Dublin Bus route 46a

S Barrett

How many buses would work the 46a route at peak times?

Michael D Not Higgins

15-20

S Barrett

I was driving past Connyham Rd bus garage on Friday and noticed that the 46a drivers turn around in the garage and head back out. Is the 46a still a Donnybrook bus or do some of them work out of Connyham Rd?

Michael D Not Higgins

Phoenix Park is the terminus so I think the garage is just a convenient place to turn around for the return leg. Not sure about that although I'm sure someone else could clarify.

dfx-

Some of them used to turn in and out of C/Rd garage and back up Infirmary Rd instead of just turning right onto Infirmary Rd.

Now I think it's a new policy so to speak of turning around behind the 26/66/67 stop on Parkgate Street. Every 46A is a Donnybrook bus, bar the odd returning 41X, 32X etc bus coming back from Belfield in the morning.

When the 46A operated to Mountjoy Square, you might see a VT going into Summerhill Garage (which has no VTs) to take their breaks. There's a great photo of one coming out of Summerhill.

StreetLight

The 46A uses either Parkgate Street or Conyngham Road Garage because buses at the usual turn-around point at O'Devaney Gardens were regularly being pelted with stones by the locals.

S Barrett

dfx- wrote: »

Some of them used to turn in and out of C/Rd garage and back up Infirmary Rd instead of just turning right onto Infirmary Rd.

Now I think it's a new policy so to speak of turning around behind the 26/66/67 stop on Parkgate Street. Every 46A is a Donnybrook bus, bar the odd returning 41X, 32X etc bus coming back from Belfield in the morning.

When the 46A operated to Mountjoy Square, you might see a VT going into Summerhill Garage (which has no VTs) to take their breaks. There's a great photo of one coming out of Summerhill.

I saw one standing at that stop on Parkgate Street as well. It must be up to the driver whether to turn on Parkgate St. or in the garage. Is the 46a the busiest route in Dublin now?

dfx-

Hard to judge because of the frequency and overlap of routes. It is the most frequent, I'd guess. You could easily get a full VT on the 46A or completely empty because there's one in front and a 145 in front as well.

I'd say the Lucan corridor or group of routes wouldn't be far off, given the number of VTs that operate in peak hours to supplement the regular services. A busy 13 can carry 200 people in a round trip.

stehyl15

It would make sense too me if the 39a and the 46a swapped garages because the pheonix park is quite near phibsboro garage and ucd is near donnybrook well its nearer than blanchardstown is to phibsboro and dun laoghaire is to donnybrook

LXFlyer

stehyl15 wrote: »

It would make sense too me if the 39a and the 46a swapped garages because the pheonix park is quite near phibsboro garage and ucd is near donnybrook well its nearer than blanchardstown is to phibsboro and dun laoghaire is to donnybrook

For goodness sakes buses start and finish at BOTH ends of the route.

Donnybrook is roughly halfway between Phoenix Park and Dun Laoghaire.

Phibsboro is reasonably placed for buses starting in Ongar and UCD.

The current set up is far more preferable.

LXFlyer

The peak vehicle requirement on the 46a (which includes the 47) is closer to 30.

S Barrett

I stayed in a hotel near Liffey Valley last weekend. I saw a few 40`s go by and they had very little passengers on them. That was a busy route when it went from town out to Finglas.

Also the 26 to Palmerstown seems to have a low patronage as well.

Am I right in saying this?

LXFlyer

S Barrett wrote: »

I stayed in a hotel near Liffey Valley last weekend. I saw a few 40`s go by and they had very little passengers on them. That was a busy route when it went from town out to Finglas.

Also the 26 to Palmerstown seems to have a low patronage as well.

Am I right in saying this?

You are judging a route by the loadings between the second last and last stops?

Hardly indicative.

The 40 is a very busy route through its core sections - of course it will have lighter loadings towards the end of the route.

The 26 would have a lower usage off-peak, but acts as a sweeper service along the Lucan QBC in the peak periods.

