The Dublin Coach Experience

soundman45

I was waiting to see when go ahead would start looking for drivers. Any rumor of where there depot etc is likely to be.

brokenarms

soundman45 wrote: »

I was waiting to see when go ahead would start looking for drivers. Any rumor of where there depot etc is likely to be.

there is a thread on it. I am also waiting to see. I think they are going to be massive in Dublin in time.

devnull

Tourismo broke down close to Naas tonight.
https://www.facebook.com/LGCSV/photos/a.420491724728552.1073741829.416273205150404/1344051315705917/?type=3&theater

boardsuser1

One of the recent purchases.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darren_hall/37856792806/in/feed

devnull

Cork Truck Driver wrote: »

One of the recent purchases.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/darren_hall/37856792806/in/feed

Reading the text alongside that image provides a far more negative picture about the state of the fleet renewal than has been reported elsewhere if it's correct.

It suggests that the 4x 2010 Setras they took in recently that were ex Shearings are only on loan to be replaced by new vehicles and there are only 6 new vehicles on order.

boardsuser1

devnull wrote: »

Reading the text alongside that image provides a far more negative picture about the state of the fleet renewal than has been reported elsewhere if it's correct.

It suggests that the 4x 2010 Setras they took in recently that were ex Shearings are only on loan to be replaced by new vehicles and there are only 6 new vehicles on order.

If the setra's are only on loan to be replaced by 6 Tourismo's that will only mean a net increase of 2 coaches less any breakdowns.

I just had a look on RTOL.ie and the amount of vehicles in the fleet is huge.

The recently charred vehicles are yet to be de-listed either.

Has it been established if the one that lost wheels was the same one that caught fire on the same day?

Edit:

Darren Hall is a man with 3-4 decades of photography experience in buses etc.

He is very close friends with many DB & BE employees and is also an owner of a preserved double decker bus himself.

His knowledge is second to none.

The Setra's are interestingly registered to Kildare where John O'Sullivan resides, which is odd for a loan.

On loan from who though?

joegriffinjnr

devnull wrote: »

Reading the text alongside that image provides a far more negative picture about the state of the fleet renewal than has been reported elsewhere if it's correct.

It suggests that the 4x 2010 Setras they took in recently that were ex Shearings are only on loan to be replaced by new vehicles and there are only 6 new vehicles on order.

They are only registering 6 this year supposedly. There's 12 in mutec unregistered as of this morning. At least one has already entered service.

devnull

Cork Truck Driver wrote: »

If the setra's are only on loan to be replaced by 6 Tourismo's that will only mean a net increase of 2 coaches less any breakdowns.

I just had a look on RTOL.ie and the amount of vehicles in the fleet is huge.

The recently charred vehicles are yet to be de-listed either.

They've de-licensed the following in the last few months from RTOL.ie
- 4x 2003 Mercedes Citaro
- 4x 2004 Neoplan Skyliner
- 1x 2004 Setra 415

They've added the following
- 2x 2009 Van Hool Astromega
- 4x 2010 Setra 416

That means they now have 26 coaches dating from 2004 licensed rather than 31.

Note that the above figures do not include vehicles that are licensed but no longer operating in service and any of the vehicles that have recently been involved in incidents.

devnull

Another one from same page from Monday:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1500747609973080&set=p.1500747609973080&type=3&permPage=1

boardsuser1

devnull wrote: »

Another one from same page.

It’s not even funny anymore how bad they are.

The Setra’s are on loan from Mercedes themselves and will be returned upon delivery of the tourismo’s

devnull

Cork Truck Driver wrote: »

It’s not even funny anymore how bad they are.

The Setra’s are on loan from Mercedes themselves and will be returned upon delivery of the tourismo’s

Should have added, that one is from Monday.

boardsuser1

devnull wrote: »

Should have added, that one is from Monday.

It’s coming to the stage where we’ll need a Dublin Coach breakdown/on fire thread given the amount of problems in recent times.

