Aircoach launching Belfast - Dublin Airport - Dublin City Express

devnull

Just saw on the Aircoach site that they now appear to be taking bookings for a new express service between Belfast (Glengall Street), Dublin Airport, and Dublin City Centre (O'Connell Street)

Does anyone have any more details on this service as there does not appear to be any timetable on the site?

Lapin

Didn't Bus Éireann drop this route recently ?

devnull

I know Bus Eireann ran it summer only last year, with half a dozen services every day, but haven't heard if its coming back this year.

foggy_lad

Tried a test booking for tomorrow and returning a week later and got this message

Sorry. Services on the Belfast Express route will not be introduced until 12th June 2012. Please adjust your journey details and try again.

It appears to be an hourly service between O'Connell St and Belfast only serving the Airport. €17/£14 single and €24/£20 return.

I havwe not seen any advertising or other indication of this service anywhere on the Aircoach site apart from the Travel-shop they have opened in Glengall street.

foggy_lad

devnull wrote: »

I know Bus Eireann ran it summer only last year, with half a dozen services every day, but haven't heard if its coming back this year.

Bus Eireann are running their X2 express service again

FROM 17TH JUNE TO 15TH SEPTEMBER 2012

but it leaves from the Airport instead of the City Centre

http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1306337595-1.pdf

coylemj

I'm intrigued by the thread title, do the passengers have to toss their bags out and leap from the bus while it's passing Dublin airport if the coach is 'non-stop' to Dublin city?

devnull

It'll be interesting to see if this works then, personally I think it's going to be very hard to make work, even more so than the Cork route, but we'll see what happens.

There is nothing to stop Bus Eireann and Ulsterbus upping their services, as I believe you do not need a license to start a cross border service so if they do this they could pretty much kill such service before it even starts.

coylemj wrote: »

I'm intrigued by the thread title, do the passengers have to toss their bags out and leap from the bus while it's passing Dublin airport if the coach is 'non-stop' to Dublin city?

Yeah, it's a bit confusing alright, fixed it.

J_Dublin15

devnull wrote: »

Just saw on the Aircoach site that they now appear to be taking bookings for a new express service between Belfast (Glengall Street), Dublin Airport, and Dublin City Centre (O'Connell Street)

Does anyone have any more details on this service as there does not appear to be any timetable on the site?

If you play with the online booking engine you can get a rough idea of frequency and fares and the timetable, I managed to extract this by playing around.

TIMETABLE:
From Belfast (Gengall Street)
Hourly from 00:30 to 20:30 then 22:30

From Dublin (O'Connell Street)
01:30 Hourly from 03:30 to 23:30

From Dublin Airport
00:00 02:00 04:00 then hourly for rest of day.

FARES:
To/From Dublin City
Dublin City to/from Belfast Adult Single: 17 Euro / 14 Sterling
Dublin City to/from Belfast Adult Return: 24 Euro / 20 Sterling
Dublin City to/from Belfast Child Single: 10 Euro / 09 Sterling
Dublin City to/from Belfast Child Single: 15 Euro / 12 Sterling

To/From Dublin Airport
Dublin Airport to/from Belfast Adult Single: 16 Euro / 13 Sterling
Dublin Airport to/from Belfast Adult Return: 23 Euro / 19 Sterling
Dublin Airport to/from Belfast Child Single: 09 Euro / 08 Sterling
Dublin Airport to/from Belfast Child Return: 14 Euro / 11 Sterling

It is strange they do not have the full timetable up, or journey time however.

devnull

So basically same old failings really with regards to information, marketing and the website, I'm not really surprised to be honest, it seems they will never resolve this issues. If they were not ready to publicly announce the service why allow tickets to be booked?

If the service is launching on the 12th June, it's very poor form that:
1) There is such short notice before the service starts.
2) You can book tickets, but you have no idea when the bus will arrive as there is no full timetable.
3) Because of the above, there is no clear details of exactly where the bus stops in the three locations are.
4) There is absolutely no mention of the service anywhere on the site.

All in all it's pretty much typical of what we've seen in the past. I read the commuter Cork services finish tomorrow, what is the bets that come this day they'll still be listing the services on the website even though they don't run anymore.

