Bus Eireann X20/20 Service Changes

Jamie2k9

Service improvements for the Expressway Route 20/X20 include:

An additional 2 services in each direction Monday to Friday
An additional 9 limited stop X20 services connecting Galway/Loughrea/Ballinasloe/Athlone & Dublin City
An additional 4 non-stop services between Athlone & Dublin City
An additional 5 non-stop services between Dublin City & Athlone

http://www.buseireann.ie/news.php?id=2966&month=Jul

Meanwhile the changes not gone down well:

Bus Éireann has confirmed that routes 20 and X20 operating between Dublin and Galway will no longer pick up and drop off passengers at ten stops.

The areas affected in east Galway are Kilrickle, Oranmore, Derrydonnell, Creagh/Dubarry and Ballydangan in Roscommon.

The other stops across the midlands are Horseleap, Tyrellspass, Rochfortbridge, Miltownpass, Clonard and Moyvalley.

https://www.rte.ie/news/connacht/2018/0730/981950-galway-protest-bus-stops/

L1011

Likelyhood of a PSO fill in for this at a lower frequency must be high enough

flazio

Most of those stops I can understand the uproar but not the Creagh/Dubarry one.
It's only 2km after Ballinasloe town centre. Plenty of townlands along the route have further to travel to the nearest stop.
Rochfertbridge is a bit of a surprise though, looks pretty heavy populated from whenever I drive through it.

Galwayguy35

They stopped the bus today in Kilrickle as a protest and wheeled out the local TD and councillor as well, not sure what they expected the driver to do about it sure he was only doing what he was told.

I'm not sure why they are getting rid of the stop though because the bus will still be travelling through the village on the way to Ballinasloe as far as I know.

Mrs OBumble

flazio wrote: »

Most of those stops I can understand the uproar but not the Creagh/Dubarry one.
It's only 2km after Ballinasloe town centre. Plenty of townlands along the route have further to travel to the nearest stop.

There's a factory there which is a big employer - for some it will be a getting to work issue. Its only 2km but not a particularly walkable road.

The stops in Westmeath are served by other routes.

Some of the Galway ones aren't.

They shouldn't be served by commercial services but I'm surprised there are no local routes for Kilrickle anyway.

Rumour is that the Oranmore city service will double in frequency later in the year.

Galwayguy35

I though Citylink does a multi stop between Galway and Dublin but maybe they don't stop in the smaller villages.

I have to say I find BEs approach on this very strange. If the uptake in the towns where they are curtailing the service is so low then its going to have a negligible impact on journey times.

I'm very surprised Oranmore is on the list. Competition from the train station, perhaps?

magicbastarder

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

They stopped the bus today in Kilrickle as a protest and wheeled out the local TD and councillor as well, not sure what they expected the driver to do about it sure he was only doing what he was told.

Angry villagers stop bus in protest at route closures
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/angry-villagers-stop-bus-in-protest-at-route-closures-1.3580959

€5k a year on the bus? that's nuts.

Mrs OBumble

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm very surprised Oranmore is on the list. Competition from the train station, perhaps?

Train station is miles away, and expensive, so I doubt it.

Shaves quite a bit of time off the trip if the bus doesn't have to go out there. Or it should do, anyways, depending on the route.

Oranmore is also served by the 51, an hourly city service (7am - 11pm), Citylink multi-stop, Heallys from Loughrea, and various smaller BE services.

mrsdewinter

Oranmore has been lucky in recent years: as well as benefiting from the Bus Eireann Expressway services to Dublin, Cork, Limerick, it's had an hourly service whose other terminus is Newcastle, near the university. The people of Oranmore can't complain about being dropped as a stop on the Dublin route. The 'city' service is superb.

bobbyss

I wonder would BE ever do a Galway-Dublin nonstop to rival Citylink and Go Bus?

flazio

I seem to recall Go Bus carried BE branding for a short while whatever that was about.

TimHorton

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

There's a factory there which is a big employer - for some it will be a getting to work issue. Its only 2km but not a particularly walkable road.

The stops in Westmeath are served by other routes.

Some of the Galway ones aren't.

They shouldn't be served by commercial services but I'm surprised there are no local routes for Kilrickle anyway.

Rumour is that the Oranmore city service will double in frequency later in the year.

Dubarry is no longer a factory - For over 20 years the Dubarry shoes you see in the shops have been made in Places such as Portugal (Production Outsourced) - There is a skeleton staff in the building (Less than 20) for Design Finance etc....

The change on the route that affects most users is that Athlone to and from the airport now goes via the City Centre , This change alone will kill it..

veryangryman

bobbyss wrote: »

I wonder would BE ever do a Galway-Dublin nonstop to rival Citylink and Go Bus?

Hope not. Athlone is a sizeable town to be skipping and gets plenty of passengers.

bobbyss

When are these changes due or have they happened already? How much time is being saved?

Mrs OBumble

bobbyss wrote: »

When are these changes due or have they happened already? How much time is being saved?

Happened at the start of the month
http://news.galwaytransport.info/2018/07/20-20x-timetable-changes-bus-stop-cuts-july-2018.html


About 15 minutes saved - but they've swapped the order of stops in Dublin so its greatet for some than others.