Bus Eireann 73 service Athlone-Waterford, does it exist?

coylemj

According to the 'Timetables' tab on the BE website, there is a 73 service which runs twice a day (in both directions) between Athlone (bus station) and Waterford (bus station) Mon-Sat with an extension to Longford on Sundays.

The timetable shows the stops along the way which includes places like Moate, Clara, Mountmellick, Carlow (IT and Barrack St.), Paulstown, Kilkenny etc.

But if you click on the TFI or BE Journey Planners on the web or the TFI 'Journey Planner' smartphone app, there is no mention of this service. For example, if you go to the 'Buy Tickets' tab on the BE home page and enter 'Athlone (Bus Station)' as the departure point for today between 12 noon and 4 p.m., it will not accept Clara or Mountmellick as destinations even though the timetable says there is a 73 departure from Athlone at 3 p.m. which serves Clara and Mountmellick.

Does anyone know if the 73 service actually runs or not?

Jamie2k9

It was running in the summer so expect its still running today.

Stephen15

I'd be surprised if such a route get's much passengers Athlone to Waterford seems like a fairly random route

Mulbert

Stephen15 wrote: »

I'd be surprised if such a route get's much passengers Athlone to Waterford seems like a fairly random route

It does, but how many other buses go Kilkenny-Portlaoise, Carlow-Athlone etc. It's a route with alot of stops and one of the old interlink bus routes.

coylemj

OP here. BE have advised me that the 73 route is, indeed, active and the reason that it doesn't show up on their 'Buy Tickets' screen is because you cannot buy a ticket online for that route.

Why, you may ask?

This is their 'explanation'......

Unfortunately, this ticket is not available for online purchase. It will have to be bought from the driver. Customers accessing this website may buy National tickets online for journeys between up to 500 popular destinations throughout the country. Bus Éireann serves over 3,000 locations nationwide so it is not yet possible to buy tickets online for all destinations. The online ecommerce system is undergoing further development and will be expanded over time to include additional destinations.Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Got that? No, I didn't either.

coylemj

Stephen15 wrote: »

I'd be surprised if such a route get's much passengers Athlone to Waterford seems like a fairly random route

The commercial viability of the route is not the issue.

Stephen15

coylemj wrote: »

The commercial viability of the route is not the issue.

I know I was just saying

johnnykilo

I used to get this month the occasional Friday/Sunday back in 2009 when I was working in Athlone for a few months. I could have sworn it was pulled in the next year or two due to the downturn and it not being a high volume route. Obviously either that never happened or else they re-instated it at a later date.

For what it's worth it's a terrible route, you would always get stuck in traffic in Tullamore for 20/30 minutes on a Friday and the roads going through the rural parts of Kilkenny for the last 45 minutes (just as I used to be drifting off to sleep) were like something from Aleppo.

As it only runs twice a day, there were a number of times I missed it and would have to go via Dublin (Waterford - Dublin | Dublin - Athlone) this route was only about an hour longer than the approx 4 hours the Athlone - Waterford bus used to take and was pretty much motorway/dual carraige way the whole way.

Back then the drivers used to accept my return ticket on this route too (I presume this is still the same today); If I bought a return ticket from Athlone to Waterford on Friday, and if I missed the Waterford - Athlone bus on Sunday, I could just get the Waterford Dublin bus and then get the Athlone bus from Busarus (I always used to briefly explain this to the drivers but they never had a problem with it).

Hope this helps!

Qrt

coylemj wrote: »

OP here. BE have advised me that the 73 route is, indeed, active and the reason that it doesn't show up on their 'Buy Tickets' screen is because you cannot buy a ticket online for that route.

Why, you may ask?

This is their 'explanation'......

Unfortunately, this ticket is not available for online purchase. It will have to be bought from the driver. Customers accessing this website may buy National tickets online for journeys between up to 500 popular destinations throughout the country. Bus Éireann serves over 3,000 locations nationwide so it is not yet possible to buy tickets online for all destinations. The online ecommerce system is undergoing further development and will be expanded over time to include additional destinations.Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Got that? No, I didn't either.

BÉ desperately need a tag on tag off system, that’s what the Danish have and it’s quite impressive.

Stephen15

johnnykilo wrote: »

I used to get this month the occasional Friday/Sunday back in 2009 when I was working in Athlone for a few months. I could have sworn it was pulled in the next year or two due to the downturn and it not being a high volume route. Obviously either that never happened or else they re-instated it at a later date.

For what it's worth it's a terrible route, you would always get stuck in traffic in Tullamore for 20/30 minutes on a Friday and the roads going through the rural parts of Kilkenny for the last 45 minutes (just as I used to be drifting off to sleep) were like something from Aleppo.

As it only runs twice a day, there were a number of times I missed it and would have to go via Dublin (Waterford - Dublin | Dublin - Athlone) this route was only about an hour longer than the approx 4 hours the Athlone - Waterford bus used to take and was pretty much motorway/dual carraige way the whole way.

Back then the drivers used to accept my return ticket on this route too (I presume this is still the same today); If I bought a return ticket from Athlone to Waterford on Friday, and if I missed the Waterford - Athlone bus on Sunday, I could just get the Waterford Dublin bus and then get the Athlone bus from Busarus (I always used to briefly explain this to the drivers but they never had a problem with it).

Hope this helps!

It used to Expressway but is now PSO from what I believe from a previous thread about this route.

GM228

Stephen15 wrote: »

It used to Expressway but is now PSO from what I believe from a previous thread about this route.

It is indeed a PSO service and has been for years, don't remember it ever being a commercial service.

Stephen15

GM228 wrote: »

It is indeed a PSO service and has been for years, don't remember it ever being a commercial service.

According to this it used to be

https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057503341/1/#post97257362

road_high

Takes a ridiculously long route too. Should run Waterford to Kilkenny via M9 and onto portlaoise via Durrow. If you driving you wouldn’t dream of going to Carlow to get to Athlone.
Might actually pick up a few passengers from Kilkenny and Waterford that actually want to link direct to the midlands and west if it did.

coylemj

road_high wrote: »

Takes a ridiculously long route too.

If it's a PSO service then it is not driven by considerations of efficiency.

Besides which, every time BE try to make a route more efficient by bypassing a tiny town or village, the protestors are out with placards bemoaning the death of rural Ireland. And with the local elections next year, there's no shortage of local councillors (and wannabe councillors) prepared to join them and make lots of noise.

patrickc

people use it to go from Carlow to Kilkenny, Leighlin, Royal Oak, Paulstown etc

road_high

patrickc wrote: »

people use it to go from Carlow to Kilkenny, Leighlin, Royal Oak, Paulstown etc

They should and can be better served by a separate service.