Why doesn't Dublin Mountains have a service like this?

AngryLips

http://www.mourne-mountains.com/mournes/information/the-mourne-rambler-bus-service/

Are the Mourne Mountains that much more popular with tourists than any other mountain range on the island in that they're unique for having a summer bus service? Or are there other places with similar services?

I know many of the replies will come down to the inferiority of CIE over Translink, but that aside, are there other reasons for this? I would've thought the Dublin Mountains, with their close proximity to the largest city on the island, would warrant something like this...

Edit: obviously, by Dublin Mountains, I mean Dublin and Wicklow mountains as a whole

Alun

There was such a service, called the Dublin Mountaineer, for a couple of years quite recently, but it closed due to lack of use.

http://www.coillte.ie/aboutcoillte/news/archive_pre_2010/news_2009/new_bus_to_link_dublin_mountains_with_the_city/

Carawaystick

Dublin Bus serves Cruagh road, Lamb Doyles, Johnny foxes, The Back of the Golf Course at Powerscourt/Enniskerry, The foot of the Sugarloaf, Ballyknockan.

St Kevin's Bus serves Roundwood, Laragh and Glendalough.

AngryLips

Carawaystick wrote: »

Dublin Bus serves Cruagh road, Lamb Doyles, Johnny foxes, The Back of the Golf Course at Powerscourt/Enniskerry, The foot of the Sugarloaf, Ballyknockan.

St Kevin's Bus serves Roundwood, Laragh and Glendalough.

I edited my first post to include the Wicklow Mountains as that's more what I meant. Looking at those services, they don't seem to provide as great a coverage as a dedicated mountain shuttle. I wonder if the problem with these has something to do with inadequate marketing ...really Failte Ireland should be putting some support behind something like this if the NI tourism board can do it.

hmmm

Bord Failte should be putting effort into this - we have a mountain wonderland on Dublin's doorstep, and all they seem to care about is Temple Bar and Trinity College. There's fortunes being spent in Europe on hiking & mountain biking & trail running, and I can't think of many capital cities that have mountains on their doorstep.

Chris_5339762

...especially ones that are so beautiful and yet so continually littered on and used as a playground for people breaking into cars.

Carawaystick

AngryLips wrote: »

I edited my first post to include the Wicklow Mountains as that's more what I meant. Looking at those services, they don't seem to provide as great a coverage as a dedicated mountain shuttle. I wonder if the problem with these has something to do with inadequate marketing ...really Failte Ireland should be putting some support behind something like this if the NI tourism board can do it.

You'll see that the Mourne shuttle doesn't start from anywhere though.
The Mournes are small enough that a simple loop can be done, the Wicklow Mountains are the largest range in the country. Even a Loop down to Holywood, over the Wicklow Gap and around would take some considerable time, and wouldn't be allowed as St Kevin's Bus have the license to Glendalough.

The Mourne bus has only 5 services a day, not a great service either.

LXFlyer

The Dublin Mountaineer service was marketed heavily at the time and operated five times a day at weekends in a loop from Sandyford LUAS but ended up being withdrawn due to lack of use.

I'm not really sure that starting a new service is going to change that.

LXFlyer

Carawaystick wrote: »

Dublin Bus serves Cruagh road, Lamb Doyles, Johnny foxes, The Back of the Golf Course at Powerscourt/Enniskerry, The foot of the Sugarloaf, Ballyknockan.

St Kevin's Bus serves Roundwood, Laragh and Glendalough.

With the exception of the 44 to Enniskerry and the 185 to Shop River, all of those services have a very limited weekday service and no service at weekends.

Therefore most are of no use to anyone going out rambling unfortunately.

KD345

The 44 at weekends really needs extra capacity towards Enniskerry. Sunday mornings in particular are extremely busy with tourists and day trippers.

hmmm

lxflyer wrote: »

The Dublin Mountaineer service was marketed heavily at the time and operated five times a day at weekends in a loop from Sandyford LUAS but ended up being withdrawn due to lack of use.

I'm not really sure that starting a new service is going to change that.

Speaking as a hiker, a service that runs for a few months as a trial and disappears is no good - European resorts run buses all during the hiking season, year after year, irrespective of the numbers using it. You can go on holidays knowing that a bus will be there - it's the local businesses and tourist office that subsidises this.

Going off topic slightly, but I'm amazed that a village like Roundwood hasn't tried to brand itself as "the hiking capital of Wicklow", and turn itself into the Irish version of Keswick in the Lake District. They have all the infrastructure they need, and all they have to do is run a small bus 2 or 3 times a day to major hike starting points.

Carawaystick

lxflyer wrote: »

With the exception of the 44 to Enniskerry and the 185 to Shop River, all of those services have a very limited weekday service and no service at weekends.

Therefore most are of no use to anyone going out rambling unfortunately.

The 45a is a 7 day service, 17 busses out on a Sunday.

LXFlyer

Carawaystick wrote: »

The 45a is a 7 day service, 17 busses out on a Sunday.

Fair enough, but some of them are no use to weekend ramblers which is the point I was making.

Access to the mountains could certainly be better.

LXFlyer

hmmm wrote: »

Speaking as a hiker, a service that runs for a few months as a trial and disappears is no good - European resorts run buses all during the hiking season, year after year, irrespective of the numbers using it. You can go on holidays knowing that a bus will be there - it's the local businesses and tourist office that subsidises this.

Going off topic slightly, but I'm amazed that a village like Roundwood hasn't tried to brand itself as "the hiking capital of Wicklow", and turn itself into the Irish version of Keswick in the Lake District. They have all the infrastructure they need, and all they have to do is run a small bus 2 or 3 times a day to major hike starting points.

It ran for at least two summers, if not three, but never took off. That's a little more than "a few months".

Macy0161

hmmm wrote: »

There's fortunes being spent in Europe on hiking & mountain biking & trail running, and I can't think of many capital cities that have mountains on their doorstep.

Mountain Biking is actually banned (albeit not really enforced) from the National Park and most of the Coillte forestry. It's a massive opportunity lost when you see what they are doing in Wales, the Lake District etc with it (and when you see how many are using the designated trails at weekends).

hmmm wrote: »

Going off topic slightly, but I'm amazed that a village like Roundwood hasn't tried to brand itself as "the hiking capital of Wicklow", and turn itself into the Irish version of Keswick in the Lake District. They have all the infrastructure they need, and all they have to do is run a small bus 2 or 3 times a day to major hike starting points.

It's proximity to Dublin is probably part of the problem in that respect. It's close enough to day trip, and probably not far enough away to justify an overnight trip, even for a tourist.

Carawaystick

lxflyer wrote: »

Fair enough, but some of them are no use to weekend ramblers which is the point I was making.

Access to the mountains could certainly be better.

It could, but so could access to heavily populated areas in Dublin.

AngryLips

Carawaystick wrote: »

It could, but so could access to heavily populated areas in Dublin.

I don't think this is an either/or discussion though

colosus1908

Interesting, never thought of it.