Dublin Coach Experience Discussion Thread

road_high · 27-01-2018 09:01PM

punisher5112 wrote: »

I would be slightly concerned something that worn out flew along.

Now you mention it, it did kind sway side to side slightly for no apparent reason twice on the M9- today wasn't windy and it wasn't passing anything at the time

belfast stephen · 27-01-2018 09:02PM

I see DC have 5 181 Reg Merc Tourismos on the road

BuilderPlumber · 27-01-2018 09:04PM

I mainly had good experiences with them and most other bus services. The old unreliable buses that break down I find with Bus Eireann and no one else. Dublin Coach's buses seem new and clean by comparison.

road_high · 27-01-2018 09:04PM

belfast stephen wrote: »

I see DC have 5 181 Reg Merc Tourismos on the road

Certain routes (like Belfast) get the new ones. The Waterford/Kilkenny route mainly gets the old slop!

devnull · 27-01-2018 09:06PM

belfast stephen wrote: »

I see DC have 5 181 Reg Merc Tourismos on the road

Are these to replace some of the 2004 Setra vehicles that are seen operating on the Limerick and Waterford/Cork routes?

They need more than 5 though!

Odyssey 2005 · 27-01-2018 09:07PM

road_high wrote: »

No to be fair it flew along!

In the outside lame holding up traffic presumably.

road_high · 27-01-2018 09:46PM

Does anyone bother going fully to/from Dublin to Cork? I'd imagine the main advantage there must be to serve Waterford to Cork journeys.
It would be a very long journey to Cork on these older buses when you can get the Aircoach or BE direct down the M8. Must be a good hour longer going via the M9/N25.

end of the road · 27-01-2018 09:53PM

road_high wrote: »

Does anyone bother going fully to/from Dublin to Cork? I'd imagine the main advantage there must be to serve Waterford to Cork journeys.
It would be a very long journey to Cork on these older buses when you can get the Aircoach or BE direct down the M8. Must be a good hour longer going via the M9/N25.

yeah that's my understanding of it anyway.

WishUWereHere · 27-01-2018 10:03PM

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

I mainly had good experiences with them and most other bus services. The old unreliable buses that break down I find with Bus Eireann and no one else. Dublin Coach's buses seem new and clean by comparison.

Not trying to call You a lair or anything, but I have often seen the DC coaches broken down on the N/M 7, moreso than any CIE coach. I only travel daily from Newbridge to Dublin and back, so cannot comment on any further than Newbridge.

punisher5112 · 27-01-2018 10:04PM

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

I mainly had good experiences with them and most other bus services. The old unreliable buses that break down I find with Bus Eireann and no one else. Dublin Coach's buses seem new and clean by comparison.

What route you be on as all I see is clapped out scrap.

road_high · 27-01-2018 10:06PM

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

I mainly had good experiences with them and most other bus services. The old unreliable buses that break down I find with Bus Eireann and no one else. Dublin Coach's buses seem new and clean by comparison.

It's the opposite surely? BE have the nice new buses, Dublin Coach the scrap.

aaabbbb · 27-01-2018 10:10PM

WishUWereHere wrote:

Not trying to call You a lair or anything, but I have often seen the DC coaches broken down on the N/M 7, moreso than any CIE coach. I only travel daily from Newbridge to Dublin and back, so cannot comment on any further than Newbridge.

Same, I often see them broken down just after the M1 off ramp from the airport towards the M50/City Centre.

WishUWereHere · 27-01-2018 10:11PM

road_high wrote: »

Certain routes (like Belfast) get the new ones. The Waterford/Kilkenny route mainly gets the old slop!

Think so? You should see the s/crap bangers they use on the Dublin Airport to Portlaoise route.

devnull · 27-01-2018 10:18PM

road_high wrote: »

It's the opposite surely? BE have the nice new buses, Dublin Coach the scrap.

Last year Dublin Coach ordered 5 new Mercedes Coaches which were originally said to be earmarked to replace some of the older coaches in their fleet.

What they did instead was launched a new Belfast route with the 5 coaches to start up what is pretty much a bus war with Aircoach on the corridor leaving at pretty much the same time as Aircoach at either end with ultra cheap ticket prices for a number of months and many promotions.

Meanwhile the passengers on the other routes had to put up with almost 30 vehicles dating back from 2004/2005 that were previously with Aircoach and Stagecoach and had worked hard lives with their former operator.

boardsuser1 · 27-01-2018 10:21PM

Out of interest, there was a Vanhool overdecker in Cork last week, while i couldn't see it up close, it looked like one of the 09 batch.

A big change from jaded Setra's.

punisher5112 · 27-01-2018 10:22PM

devnull wrote: »

Last year Dublin Coach ordered 5 new Mercedes Coaches which were originally said to be earmarked to replace some of the older coaches in their fleet.

What they did instead was launched a new Belfast route with the 5 coaches to start up what is pretty much a bus war with Aircoach on the corridor leaving at pretty much the same time as Aircoach at either end with ultra cheap ticket prices for a number of months and many promotions.

Meanwhile the passengers on the other routes had to put up with almost 30 vehicles dating back from 2004/2005 that were previously with Aircoach and Stagecoach and had worked hard lives with their former operator.

I wouldn't have much faith in the king long from 2014 either.

They took in some 2009 vanhool double deckers which look well.

road_high · 27-01-2018 10:23PM

WishUWereHere wrote: »

Think so? You should see the s/crap bangers they use on the Dublin Airport to Portlaoise route.

I assume same ones, Setras as KK/Waterford route then? Or do you mean the double deckers?

road_high · 27-01-2018 10:24PM

devnull wrote: »

Last year Dublin Coach ordered 5 new Mercedes Coaches which were originally said to be earmarked to replace some of the older coaches in their fleet.