In my time driving the Aircoach I was very very fortunate to never have any problems whatsoever.

devnull

Cork Truck Driver wrote: »

It’s coming to the stage where we’ll need a Dublin Coach breakdown/on fire thread given the amount of problems on recent times.

I really hope that there are the 30 coaches coming in that have been reported because they'd need almost all of them to clear out the older vehicles, since in addition to the 26 dating from 2004 they have another 3 dating from 2005 which you cannot imagine will be in much better shape even if they probably have been worked less hard than the ex Aircoach ones.

In my time driving the Aircoach I was very very fortunate to never have any problems whatsoever.

I guess it's down to fleet age as well though and the fact that Aircoach have their Volvo based fleet on a maintenance contract for certain types of work at Irish Commercials probably helps.

Obviously being part of a company like First would probably help them when it comes to getting discounts on things like parts and also have some group wide policies that must be adhered to.

boardsuser1

Got up close yesterday to a DC Mercedes Citaro, it was so dirty the registration numbers front and rear were unreadable.

It was at the stop outside Kildare SC.

Not surprising there weren't many people waiting on the bus.

joegriffinjnr

The open top City tour arm of the business is in big trouble, very very surprised if it will last another month its that bad.

devnull

Looking at their site it seems it will be shut down in its current guise for the winter and replaced by a vintage bus tour.

The website is weird in that most of the site now refers to the vintage tour but some of it still references the previous tours.

Have to wonder what they will do with their fleet of 14 year old open toppers and if they will now depart.

http://cityscapetours.ie/

Stephen15

joegriffinjnr wrote: »

The open top City tour arm of the business is in big trouble, very very surprised if it will last another month its that bad.

Hardly surprising I'd say DB them pushed out of that market. I'd the buses will end being sold over in the UK.

devnull

Stephen15 wrote: »

Hardly surprising I'd say DB pushed out of that market. I'd the buses will end being sold over in the UK.

The website now has separate options for summer (current tours) and winter (vintage tours) so it remains to be seen if when the winter season is over the open toppers return, although they'll be 15 years old by that stage.

Personally I cannot see that there is a market for three open top tour operators in a city the size of Dublin, if this service does not come back next summer then I'm sure DB and Dualway will breathe a huge sigh of relief.

Plus honestly, having one less business for the management of Dublin Coach to focus on may not be a bad thing since I honestly believe that they've took on too much too quickly and expanded too aggressively which has led to the current issues.

JeffK88

devnull wrote: »

The website now has separate options for summer (current tours) and winter (vintage tours) so it remains to be seen if when the winter season is over the open toppers return, although they'll be 15 years old by that stage.

Personally I cannot see that there is a market for three open top tour operators in a city the size of Dublin, if this service does not come back next summer then I'm sure DB and Dualway will breathe a huge sigh of relief.

Plus honestly, having one less business for the management of Dublin Coach to focus on may not be a bad thing since I honestly believe that they've took on too much too quickly and expanded too aggressively which has led to the current issues.

Ive heard that the tour end of things has resulted in 28 job losses. So whether or not they bring it back in the Summer remains to be seen.

Stephen15

Did the open top that they had that was involved in the Luas crash last year return to service.

Another factor in their tours demise may have been that crash and the resulting pay out and insurance rise.

patrickc

I hope they maintain those route masters better than their coaches.

joegriffinjnr

Stephen15 wrote: »

Did the open top that they had that was involved in the Luas crash last year return to service.

Another factor in their tours demise may have that crash and the resulting pay out and insurance rise.

That was the straw that broke the camals back. It cost them over a million euro.

boardsuser1

joegriffinjnr wrote: »

That was the straw that broke the camals back. It cost them over a million euro.

The crash in Cork in 2015 will probably exceed that, nonetheless, it's a massive amount of money for any business.

I'll have to drop by the DC yard when i get a chance, i was going to yesterday as i was nearby but after 90 minutes spent sitting on the M50 park i just headed straight in the direction of the M7/8

devnull

The problem is look at it on the surface the business does need investment and a period where they stop continually expanding because this seems to come at a cost of their pre-existing services.

