Aircoach Route Changes and General Discussion.

coylemj

More bad news today (Mon. Aug 12th). Be aware if you're planning on travelling on the 700, 701 or 702 services between Monday and Wednesday….

https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2024/0812/1464600-aircoach-drivers/

Aircoach cancels some services due to driver shortage

Aircoach has apologised to customers for service disruptions which it says have been caused by an industry-wide shortage of drivers.

The company has cancelled a number of services on the 700, 701 and 702 routes between North Wicklow, South Dublin and Dublin Airport.

The cancellations will impact services scheduled for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

https://www.aircoach.ie/700701702-service-updates

devnull

RTE are very late on the game, this issue has been going on every day for over a month now and actually the cancellations lists are smaller now then they were at one point, so the problem is seemingly slightly better than it was at one point.

However at the same time, I've also noticed that not all services that have been cancelled have been published on that page based on own observations and social media.

StreetLight

Interesting how they describe the driver shortage as temporary when it has been in existence for some years now.

devnull

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122494743#Comment_122494743

Probably that is simply PR spin as if you say it's anything other then temporary it inspires even less confidence in the service to would-be passengers.

StreetLight

Aircoach deserve a bit of credit though, in giving some advance notice about cancellations. It contrasts with Dublin Bus who seem to just let the chips fall where they may with very limited notification, and leave people waiting for a bus that was never going to show.

p_haugh

So something I noticed today when a 701 passed me heading southbound passed UCD - They go via Nutley Lane → UCD → N31 → Merrion Road to turn around between services. This usually takes around 10-15 minutes, surely that doesn't help with sticking to schedule?? It does seem there's a 20 minutes buffer built into the timetable so seems like they're accounting for this at least

mikeybhoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122536668#Comment_122536668

A bit silly they'd go up there but not in service. From what I remember the 4 used to do this back in the day the day when it used to terminate at Vincent's. I think even the 18 did this at some stage years ago too.

LF403

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122536668#Comment_122536668

This is because Vincent's Hospital no longer want coaches using their grounds due to Health and Safety, and presumably due to the ongoing works on the through-road and car parks.

There's a possibility (pending the NTA) that one of the stops on Nutley Ln will be given to Aircoach in the opposite direction, allowing Aircoach to simply terminate/start at UCD, pick up on Nutley Ln and continue the 701 as it currently is. The main stumbling block currently is that the NTA has deemed the bus stop outside Tesco to be overpopulated, so that can't be given.

LF403

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122545049#Comment_122545049

I think the main reason for doing this out of service, is because the buses travelling that way are turning around for a 701 - which will not have any of the stops on Mt Merrion Ave or Rock Rd on the license. Also just alleviates confusion for people waiting for a 702 at Booterstown Dart Stn and the Maldron hotel (Tara Towers) - Better to see a bus running out of service rather than flagging down the wrong bus and being dragged through the city centre.

devnull

It is widely believed that the Operations Director of Aircoach who was appointed earlier this year and is believed to have had involvement with some of the issues that have plagued them this year, is either about to leave or has left the company. He has now posted on his LinkedIn profile that he is looking for a new role.

Interview with Aircoach MD now on the Irish Times website.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2024/08/30/aircoach-chief-kim-swan-social-issues-cant-be-allowed-to-hurt-irelands-attractiveness/

Things to note

• 20 Electric Irizar ie.trams coming online shortly
• All diesel vehicles on car park and staff shuttles to be replaced in next 12 months.
• Likely that electric vehicles will run on the city centre routes in the future.
• 10 Irizar i6 Integrals to launch on the Cork route soon
• 10 further vehicles on order for Belfast/Derry.
• Financial results for the past year will be down on the profit of €1.6 million last year.
• Believes because of Covid people should be celebrating the business is still there.
• They are developing the Cork route (not sure how?)
• Now 7 drivers short of what they need.
• 90 Drivers operate the Dublin routes with 59 on car parks.

This quote stuck out to me:

“I understand the airlines’ concerns because they are now being capped themselves, but only about 4 per cent of customers arriving in the airport actually get on to a coach, so we are not being held back by the cap at the minute as we still have capacity available.

devnull

The coach tracker on the Aircoach website is offline again and the number of cancellations has started to uptick again after a week or two where it was low single figures.

