Strike Transport - Dublin to Blessington

madfred

Since it looks like the 65 bus will not be running this week, is there an alternative way to get to Blessington from Dublin city centre? Any private bus companies etc? Have no car.

If not then I'm looking at using up my holidays for the year

nlgbbbblth

Bus Eireann do go through Blessington - have a look http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1360752674-005.pdf

madfred

I checked the journey planner on their site and from what I can tell the only bus leaves Dublin at 06:30 and arrives in Blessington at 10:40! That can't be right, can it?

nlgbbbblth

The timetable I posted shows the bus leaving Busarus at 9.00am and arriving in Blessington at 09.38am. Although it says "P" (pick-up only at Blessington).

n97 mini

nlgbbbblth wrote: »

The timetable I posted shows the bus leaving Busarus at 9.00am and arriving in Blessington at 09.38am. Although it says "P" (pick-up only at Blessington).

In the Dublin Bus franchise areas the other bus operators are not allowed offer services which would compete with DB, and hence are Pickup or Set Down only in those areas.

madfred

But when Dublin Bus aren't running will Bus Eireann drop me off in Blessington?

Vic_08

n97 mini wrote: »

In the Dublin Bus franchise areas the other bus operators are not allowed offer services which would compete with DB, and hence are Pickup or Set Down only in those areas.

Not one part of that sentence is true.

Dublin Bus do not have a franchise or franchise area.

There is no ban on other operators serving areas that Dublin Bus serve, if there were Aircoach, Swords Express, Urbus, Mortons, AMC, Finnegans etc would not exist. Fact is unlike long distance services the economics of city bus is not appealing to small operators and the big UK and international operators that would have deep enough pockets to compete have so far shown no interest.

There are a number of areas where Bus Eireann and Dublin Bus overlap and serve the same places. None of these are on the Expressway network however as these services are by their nature long distance and catering for local traffic within Dublin would slow them down and take up seats needed for long distance passengers.

While the same is true for the most part on Bus Eireann commuter routes there are some places where they cater for City bound traffic as well as Dublin Bus such as Balbriggan on the 101, Newtownmountkennedy and Kilmacanogue on the 133.

n97 mini

Obviously I'm not talking about other Dublin based bus services like the Swords Express.

Is the BE route 5 licensed by the NTA to drop in Blessington on its way south?

nlgbbbblth

n97 mini wrote: »

Obviously I'm not talking about other Dublin based bus services like the Swords Express.

Is the BE route 5 licensed by the NTA to drop in Blessington on its way south?

I've caught it from Blessington (last time was about 10 years ago) when going to New Ross and people have disembarked at that point. Have no idea what it's like now.

OP's best bet is to turn up at Busarus tomorrow morning and try to buy a ticket to Blessington. He'll also need to establish whether he can get on in the evening - the above timetable for the return journey says "D" [drop-off only].