus driver with a bus going home so is less likely to hang around unnecessarily whereas the 18:00 is a Bus Eireann driver who might not have a bus until one comes in from somewhere and has to do the 23:00 from Derry again so only needs to be in Derry around 22:15.

GAAman

Normally i would have gotten the 4 bus from Dublin yesterday but as the powers that be have stopped that service i had to pick either going back earlier than i planned or getting to derry late. I got the 13:30 service and was amazed at the fact that it was an ulsterbus double decker......for myself and the 8 other people i saw get on the bus.

There is no way the 17:30 and 18:00 services will continue, a half an hour between two identical services when previously the same services ran every two hours. Why not have a 13:30, 16:00 and 18:30 service? Makes no sense at all!

Dun

Got the 17:30 service yesterday from the airport, it was packed when I got on with just enough seats for the half dozen or so at the airport, and quite a few got off in Monaghan, so there's far from any kind of guarantee that people from Monaghan will be put on the 18:00 service when there's a crowd.

GAAman

Dun wrote: »

Got the 17:30 service yesterday from the airport, it was packed when I got on with just enough seats for the half dozen or so at the airport, and quite a few got off in Monaghan, so there's far from any kind of guarantee that people from Monaghan will be put on the 18:00 service when there's a crowd.

The 4 service i used to get (on Sunday) would be hit or miss, there would either be a decent crowd or a ton of people. Whenever there was a ton of people 9 times out of 10 most of them were heading to monaghan. When this happened an inspector would come and ask who was headind to monaghan or ardee and ask them to go to another door. I am guessing from what i saw at those times that there was another bus sorted for those people as in not a scheduled service.

As i said in another post i would not be surprised if the same thing happened but they (monaghan bound people) were asked to queue for the 18:00 bus instead which free's up the 17:30 service for those heading further north from not only bus aras but also the airport

RadioCity

The idea of a 16:00 ex Dublin sounds totally logical but...

Dublin operates the 18:00 as it has to get to Derry to do the 23:00 ex Derry.

Derry operates the 17:30 as it did the 12:30 ex Derry and can't really operate any earlier than 17:30.

Bus Eireann in theory could operate at 16:00 but its a lot to do with availabilty of buses at a particular time and they probably don't have a free bus at that time. That said if they did go at 16:00, it would mean a bit of a wait in Derry for the driver before 23:00 departure.

Just a few thoughts.