Michael D Not Higgins

lxflyer wrote: »

The peak vehicle requirement on the 46a (which includes the 47) is closer to 30.

How is the 47 included? That wasn't part of the question he asked.

I worked it out from an 8 minute headway and a journey time of 61 mins each way. That works out to rougly 8 each direction (16) and maybe one or two at each terminus to account for delays (16-20).

LXFlyer

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

How is the 47 included? That wasn't part of the question he asked.

I worked it out from an 8 minute headway and a journey time of 61 mins each way. That works out to rougly 8 each direction (16) and maybe one or two at each terminus to account for delays (16-20).

The 46a and 47 share common driver/bus boards.

They are treated as a combined route.

The 46a alone would have 25 boards. The journey time is significantly longer than 61 minutes at peak times.

S Barrett

If the 46a is the busiest route in Dublin, what is the least busiest route?

Are all the Dublin Bus routes based in one depot only or do garages share routes? I lived for a while in Sydney and some routes there were shared by up to 3 depots.

Victor

S Barrett wrote: »

If the 46a is the busiest route in Dublin, what is the least busiest route?

The 86 - one bus a day and it isn't in the public timetable.

Are all the Dublin Bus routes based in one depot only or do garages share routes? I lived for a while in Sydney and some routes there were shared by up to 3 depots.

I get the impression that some merged routes are shared, e.g the 14 seems to be shared by Donnybrook and Clontarf.

LXFlyer

Least busy route is probably the 161.

The 13, 14, 15, 27, and 40 all operate out of two depots.

All of the other routes operate out of single depots.

LXFlyer

Victor wrote: »

The 86 - one bus a week and it isn't in the public timetable.

I get the impression that some merged routes are shared, e.g the 14 seems to be shared by Donnybrook and Clontarf.

Where and when are you seeing this 86 Victor?

The 14 is shared between Donnybrook and Summerhill, not Clontarf.

S Barrett

The 15 must be the longest cross town bus route in Dublin. 20 buses must work this route at any given time.

S Barrett

Is there some site that lets you know which bus route is attached to which garage?

LXFlyer

Not any more - they used to be listed at the bottom of each timetable, but with centralised control that's no longer necessary.

What specifically do you want to know?

stehyl15

S Barrett wrote: »

If the 46a is the busiest route in Dublin, what is the least busiest route?

I would say the least busy route with an all day timetable is the 59 or the 114 the 59 is an awful route it goes into every hole in the hedge and is almost a full loop the 145 nearly if not busier than the 46a if you were too go on a 145 at midday it would have a good few people on it however the 46a would be almost empty

dfx-

S Barrett wrote: »

The 15 must be the longest cross town bus route in Dublin. 20 buses must work this route at any given time.

15 benefits from bus lanes particularly on the northside.

13 would be longer in my opinion

Losty Dublin

S Barrett wrote: »

The 15 must be the longest cross town bus route in Dublin. 20 buses must work this route at any given time.

The 27 and 44 would both give it a run for it's money.

stehyl15

The 33 is the longest route in dublin no questions needed to be asked

S Barrett

lxflyer wrote: »

Not any more - they used to be listed at the bottom of each timetable, but with centralised control that's no longer necessary.

What specifically do you want to know?

I want to know all the routes home depot.

dfx-

stehyl15 wrote: »

The 33 is the longest route in dublin no questions needed to be asked

Not cross city though. The 44 would be surely longest..

stehyl15

lxflyer wrote: »

The 46a and 47 share common driver/bus boards.

They are treated as a combined route.

The 46a alone would have 25 boards. The journey time is significantly longer than 61 minutes at peak times.

The 63 and the 75 seem to share buses as many inbound 75s change to outbound 63s when they get too dl

LXFlyer

stehyl15 wrote: »

The 63 and the 75 seem to share buses as many inbound 75s change to outbound 63s when they get too dl

Completely different routes and garages.

63 is Donnybrook 1 and 75 is Donnybrook 2.

Is the 46A shared between Donnybrook and Phibsboro? I thought I saw some Phibsboro VTs on the 46A at times.