I was thinking they'd learn from their mistakes, it seems not, unless they prove me wrong in the next couple of days.

SandyfordGuy

The service does not exist at present as it has not been officially announced. No doubt IT have jumped the gun and allowed tickets to be booked when they should not have so if anyone books a ticket then they could set themselves up for disappointment.

However unfortunately I've seen one person moaning that the Cork commuter service they went to get was not running. Even though it's clearly stated on the news page, the whole Aircoach site still lists such services even though they have now finished.

All of the site should have been updated yesterday, it's unforgivable it still has not been done. I presume the person who is going to do this is not available for whatever reason but still it's no excuse, it gives off a very poor impression and whilst I defended them for the last few months this is not defend-able.

SandyfordGuy

The service will start on the 11th of May:
http://www.aircoach.ie/news.article.php?ID=358

Aircoach is very pleased to announce that, on Monday 11th June 2012, it will be launching a new Express service linking Belfast, Dublin Airport and Dublin City Centre, 24 hours a day. The first service will depart from Belfast at 15:30 on Monday 11th June, and the first service will depart from Dublin at 18:30 (City) and 19:00 (Airport).

With 22 daily trips each way, the service will depart from Glengall Street, Belfast, and will call at both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport before reaching O'Connell Street, in the heart of Dublin City Centre.

The journey time from Belfast to Dublin Airport is scheduled to be 1 hr 50 minutes, with the journey time from Belfast to Dublin City Centre scheduled to be just 2 hrs 10 mins. (Services from Dublin City Centre to Belfast are scheduled to be 2hr 20 mins).

Tickets are now available for booking on our website for journeys from Tuesday 12th June 2012 onwards, and you can pay in advance or onboard the coach in either Euro or Sterling. (Please note that Tickets purchased from our Customer Service Staff at Dublin Airport Terminal 1 or 2 can only be purchased in Euro).

The timetable page will soon be available on www.aircoach.ie and www.goaircoach.co.uk, however the departures will be as follows:

Depart Belfast to Dublin Airport / Dublin City Centre:
00:30, 01:30, 02:30, 03:30, 04:30, 05:30, 06:30, 07:30, 08:30, 09:30, 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, 13:30, 14:30, 15:30, 16:30, 17:30, 18:30, 19:30, 20:30 and 22:30.

Depart Dublin City Centre to Belfast:
01:30, 03:30, 04:30, 05:30, 06:30, 07:30, 08:30, 09:30, 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, 13:30, 14:30, 15:30, 16:30, 17:30, 18:30, 19:30, 20:30, 21:30, 22:30 and 23:30.

Depart Dublin Airport Terminal 1 to Belfast:
02:00, 04:00, 05:00, 06:00, 07:00, 08:00, 09:00, 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00, 15:00, 16:00, 17:00, 18:00, 19:00, 20:00, 21:00, 22:00, 23:00 and 23:59.

(please note the service will depart from Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport 5 minutes before the departure time for Terminal 1).

If would like any further information, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Service Team on +353 (0) 1 844 7118 or +44 (0) 28 9033 0655 between 09:00 and 17:30, 7 days a week, or by email at info@aircoach.ie / info@goaircoach.co.uk

RadioCity

This re-start of the Belfast Dublin is interesting. I've heard that First in Britain is not in a good way finacially (like many bus companies).

If First breaks up in any shape in the future, the Belfast-Dublin route will be seen as something of an asset in any sell off. Maybe more value is attached to this cross border route by the company than a route in Cork.

Also Glengall Street is a very congested spot at the best of times, not sure where they have negotiated a parking spot. Rooney's, local company in Co Down operate a Warrenpoint-Newry-Belfast Express in competition with Ulsterbus and recently secured a departure bay in the Europa Buscentre. Maybe this is on Aircoach's to-do list also?

devnull

First are having some problems and their share price has took a dive, but all of their units are overall still profitable so it's not the crisis that some people make it out to be. But of course there are challenges to overcome.

There are problems with the UK bus division in certain areas, but it's not an issue that plights the whole of the bus business. The American businesses are still pretty strong as are the rail businesses i nthe UK. there needs to be some restructuring in UK bus and asset disposals perhaps but no major break-up required, just disposal of some assets which are heavily loss making.

