MAJOR Changes to Cavan-Dublin 109 Bus Service

munchkin_utd

As of May 29th, (almost)all weekday services from Cavan to Dublin on the 109 will be non stop on the M3 Motorway between Kells and Blanchardstown and then to/ from town via the motorway to the airport and (port tunnel?) onward to town.

The exception being the first couple of busses in the morning to Dublin, which skip the airport and are extended to Stephens Green.
And in the evening, the peak time busses will start in the south inner city too.

This should mean EVERY bus is able to make the journey to/ from Dublin in a sub 2 hour time rather than about 3 hours currently with all the farting about in Dunshaughlin and back roads in Navan.
New 109 Timetable, Cavan-Kells-Blanch-Airport-Busaras

Kells-Navan-Dunshaughlin-Dublin busses remain the same as before, and take the "old" road.

On the downside, the odd passenger heading to/from Cabra/ North Circular Road etc will need to change in Kells (on weekdays) for the bus taking the "old road".
Both the Cavan "express" busses and the Navan-Kells "old road" busses will stop at Blanchardstown, so on paper that could be an interchange point too, but whether it would be allowed to get a Kells bus from Cabra Road to Blanchardstown just to catch the Cavan bus is a good question!!

On the plus side, for any Cavan people heading abroad or coming home, its an hourly service to the airport during the day on top of the late night early morning options with the nr 30 Donegal bus.

Also on the plus side, for anyone commuting to the many offices in the stephens green area, these changes should save 2 hours plus off your daily commute with the bypassed towns and 15min walk to/ from Busaras.

unclebill98

About bloody time. I've only needed to use it twice but in total that's 7 hours of my life I'm never getting back.

BernieEFC

Thanks for telling us all that info, a great help:-)

munchkin_utd

BernieEFC wrote: »

Thanks for telling us all that info, a great help:-)

no probs!

I also spot that the 6am Cavan-Dublin now extends to UCD getting in at 8.20! A wee bit early for a 9am lecture but on the other hand plenty of time for traffic delays and /or a quick coffee on arrival in Belfield.

BernieEFC

excellent!

Dean_Mc

Does anyone know where abouts you get on the bus at blanchardstown sc? Is it on the other side of the slip road?

spinzes

about ****ing time , excuse the profanity but jeasus the m3 opened ages ago , you'd think they'd have an express service ready to roll out when it opened ?? muppets but no they though they'd wait a year or so then do , thats the cavan way

munchkin_utd

spinzes wrote: »

about ****ing time , excuse the profanity but jeasus the m3 opened ages ago , you'd think they'd have an express service ready to roll out when it opened ?? muppets but no they though they'd wait a year or so then do , thats the cavan way

no, its the irish way.

Until this spring, a law from 1932 was in force regulating bus routes/ times etc.
It stated that NO 2 companies can operate on the same route and pretty much the first person with an application for a "route" gets it and no questions asked keeps it, till the rapture ends the world.
Literally.
AND those who were unsuccessful in getting a licence could potentially sue the arse off the civil service for not getting permission.
So thus the safest option was for the department of transport to do nothing because their remit was not to make the commuters like better, it was to avoid getting sued.
For example, see the way there was no 7pm Bus from Cavan to Dublin on a Sunday? (the only break in the hourly service all week BTW) That was specifically due to a certain private company in Cavan threatening legal action as they "owned" the magical concept of a 7pm bus on a Sunday from Dublin to Cavan!!! They also had the early bus from Cavan to Dublin stopped at one stage as they also "owned" the concept of an early bus too.

Since this spring though, theres a new regime ran by the NTA.
The PRIMARY grounds for issuing licences now is whether it will make the commuters life easier with preference given to people applying for routes who offer a worker friendly/ frequent/ fast service.
So you now have a Cavan-Monaghan route which has early and late departures and also a brand new service to Granard-Athboy from
Cavan 4 times a day.

So its irrelevant how long the motorway is opened. The licence/ permission to run on the motorway is only being considered by the NTA since christmas time. So really they have been super fast in getting the permission sorted in 5 months compared to the previous shower who could take years.
Not to mention, theres apparantly a massive backlog of bus licence decisions pending so they are not only working on the Cavan-Dublin situation but many other routes are also awaiting a decision that the Dept of Transport were too scared to make.

spinzes

that amazing , how is competition ever to come about with dibs on routes , lol , anyway it still seems daft there only getting it together now

cavancola73

Does this mean anyone going to Navan or Dunshaughlin, have to get off at kells and wait for the connecting bus??

I think bus eireann should have though things out a bit better and mybe put on an express bus every second hour and give people the option to take the normal bus going to navan and dunshaughlin!!

munchkin_utd

cavancola73 wrote: »

Does this mean anyone going to Navan or Dunshaughlin, have to get off at kells and wait for the connecting bus??

I think bus eireann should have though things out a bit better and mybe put on an express bus every second hour and give people the option to take the normal bus going to navan and dunshaughlin!!

to be honest, the vast vast majority of people getting on the bus in Cavan or Virginia are going to Dublin.
For those looking for an easy way to Navan/ Dunshaughlin, theres still a bus from Cavan at 9 heading for dublin via navan and 16.30 leaving Dublin to Cavan via Navan, not to mention a student special in the morning heading to Cavan College from Navan.

I would have though a more valid critisism would have been that the original timetable did not pick up at Matter/ Cabra road in favour of heading via the port tunnel and airport - but the revised timetable now skips the airport at peak times in favour of the "old road" from the M50 to the centre so for people working in the North inner city its perfect.

Heres the most up to date version of the new timetable:
http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1306504755-109.pdf

johnmcdnl

about time is all I can say... all those hours wasted going up and home from college last year