Commuting by Bus - Arklow to Dublin - Advice Please

TechnoFreek

Hi,

I am thinking about ditching the car and giving commuting (Mon - Fri) by Bus Eireann a go.

I have a few questions if anyone can help me please!

• Does the Bus drop off and collect anywhere near the RDS?
• I will be getting on in Arklow somewhere on the Wexford Road. What time bus should I get to have me into work (near RDS) for 9am (or earlier)?
• If the bus collects near RDS in the evening, what's the closest to 5pm it picks up at?
• What weekly/monthly ticket options are available?
• Is it easy enough to get a seat?

I just need some advice as I normally only ever get the bus at weekends, get dropped in the city centre and dont be under any time constraints!

All/any help to above questions greatly appreciated!

admiralofthefleet

its about an hour and a half to dublin, i would imagine you will be getting the bus at lidl on the wexford road.
im only new to arklow myself so hopefully someone else will come along to help you further

gaa_fan

TechnoFreek wrote: »

I have a few questions if anyone can help me please!

• Does the Bus drop off and collect anywhere near the RDS?
• I will be getting on in Arklow somewhere on the Wexford Road. What time bus should I get to have me into work (near RDS) for 9am (or earlier)?
• If the bus collects near RDS in the evening, what's the closest to 5pm it picks up at?
• What weekly/monthly ticket options are available?
• Is it easy enough to get a seat?

I commuted by bus from Arklow to Dublin for many years, and the service is very good now.

1: Drop off at the RDS is no problem I think. Pickup however would be closest at St. Vincent's Hospital (Nutley Lane).
2: Express bus leaves at 06:50 if I remember correctly, and then the normal bus leaves at 07:15.
3: See no. 1 above.
4: The ticket I used was the weekly 10 journey ticket, costs around €50 or €60 now I think. You could also ask your employer to see if you can get the taxsaver annual tickets, unlimited travel and you don't have to pay tax on it.
5: The express bus fills up in Arklow so it can be full by the time you get to the Templerainey stop.

TechnoFreek

Thanks gaa_fan

Can you tell me what sort of time the bus stops at nutley? Anything around the half four or later mark?
Is the bus likely to be full at that stage?
The morning pick up times in Arklow you mentioned? What stop is that at?
I'm likely to be getting on at the first stop on the Wexford road, just at the roundabout near Servier

Thanks again for your advice

gaa_fan

You're in luck. Just checked the timetable and it says all services pick up at the RDS! One bus leaves Busáras at 16:30 but it'll probably be past the RDS by 17:00. After that buses leave Busáras at 17:30, 18:00 and 18:30, pickup at the RDS would be something like 10 to 20 minutes later than those times. And of course rush hour traffic can have a large bearing on what time the bus arrives at! Some days it may be full and pass you, that's just a part of commuting this way that you have to accept. The times for Arklow are based around the stop on Main Street. You have to adjust by a few minutes for the surrounding stops.

If you're near the RDS then it'd also be worth considering the train. The DART stop at Sandymount is very close.

TechnoFreek

Thanks again!

Just checked the timetable myself not so long ago, read that about the pickup too.
Think I might trial the bus for a week or so. See how I get on.

I had considered the train but it doesn't stop at lansdowne in the evening, nearest is dun laoghaire. Just means leaving work earlier to get connecting dart.

TechnoFreek

Ok, so I decided to try the bus today.
Picked me up on the wexford road just after 7.05 am. Bus was almost empty so I'm guessing it didn't come from Wexford!

Got off at the rds and was at my office desk by 8.25am.
Impressive stuff but traffic did seem light.

See how this evening goes. Hope there's a seat by the time it gets out to the rds from bus aras! Aim to get 4.30pm bus

bisset

I am hoping to travel from Templerainey to Loughlinstown on friday on 8.00 am bus. Do you reckon I will get a seat at Templerainey?

TechnoFreek

bisset wrote: »

I am hoping to travel from Templerainey to Loughlinstown on friday on 8.00 am bus. Do you reckon I will get a seat at Templerainey?

There were plnety of free seats on the 7.15 bus anyway. From what I coul tell that bus only seemed to start in Arklow as it was almostempty when I got on. No way it could have come from Wexford.