There are lots of politics regarding access to the Europa Bus Centre, especially on routes which compete with Translink/Ulsterbus services, which has resulted in some fun and games down the years. I know Aircoach took them to the UK Office of fare trading years ago but no idea what came of it other than it was a very long, very dragged out affair.

SandyfordGuy

RadioCity - Not sure what your source is but you're way wide of the mark here.

Glengall Street is considered part of the Europa Bus Centre believe it or not, even though you wouldn't think it location wise. Aircoach apparently won a court case against Translink in relation to fair and equal access to the Europa so therefore Translink were forced to give them access to the Bus Station which of course they were none to happy to actually do for many years in the past, as the previous poster pointed out.

With a court order though, if that was the case, Translink had no choice but to do that, so they're going to give them the worst positioned stop stop on Glengall Street, as it's legally part of the bus station, and therefore they are fulfilling what the court asked them to. Of course some may say that is them trying to do as little as possible to fulfill the order, but fulfill it non the less, but it shows there is a long way to go before we have anything like proper fair access to the Europa.

foggy_lad

Will this new service take many passengers from the Enterprise trains?

devnull

Probably not because people have to actually know about the service to use it, and I would expect the Ulsterbus/Bus Eireann and NIR/IE partnerships will do whatever they can to stop it.

There's still no timetable on the Aircoach site, that speaks volumes.

munchkin_utd

foggy_lad wrote: »

Will this new service take many passengers from the Enterprise trains?

funny you mention that.

When the rail line was closed due to the bridge near skerries being repaired it was found that the Belfast rail passengers switched to travelling by car rather than bus.
(dont have a source for that but im sure a search engine would throw up the relevant info!)

foggy_lad

munchkin_utd wrote: »

funny you mention that.

When the rail line was closed due to the bridge near skerries being repaired it was found that the Belfast rail passengers switched to travelling by car rather than bus.
(dont have a source for that but im sure a search engine would throw up the relevant info!)

Possibly because they saw it as a temporary closure of the line, or they are just enterprise snobs? some people are still of the opinion that travelling on a slower less frequent noisier train is better than boarding a clean comfortable bus and getting to your destination on time without the risk of security alerts, leaf fall slippage or other rail related delays. the enterprise is so unreliable there is a serious delay almost daily!

Many travel on the train because they have two or more of those large shopping trollies loaded up with cheap beer and wine from newry/belfast, they couldn't really be expected to risk loading them into the luggage bay of a bus but if asked they would probably say while they like the train and having the toilets they would prefer if it was half the price like the bus is!

devnull

Still nothing on the site with the full timetable.

Everyone will stay in their cars for sure at this rate.

SandyfordGuy

It is there, you need to look under quick links in the top right:
http://www.aircoach.ie/table.routes.belfast.php

A flyer can be found here:
http://www.aircoach.ie/media/Belfast%20120612.pdf

The fares can be found here:
http://www.aircoach.ie/aircoach.fares.php

devnull

Yeah, I forgot this was Aircoach we were talking about, it would make far too much sense for them to place the link to the timetable on the page marked "Timetables" or at the bottom of the page next to the word "Timetables" when they could bury it somewhere illogical. that nobody could find it.

The flyer is another huge own goal. It references a UK telephone number, a UK Website address, and seems to target people in Belfast travelling to Dublin. It even lists all of the prices in sterling only and no mentions in Euro. I can imagine that going down well with the Pro Ireland brigade. I'd hope they've done another version which is going to be distributed within Ireland to target people going to Belfast.

Also appears someone has forgotten what day it is today, seeing as they believe it is a Saturday when in fact it is a Tuesday. Once again, lacking attention to detail, no care taken and nobody looking at it from a customers point of view. One thing is for sure, the people who update the website simply don't use it because if they did they wouldn't have such problems.

bk

And what in gods name does "Catch Yourself On." mean?

Can't they just replace these stupid, non English sub titles with something meaningful like "Just 2 hours 10 minutes".

Yes the flyer should also have the Euro prices and the Irish numbers and website, etc.

foggy_lad

bk wrote: »

And what in gods name does "Catch Yourself On." mean?