There are now 23 services cancelled this Sunday, 12 on Monday and 15 on Tuesday as it stands.

coylemj

In the Indo today, quoted from the Bray People which is part of the Indo empire. Wicklow SF TD John Brady making a fuss about the effect of recent schedule changes on the Aircoach 702 service and the elongated travel times.

Aircoach to review Wicklow route as ‘situation remains unacceptable’

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/wicklow/bray-news/aircoach-to-review-wicklow-route-as-situation-remains-unacceptable/a153894746.html

devnull

Health Warning - There is no official word on whether these timetables are correct as there is nothing on the Aircoach site to say they are. However BusTimes.org pulls it's data from an NTA feed.

There are new timetables now up on bustimes.org which show revised timetables for the 702 and the 703 coming back as of the latest pull of NTA data yesterday evening.

https://bustimes.org/services/702-greystones-charlsland-dublin-airport

https://bustimes.org/services/703-dublin-airport-killiney-fitzpatrick-castle-hot

It's not clear if this is an error or is an indication of forthcoming changes.

Again, these are not official timetables that have been announced by the company. These are timetables which have come through an NTA feed to bustimes.org. DO NOT USE THESE TIMETABLES until Aircoach officially confirm them.

there are less health warning for doing craic cocaine when pregnant

LF403

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122628008#Comment_122628008

The only thing that really doesn't add up is that the 703 and 702 would be taking exactly the same route until Saval Pk Rd. rendering the 703 kind of useless.

No talk (currently) internally of the 703 coming back, though I'm more than happy to eat my words if it does come to fruition!

devnull

It's quite strange and if I hadn't have seen it on bustimes.org coming from the NTA feed I probably would have said there is no truth at all about it. But for it to appear on bustimes.org it has to have been submitted to the NTA at some point for whatever reason by someone in Aircoach, even if it was in error.

Incidentally the cancellations seem to be picking up again and Aircoach has stopped updating the website with the list of cancellations which is not a good sign at all in terms of transparency.

belfast stephen

As this effects both Aircoach and Dublin Express

from mid October both Aircoach 705x and Dublin Express will move from the current glengall street to another city centre location due to the Boyne bridge and other public Realm works for a period of 12 months

p_haugh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122677751#Comment_122677751

Shame Translink has no interest in letting them use the new bus station

bk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122678576#Comment_122678576

Should have been a requirement of the government funding.

stephenjmcd

702 getting massively held up in the evenings on Sandymount. 4hrs running time in recent days on some services because of it.

Serious rethink of the routing needed because there isn't even a stop along sandymount

mikeybhoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122679155#Comment_122679155

Not how the North works

thomasj

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/private-bus-operator-aircoach-records-loss-of-e7-23m-1679453.html

In the news today

devnull

Those financial results are the worst in the companies history I would argue.

At the end of the day the Aircoach business has been run very poorly commercially for some time now and in particular over the last 12-18 months where the lack of industry commercial experience in their senior management team has been painfully obvious. After Dervla McKay, who has since admitted on a podcast that she went into the role with no commercial experience left the company, it was vital that they got the next appointment right.

I don't think anyone who has seen what has happened with Aircoach in the last 12 months or can say that the current tenure under Kim Swann, who had no road passenter transport experience before at all, has faired any better. Indeed under her and Noel Byrne's leadership, who also had no experience in the industry, and a local commercial manager who also came from outside the industry, it seems as well as Aircoach being poor commercially, they have also lost their long held strong reputation for reliability and operational excellence which has been at the cornerstone of Aircoach ever since it was founded.

The mention of Galway is interesting but alas was obvious from the moment that they took the route up that they would not stand a chance on it, because with GoBus and CityLink having such a presence on that corridor it was a no win situation. In fact, Aircoach did CItyLink a huge favour, because if they hadn't have taken up that route then it is almost certain that the CityLink and GoBus merger would not have been able to go ahead without some serious concessions on the Dublin to Galway corridor, which ironically may have resulted in CityLink having to divest one of the non stop licenses, which actually may have put Aircoach in a rather better position if they go that.