LXFlyer

Sounds like you were on the 384 (which may display 2) that starts in Gorey at 0650.

http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1202998677-384.pdf

TechnoFreek

lxflyer wrote: »

Sounds like you were on the 384 (which may display 2) that starts in Gorey at 0650.

http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1202998677-384.pdf

that could be it alright. do you know if that goes through ballsbridge? I've been getting the bus for the past week at 7.15 in the morning. they all go through ballsbridge and often drop off and ashford. I dont know if that makes it the number 2 or the 384. they're both scheduled for arklow at 7.15 but in all cases they are only a handful of people already on it. I'm the first stop in arklow.

paudy1

TechnoFreek wrote: »

that could be it alright. do you know if that goes through ballsbridge? I've been getting the bus for the past week at 7.15 in the morning. they all go through ballsbridge and often drop off and ashford. I dont know if that makes it the number 2 or the 384. they're both scheduled for arklow at 7.15 but in all cases they are only a handful of people already on it. I'm the first stop in arklow.

Hiya,

I have been commuting from Arklow to Dublin for the last 2 years and find the service excellent.

Some points to be aware of:

* Earliest bus in the morning is now 5am (pickup at Knockmore on Wexford Road) as the 3am bus has just been cancelled in case you ever need to get to the airport early.
* After that the next bus is 06:50 (from same stop) but this is not the #2 service and does go a different route - Goes straight on at Nutley Lane into Leeson Street. It's by far the fastest service as it gets to Busarus at around 8.10am. This bus starts in Arklow as the 06:40 commuter bus from Gorey does not come through Arklow anymore.
* Next bus is the #2 from Rosslare which gets into Arklow about 7.10am (Knockmore) and goes the usual route past the RDS with drop off there. Never a problem getting seats on this.
* After that is the 08:00 (sometimes 07:50) #2 service. It's normally busier than the earlier bus so getting a seat can be harder (especially on Mondays) and I have ofter seen people at Templerainey getting passed by. If you are getting this I'd recommend getting it from one of the stops on the Wexford road to be sure of a seat. Gets to RDS around 9.15am

There are a few options for coming home:
* The 16:00 #5 bus to New Ross/Waterford takes the same route as the #2 so you could catch that at about 16:15/16:20 at the RDS. Bus normally has loads of space.
* The 16:30 #2 is usually much busier and I have often seen it leave Busarus full as it ofter has a large pickup in the Airport for some reason. It's always full leaving Busarus on a Friday.
* If you are unfortunate to miss the 16:30 then there's a bus on the half hour every hour up until 21:30 but the 17:30 is ofter very full leaving Busarus as well.
* For people in the city centre, there's a 17:45 express service that only picks up at Busarus that gets into Arklow before the 17:30 #2. Driver is a bit of a mad man but he certainly makes good time.

That's about it for times. One good thing about the service is that if you are working you can your weekly/monthly/annual ticket through TaxSaver.ie. It works out great for me as it's €218 per month before tax (so roughly €140 ish after tax or €35 per week) and when I was driving it was costing me €70/€80 per week in petrol (when petrol was €1 a litre :eek:)

Hope this helps.

TechnoFreek

Thanks paudy, very informative and confirms how I thought the service was operating.

This is my second week getting the bus. The 7.15 morning service is great, always loads of seats. Was crazy fast today - was at my desk a shade after 8.20!

Evening service is a different story. Twice last week the 4.30 bus was full arriving to rds so had to wait for 5.30 view. I rang bus eireann and they sais they had no free drivers to run extra bus. Tough titty basically. Anyway I have complaint letter drafted outlining my dissatisfaction with lack of seats. Many evenings I've gotten the last free seat meaning people at ucd etc have to wait.

One other thing I love about the evening bus - the junkies down the back.
I was in among them one day last week. Classy

P.S. does the earlier number 5 pick up at the rds do you know? Thanks

Diairist

is there a private bus service / company that does Wicklow town - Dublin? Thanks.

LXFlyer

No - Just Bus Eireann.

Out of curiosity what's wrong with the 133?