Can't they just replace these stupid, non English sub titles with something meaningful like "Just 2 hours 10 minutes".

Yes the flyer should also have the Euro prices and the Irish numbers and website, etc.

Read the flyer with an accent and it should mean you'd be mad to get the train:D

devnull

bk wrote: »

And what in gods name does "Catch Yourself On." mean?

Can't they just replace these stupid, non English sub titles with something meaningful like "Just 2 hours 10 minutes".

Yes the flyer should also have the Euro prices and the Irish numbers and website, etc.

They're a lost cause really, they seem to be targeting just passengers in Belfast when they need to be targeting both ends. Just like on the Cork route they seem to be targeting only Cork people and little to no promotion in Dublin.

Has anyone actually pointed out to them where they are going wrong and did they get anything back? I wouldn't be surprised if even if you did, they didn't really take any of it on board. They certainly ignore any tweets to them on twitter.

bk

devnull wrote: »

They're a lost cause really, they seem to be targeting just passengers in Belfast when they need to be targeting both ends. Just like on the Cork route they seem to be targeting only Cork people and little to no promotion in Dublin.

Well just targeting people on the Cork end isn't a bad idea. Much cheaper to advertise in Cork then Dublin. Plus the main passengers tend to be students and ex-corkonians living in Dublin. If they don't hear about it directly, their family back in Cork will tell them about it.

Citylink/GoBus do the same on the Galway route with almost all of the advertising in Galway and it seems to have worked well for them.

So not a bad strategy. However I agree that Belfast - Dublni is different, many people in Dublin interested in going North for shopping and tourism, so you want to do at least some advertising in Dublin.

devnull wrote: »

Has anyone actually pointed out to them where they are going wrong and did they get anything back? I wouldn't be surprised if even if you did, they didn't really take any of it on board. They certainly ignore any tweets to them on twitter.

I'd be very surprised if they aren't reading this thread. They certainly seem to making some changes (i.e. getting more strict on the toilet stop, etc.) based on feedback on this thread.

ballooba

foggy_lad wrote: »

Many travel on the train because they have two or more of those large shopping trollies loaded up with cheap beer and wine from newry/belfast, they couldn't really be expected to risk loading them into the luggage bay of a bus but if asked they would probably say while they like the train and having the toilets they would prefer if it was half the price like the bus is!

I'm making a trip up to Belfast by Enterprise in two weeks. It's my first time by train and my first time visiting in a number of years. My ticket was EUR 10 each way from Connolly. It seemed to me that it would be more comfortable to have the space of the train. It's cheaper too if you get it at that price?

foggy_lad

ballooba wrote: »

I'm making a trip up to Belfast by Enterprise in two weeks. It's my first time by train and my first time visiting in a number of years. My ticket was EUR 10 each way from Connolly. It seemed to me that it would be more comfortable to have the space of the train. It's cheaper too if you get it at that price?

Well done on booking in advance to take advantage of limited time offers with conditions including a €10 surcharge to change the time of your train.

Can you walk into connolly station and get a standard ticket at that price? Seems strange also that they dont list the prices for the Dublin-Belfast service on their website.

ballooba

foggy_lad wrote: »

Well done on booking in advance to take advantage of limited time offers with conditions including a €10 surcharge to change the time of your train.

I'm unlikely to need to change the time of my train, and if I do I'll take consequences. I don't have an agenda, and I'm not trying to make a point. But it seems to me that I got a good deal, even if I did have to book early.

highlydebased

ballooba wrote: »

I'm making a trip up to Belfast by Enterprise in two weeks. It's my first time by train and my first time visiting in a number of years. My ticket was EUR 10 each way from Connolly. It seemed to me that it would be more comfortable to have the space of the train. It's cheaper too if you get it at that price?

And it is more comfortable- I used the Enterprise for the first time 2 weeks ago after a long time of using the bus, after they brought in the 10 euro offer for the Enterprise. I'll continue to use the enterprise too. I generally plan my trip to the second so save for unforeseen circumstances I'll have no need to change train times either

J_Dublin15

bk wrote: »

I'd be very surprised if they aren't reading this thread. They certainly seem to making some changes (i.e. getting more strict on the toilet stop, etc.) based on feedback on this thread.