For example despite the coach fleet running existing routes in need of an overdue upgrade this year, they chose to use their order of 5 new coaches on a brand new route and also transfer the vehicles coming off tours onto this route.

The end result is a fleet that runs the 5 other routes where over half of it is 12-13 years old, a bunch of QuickPark artics that are 13-14 years old, an open top tour ran on 14 year old deckers and vintage buses

I honestly think that they've spread themselves too thin, their expansion into different markets and business areas seems to eat up any cash for investment in their pre-existing markets.

Of course however, as stated on here previously, it could all be about making the business ripe for a takeover since being established in many markets may make it more attractive to someone with deep pockets who would put the investment in.

bebeman

joegriffinjnr wrote: »

The open top City tour arm of the business is in big trouble, very very surprised if it will last another month its that bad.

From what i have heard the DB tours are in a bit of a pickle as well.
Even though they are a commercial service of DB , the NTA is interfering in the running of them, setting timetables and rosters.
Its as if they want to run down the service to make way for someone else.:eek:

punisher5112

bebeman wrote: »

From what i have heard the DB tours are in a bit of a pickle as well.
Even though they are a commercial service of DB , the NTA is interfering in the running of them, setting timetables and rosters.
Its as if they want to run down the service to make way for someone else.:eek:

They have been at this since set up. Db is a thorn in their side and have found a perfect way to dissolve it.


Poor way of doing it and I can see it all been given away to foreign companies like the housing and lan d which is being snapped up.

devnull

bebeman wrote: »

Even though they are a commercial service of DB , the NTA is interfering in the running of them, setting timetables and rosters.

Can you back up that claim with a source?

The NTA has no control over rosters of a commercial operator whether it would be tours or an intercity, urban, interurban or other types of commercial services since that is a commercial decision.

Tours and other specific targeted services are also not subject to time separation best practices that apply to urban, interurban, interurban express, commuter, rural or multi-stop services that are operated by commercial operators.

Its as if they want to run down the service to make way for someone else.:eek:

Sounds more like a conspiracy theory to me.

If they're doing that, which I don't believe they are, they can't be doing it very well since the new entrant to the market appears to be pulling out leaving the two long established operators to fight it out once again.

punisher5112

devnull wrote: »

Can you back up that claim with a source?

The NTA has no control over rosters of a commercial operator whether it would be tours or an intercity, urban, interurban or other types of commercial services since that is a commercial decision.

Tours and other specific targeted services are also not subject to time separation best practices that apply to urban, interurban, interurban express, commuter, rural or multi-stop services that are operated by commercial operators.



Sounds more like a conspiracy theory to me.

If they're doing that, which I don't believe they are, they can't be doing it very well since the new entrant to the market appears to be pulling out leaving the two long established operators to fight it out once again.

They may not be directly but its crazy they gave another licence in the 1st place.

Dublin isn't that big.

Bit like bin companies.

We had 1 now we have multiple trucks running and costs are higher.

devnull

punisher5112 wrote: »

They may not be directly but its crazy they gave another licence in the 1st place.

Thing was originally Cityscape was offering something different to be honest, a luxury experience with snacks on board and also a coach with storytellers as it was originally set-up, so I see why they gave the license. It was originally aimed at a different market to Dualway and Dublin Bus.

Obviously over time it changed and switched to open top deckers but it seems that whilst Cityscape seemed to pick up the numbers after a slow start, ultimately Dualway and Dublin Buses better service, newer vehicles and long established credentials won out if what we read is true.

punisher5112

devnull wrote: »

Thing was originally Cityscape was offering something different to be honest, a luxury experience with snacks on board and also a coach with storytellers as it was originally set-up, so I see why they gave the license. It was originally aimed at a different market to Dualway and Dublin Bus.

Obviously over time it changed and switched to open top deckers but it seems that whilst Cityscape seemed to pick up the numbers after a slow start, ultimately Dualway and Dublin Buses better service, newer vehicles and long established credentials won out if what we read is true.

There was a catch to that.

Only reason they were running those tri axles empty was for tax purposes.

It was not done in anyway to change things.