BE/Translink partnership terminated

Anita Blow

Just on the bus up to north and noticed you couldn't buy cross-border tickets on the machine anymore. The BE Steward said they could only be bought on the bus from now on.
When the Translink bus arrived the bus driver was turning people away with BE tickets saying the companies had terminated their partnership on cross-border routes a few weeks back and so tickets from the other company would no longer be valid.
Bit of a hassle now as a return ticket bought on a translink service can't be used on return journeys operated by BE and significantly affects the number of timetabled journeys you can choose from.
Anyone have news on why this happened? Seems fairly regressive for the consumer

devnull

It's weird that there is noething on their site about it and the BE timetable still lists both operators:
http://buseireann.ie/timetables/1470224678-X1.pdf

There are options of Aircoach which is pretty much runs 24 hours a day with 22 services, running every hour, which is non stop between Dublin and Belfast apart from stopping at Dublin Airport and Dublin Coach which is 16 times a day non stop between Dublin and Belfast which will give you a better choice of departures times.

However I'd follow this up with Bus Eireann directly as it doesn't sound right.

LXFlyer

That's just on the Derry route surely since BE withdrew from it.

devnull

Sorry, I assumed that the OP was talking about the Belfast route since Bus Eireann were not on the Derry Route for a good few weeks now and they referenced cross-border routes rather than just a particular route.

If it's the Derry route then yeah, Bus Eireann no longer run on that route so it makes sense why they would not take BE tickets, although if I had a BE return ticket with a return element still valid I'd suggest contacting BE to go about seeking a possible refund for that part of it.

belfast stephen

i would contact BE and get an answer i would be surprised if that was the case on the Dublin to Belfast service
i know BE no longer operate any X2 between Belfast and Dublin or visa versa Ulsterbus operate all X2 this summer

LXFlyer

As I posted above, I suspect the OP is referring to the Derry service (X3/X4) and not the Belfast route which is still jointly operated.

BE cancelled their Dublin-Derry operations earlier this year.