Well my experience with them in this regard is very poor, I can't say they are the most customer focused when it comes to interacting with their customers, they completely ignore questions via Twitter, and often ignore emails. Their services are good but they let themselves down by the customer services aspect.

Vahevala

J_Dublin15 wrote: »

Well my experience with them in this regard is very poor, I can't say they are the most customer focused when it comes to interacting with their customers, they completely ignore questions via Twitter, and often ignore emails. Their services are good but they let themselves down by the customer services aspect.

I have to agree with you, as an avid user of twitter, I used to follow aircoach on there but seeing as they follow zero people and they update maybe a couple of times a month (if that), I unfollowed them and I suspect many others will as well.

devnull

I just checked their twitter and Facebook (which is advertised nowhere on their site), and it seems they haven't even tweeted about the Belfast service, nor have they posted about it on Facebook.

A quick search shows they're also getting a lot of people tweeting them who are not being answered, and also looking at their Facebook it seems that they don't seem to take criticism very well with any moan issued with a canned response of "We'll pass it to management"

bk

Yes their marketing strategy is very poor.

Looking after twitter, facebook, etc. is typically part of the marketing persons job. I assume they have at least one marketing person. Would it really be that difficult for the marketing person to read, update and respond on facebook and twitter once a day. It only takes five minutes.

If they don't have a dedicated marketing person, then one of the customer service people who answers the phone could do it.

I know one person companies who manage to do this religiously every day and thus have a very good relationship with their customers.

Citylink and GoBus do an excellent job in this area.

The reason I say they do read this thread, is because I think management are actually reading this thread, versus the cs/marketing people who look after twitter/emails/etc.

I know for a fact that lot of people, including management, from the public transport companies read these forums, as it is about the broader topics of the industry and their competitors, rather then just an individuals once off issue.

Out on this very public forum, it gets much greater exposure.

Don't forget journalists also lurk on boards, a few times I've been quoted word for word in news paper articles and even in consultancy reports!!

devnull

That is my problem with Aircoach - a lot of these things do not take a lot of time yet they are still not done. To be fair to them they do seem to respond to queries on Facebook pretty quickly, but they do not advertise they have a Facebook presence anywhere, having a Facebook icon on the timetable is no good if they have no mention of it on their website or a link.

What ideally needs to happen is the following:
1) Someone spend an hour or two going through the website, reviewing and updating every page and bringing it all up to date.
2) Every time news is posted, cross post it on Facebook and on Twitter. There are applications you can even get to do it for you.
3) Make sure Facebook and Twitter is promoted more heavily on the website. All you need is a little icon, like the one on the Dublin Bus site. Social networking DOES drum up extra business.
4) Respond to all tweets. Customer service staff should be doing this themselves. It's not hard to log in and check a few times a day.
5) Be more open to criticism, as I used to say in an old job, every interaction we have with a customer is a chance to exceed their expectations.
6) The Belfast service has launched. Why not set the website up to randomly alternate between a banner for Belfast and one for Cork? That is what I did in a previous company in another industry.

You know if routes don't work at the end of the day Aircoach need to take a long hard look at themselves, it doesn't matter how operationally excellent you are if you get the basics in other areas wrong. With competition being so fierce, you would expect that Bus Eireann, GoBus and Irish Rail and any other competitors will look to exploit what they see as being Aircoach's worst failings. A modern, dynamic, well run company will make sure that they close such opportunistic chances of rivals by ensuring it is all up to scratch and there is no gap left to exploit in the first place.

Unfortunately for all concerned a buy out and a new management team may be better for everyone in the long run. Aircoach used to be a visionary company but now it seems to be treading water and lacking effort in areas. More attention to detail, engagement with it''s customers and target market is required if they want to be successful in such a tough marketplace.

bk

devnull wrote: »

What ideally needs to happen is the following:
1) Someone spend an hour or two going through the website, reviewing and updating every page and bringing it all up to date.
3) Make sure Facebook and Twitter is promoted more heavily on the website. All you need is a little icon, like the one on the Dublin Bus site. Social networking DOES drum up extra business.
6) The Belfast service has launched. Why not set the website up to randomly alternate between a banner for Belfast and one for Cork? That is what I did in a previous company in another industry.