The problem is that Aircoach has now a reputation of being a company that often cancels services, which is absloutely fatal for an operation that takes people to and from airports, as reliability is the single most important thing for an airport service. They also provide a much more basic and inferior environment to their competitors on their InterCity routes and their 702 route has a reputation of taking forever to get anywhere and being slower than bus and train combos that involve the DART and National Express.

By the sounds of those notes in their accounts, they're also losing money on the Dublin Airport Car Park Shuttles, which suggests again that whoever has put the bid together has made a number of commercial calculations which have proven to be incorrect, which once again comes down to poor commercial decision making and whoever put the bid in must have really underestimated the costs of running such contract over the number of years it runs for.

Their reliability is poor, they're being absloutely schooled commercially by their competitors, they're having trouble retaining staff, they're cancelling services, they're operating much more basic vehicles at a similar price to their competitors who offer much more premium interiors, they've got routes that are so cumbersome that they encourage people to use competing modes and a senior team who lacks experience in the industry at a time when the business is desperately crying out for an experienced hand to turn it around. When all those things are true, it's no wonder the company is struggling in the competitive marketplace.

devnull

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122679155#Comment_122679155

Decision making from the NI Department of Infrastructure over the years would suggest that when it comes to a decision between allowing competition/innovation on a sector, or to do what is in Translinks interest, they will always decide to go the the later, because they see protecting public companies interests as very important. The cross border routes it is difficult for them to stop running because they do not have full jurestriction like they do with domestic routes.

Aircoach had a merry long fight with Translink years and years ago to get into the Europa Bus Centre where the DoI basically tied the whole thing up in knotts for a considerable amount of time, coming out with statements like they were 'not rejecting Aircoach's application at this time" which was normally followed by the word 'however' or 'but' and some mention about various things that would need to be considered before they could allow another operator to operate from them.

The legend in industry circles is that Aircoach then had to take some kind of action against them and in the end Translink had to allow them to use part of the Europa Bus Centre., The argument was then made that the stops on Glengall Street were actually considered part of the Eurpoa Bus Centre and thus by allocating them stops to Aircoach they were fulfilling the order that they had been given. Of course, as soon as they did that, TransLink plastered the clear glass doors up that looked out to the Aircoach stops form the side exit that led on to Glengall Street with huge adverts on both sides for their own services so passengers could not see the AIrcoach vehicles from looking out the doors and when AIrcoach passengers approached the stop they wer met by said adverts for their competitors directly opposite the Aircoach stop so when you stood at the stop you faced adverts directly on opposite side of road.

Now with all the buses moving to the new Grand Central Station, we're likely to see the whole thing play out again I would imagine where the DoI are not going to give access to it very easily and also of course, the fact that Glengall Street is shorrtly closing suits them just fine as well, because their services will have long since moved and the only operators that will be inconvinenced will be Translink's competitors, which again suits Translink just fine.

Unfortunately NI is a very difficult plaace for a commercial operator to operate since those who have tried have often not been able to succeed because if anything impacts Translink negatively, that has always appeared grounds to refuse it, even if it could be argued by the likes of you and me, that it may improve choice or journey times. See the whole Hannon Coach debacle where they tried to operate an express service from Belfat to Derry but essentially were told that it would harm Translink, so no.

belfast stephen

i understand both Aircoach and Dublin express will be getting into the new grand central station

p_haugh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122681776#Comment_122681776

Why not move them there now then, rather than "another city centre location" to begin with?

belfast stephen

now that would be the simple thing to do

devnull

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122681962#Comment_122681962

I think it's pretty obvious why.

II'll believe them going into the new bus station when I see it. I'm not saying that they will have access rights rejected though. But that doesn't mean they will start operating there.

Vic_08

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122681962#Comment_122681962

There is still work going on inside the building and on the periphary, some of the bus bays still have construction equipment using them, as well as that most of the off-stand bus parking is not yet available.

Several bus bays are currently taken for rail replacement coaches, these won't be free until the rail side is open.

Ulsterbus/Goldline services from Laganside are due to transfer to GC, this also hasn't happened yet.

Hannon Coach and Eamonn Rooney services are running to GC so the idea they are not allowing privateers in is not correct.

belfast stephen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122683876#Comment_122683876

the plan is for both Aircoach and Dublin Express to get into grand central once all the works are done