I'm guessing they don't have anyone on staff who has web programming skills, which is why it takes so long to update the site.

What I think they need to do is contract someone in to build them a new website using a content management system (CMS) like Drupal.

With a good CMS system in place, a non techy person can update most parts of the site without any technological knowledge going forward.

Actually if anyone from Aircoach management is reading this, then I'll offer to do it for free, I'm a software engineer.

The newly designed site could include twitter and facebook feeds like the Citylink site does.

devnull wrote: »

2) Every time news is posted, cross post it on Facebook and on Twitter. There are applications you can even get to do it for you.
4) Respond to all tweets. Customer service staff should be doing this themselves. It's not hard to log in and check a few times a day.
5) Be more open to criticism, as I used to say in an old job, every interaction we have with a customer is a chance to exceed their expectations.

Yup, Tweetdeck is an excellent app for doing this and cross posting between facebook and twitter.

devnull wrote: »

Unfortunately for all concerned a buy out and a new management team may be better for everyone in the long run. Aircoach used to be a visionary company but now it seems to be treading water and lacking effort in areas. More attention to detail, engagement with it''s customers and target market is required if they want to be successful in such a tough marketplace.

Yes, I think perhaps if they were an Irish only company, they might have more focus on these sort of things.

devnull

They just lack attention to detail most IMHO and you're probably right with regards to the web skills. I'd assume the news system is via a CMS and the online ticketing system has some sort of admin tool when the rest does not, hence why stuff is not updating. But if that was the case they should have got a new website built long before now, the existing one has been around for around 7-8 years (check archive.org for aircoach.ie).

To the outsider though they generally don't seem bothered which is a bad thing and can create a negative perception. They are spending money on marketing, but just contracting someone to do web work for them just to fix up the problems and improve things even for a couple of days would be a big help. They need people who are creative, passionate and have flair and desire to improve such things and they seem to lack that.

I doubt anyone from Aircoach is reading this, but would be nice if they are!

J_Dublin15

Well if you want to know what my gripe was about, it was in relation to the fact that when the fares changed in March, some were actually reduced. However, the online booking system is still charging the higher fare, which means it's cheaper to buy on bus than online but when I'm abroad with foreign currencies I don't always have euros to hand when I get back to Dublin so I'd like to buy online.

I mailed them in March and they told me that they would pass it on to their IT team and resolve it, but it was not resolved. I mailed therm at the start of the week to point out it still had not been fixed and got no reply so in future if I don't have the euros to hand I'll just use leap on DB.

devnull

The Coach stop at O'Connell Street opposite the Gresham has NO INFORMATION in it. It seems that someone has took out the Airport service information, and replaced it with nothing so now we have empty timetable displays. Is it so hard to print out a sheet of paper, put it in the display for both services? Why remove the old one if you didn't have a new one to put in?

Once again another failing, hence a confused gentleman asking passers by, does the coach to Belfast go from here or the other side of the road, I told him I had no idea but I assume he was at the right stop but I couldn't be sure. Then some taxi drivers came along and poached another two passengers waiting for the airport as I had the conversation, the taxi driver argued that the service has ceased, hence why there was no timetable.

Obviously incorrect, but once again, self inflicted by Aircoach. How do you expect people to trust the service when there is no timetable information at the stop. I think they're getting worse for updating on street information than Dublin Bus, and really that is quite something.

J_Dublin15

I still have not heard from Aircoach in reply to my point in relation to ripping off people who book online by charging higher fares than they charge on the bus for certain stops. This is despite the fact the fares section on the Aircoach website suggests the price should be the same online as it is on the bus.

I can see from looking around on Twitter that many people have had problems with Aircoach and their poor attitude towards their customers in the past few weeks non e of which have been graced with an answer by the company. It is a sad state of affairs when the company appears to be refusing to deal with any complaints as it seems they are holding their customers in that low regard.

It is sad to see how the company has gone down in many peoples estimations but I doubt anyone cares and if anyone is reading this they probably won't take it seriously anyway and think complaints on this thread are not valid. Back to Dublin Bus for me I think, they've lost one customer and I'm sure I'll not be the only one.

ballooba

devnull wrote: »

Then some taxi drivers came along and poached another two passengers waiting for the airport as I had the conversation, the taxi driver argued that the service has ceased, hence why there was no timetable.

Obviously incorrect, but once again, self inflicted by Aircoach.

Or an industrious cabbie has removed it.

devnull

That is quite likely, you know what they are like

However if they did, they did a good job as they lifted up the cover, took the paper out, and then put the cover back up! Personally considering the fact the Cork Timetable was the wrong one, I'd say is unlikely.

SandyfordGuy

Saw some people get turned away from a BE service this morning, coach only half full, seems they ran out of luggage space. Still. don't see this benefiting Aircoach on the route as it seems there has been no advertising of this service anywhere,

foggy_lad

SandyfordGuy wrote: »

Saw some people get turned away from a BE service this morning, coach only half full, seems they ran out of luggage space. Still. don't see this benefiting Aircoach on the route as it seems there has been no advertising of this service anywhere,

on one of their new multi million euro coaches?

BenShermin

SandyfordGuy wrote: »

Saw some people get turned away from a BE service this morning, coach only half full, seems they ran out of luggage space. Still. don't see this benefiting Aircoach on the route as it seems there has been no advertising of this service anywhere,

Another feck up by BÉ there. I wonder would the Ulsterbus Goldliner buses have a simular problem?

With IÉ/NIR being so cheap on this route if you book three days in advance I can't see myself ever using the bus on this route tbh. Although both Aircoach and BÉ seem to be centred on getting pax to/from Dublin Airport on this route?

highlydebased

BenShermin wrote: »

Another feck up by BÉ there. I wonder would the Ulsterbus Goldliner buses have a simular problem?

With IÉ/NIR being so cheap on this route if you book three days in advance I can't see myself ever using the bus on this route tbh. Although both Aircoach and BÉ seem to be centred on getting pax to/from Dublin Airport on this route?

The Goldline buses have very little luggage space too. It makes me very paranoid that my case could easily be nabbed....

SandyfordGuy

The problem is that there are very few double decker coaches that are suited to a large amount of luggage on the market and most of the ones that are able to handle such amount of luggage are often those from Belgium coach builder Vanhool and the German built Setra (Part of Mercedes-Benz). Excellent coaches but heavily expensive which is why they're rarely seen on scheduled services and instead tend to be used for private hires, tours and that kind of thing.

You then have the coaches such as Bus Eireann and Ulsterbus have, which have less luggage space, with the aim of getting more seating in the lower deck, because the more passengers you fit in the more economical that makes the coach on busy routes. However there is a trade off for luggage space here, as generally it's limited to behind the seating section of the lower deck, when you don't have any under coach areas to store it and obviously the bigger you make this area, the less seating you get in downstairs.

Generally the models operated by BE/UB are not designed to operate on routes such as the ones they are being operated on at the moment. They are designed for moving large numbers of people at once, but not for a coach full of passengers who will have huge cases on an airport route. The coaches simply don't have the large luggage space that they need for such operation.

The only way around it now they have the coaches is to add a luggage compartment that fixes to the back of the coach as can be seen in countries in mainland Europe, although that is not without problems either.

bk

So anyone actually use this service yet?

How was it?

What sort of coaches are they using?

Toilets on board?

What are the loadings like?

Actually it is surprising how comprehensive this schedule is. They have 22 journeys per direction per day, so almost one an hour. Versus 17 journeys on the Cork route!!

I would have thought it would be better to use the extra journeys on the Cork route where you face no competition, versus the established hourly 24 hour service already offered by BE/UL.

devnull

The journey is much shorter though, so you would probably need less coaches to run 22 services on the Belfast route vs 17 on the Cork.

Although the service HAS to be marketed more for it to be a success.

SandyfordGuy

There has been marketing on Cool FM in Belfast, a Radio Station, whilst it appears they have changed their Facebook picture to mention the Belfast instead of the Cork service, so lets not say they are making no effort. There was also a piece in the Irish News.

SandyfordGuy

BK: To answer your question they appear to be using the Blue Setras.

ballooba

Planning to use this on Sunday, do I need to book?