What they did instead was launched a new Belfast route with the 5 coaches to start up what is pretty much a bus war with Aircoach on the corridor leaving at pretty much the same time as Aircoach at either end with ultra cheap ticket prices for a number of months and many promotions.

Meanwhile the passengers on the other routes had to put up with almost 30 vehicles dating back from 2004/2005 that were previously with Aircoach and Stagecoach and had worked hard lives with their former operator.

I'd imagine 5 buses is a drop in the ocean compared to what they need to replace the lot!

devnull · 27-01-2018 10:28PM

punisher5112 wrote: »

I wouldn't have much faith in the king long from 2014 either.

They took in some 2009 vanhool double deckers which look well.

Yeah - they took some 2009 Vanhools from the same place as they took the 2004 Neoplans from - Stagecoach / Oxford Tube so I'd say those vehicles will be better than what they are replacing, however they too would have had hard lives before they came to Dublin Coach.

punisher5112 · 27-01-2018 10:32PM

devnull wrote: »

Yeah - they took some 2009 Vanhools from the same place as they took the 2004 Neoplans from - Stagecoach / Oxford Tube so I'd say those vehicles will be better than what they are replacing, however they too would have had hard lives before they came to Dublin Coach.

Hard lives in sure.

They do some hell of a lot of driving in the UK.

devnull · 27-01-2018 10:32PM

road_high wrote: »

I'd imagine 5 buses is a drop in the ocean compared to what they need to replace the lot!

I wouldn't be at all surprised if they ended up on the Belfast route to replace the vehicles dating from 2016 and 2017 on that route or used for another new route.

I hope I'm wrong however but I get the impression that on the other routes where Dublin Coach don't have intense competition they feel they can just get away with running an old fleet.

WishUWereHere · 28-01-2018 11:40AM

road_high wrote: »

I assume same ones, Setras as KK/Waterford route then? Or do you mean the double deckers?

Actually seen both versions broken down over the last few years R_H.

On another note is there any responsibility on DC if they cause someone to miss a flight? Their route 726 is totally modelled on Portlaoise to DA.

belfast stephen · 28-01-2018 12:08PM

Aircoach are putting new coaches on the 705x Belfast route anytime now so i wonder will DC put the 181 Reg coaches on the M1 route

myshirt · 28-01-2018 12:12PM

belfast stephen wrote: »

Aircoach are putting new coaches on the 705x Belfast route anytime now so i wonder will DC put the 181 Reg coaches on the M1 route

Of course they will. Why would you expect otherwise?

devnull · 28-01-2018 12:17PM

I hope they don't though because there's no need to replace 2017 coaches on that route with 2018 coaches, especially when they are exactly the same spec.

There is however a need to give there long suffering customers on the other route something newer rather than stick two fingers up to them once again.

That's why I hope Dublin Coach don't win the battle on the Belfast route - will they neglect this route too when they fight off the competition in favour of the next big thing?

JeffK88 · 28-01-2018 12:26PM

On an old 04 neoplan to the Airport now. How the thing is going is a miracle. Still a few of these piles going on this route. Didnt someone mention here before that they had more than 5 new coaches on offer ? Ive also heard rumours of them getting or applying for the 126 route but I doubt this tbh.

devnull · 28-01-2018 12:44PM

JeffK88 wrote: »

On an old 04 neoplan to the Airport now. How the thing is going is a miracle. Still a few of these piles going on this route. Didnt someone mention here before that they had more than 5 new coaches on offer ?

Their coach fleet was something like this as of late last year, but of course this information may be out of date now.

18x 2004 Setra 415HD
09x 2004 Neoplan Decker
03x 2005 Setra 415HD
03x 2008 Setra 415HD
06x 2009 Van Hool Astromega TD927
01x 2010 Setra 416GTHD
04x 2010 Setra 416GTHD (On loan pending new vehicles)
04x 2012 Setra 416GTHD
01x 2014 King Long
10x 2014 Mercedes Tourismo
05x 2016 Mercedes Tourismo (Tour and Belfast work only)
05x 2017 Mercedes Tourismo (Belfast route only)

The on loan vehicles were said to be due to return to Mercedes when the 5 new 2018 Tourismos were delivered.

boardsuser1 · 28-01-2018 01:57PM

devnull wrote: »

Their coach fleet was something like this as of late last year, but of course this information may be out of date now.

18x 2004 Setra 415HD
09x 2004 Neoplan Decker
03x 2005 Setra 415HD
03x 2008 Setra 415HD
06x 2009 Van Hool Astromega TD927
01x 2010 Setra 416GTHD
04x 2010 Setra 416GTHD (On loan pending new vehicles)
04x 2012 Setra 416GTHD
01x 2014 King Long
10x 2014 Mercedes Tourismo
05x 2016 Mercedes Tourismo (Tour and Belfast work only)
05x 2017 Mercedes Tourismo (Belfast route only)

The on loan vehicles were said to be due to return to Mercedes when the 5 new 2018 Tourismos were delivered.

Is the above the vehicles listed on RTOL?

devnull · 28-01-2018 02:19PM

Not much difference since late last year - I just had a look and only differences I can see are

Removed
1x 2004 Neoplan decker

Added
1x 2003 Mercedes Citaro
1x 2009 Van Hool Decker
5x 2018 Mercedes Tourismo

That still leaves them with 30 vehicles that are 13 or more years old for their coach fleet and an average age of coming up to 8.5 years and that age is including the 2016 coaches that never do service work and are for tours only.

BuilderPlumber · 29-01-2018 12:32PM

punisher5112 wrote: »

What route you be on as all I see is clapped out scrap.

I think ALL bus companies have their best coaches serving Dublin but have ancient often dirty ones serving non-Dublin places. Very much a 2 tier system.

Dublin Coach Experience Discussion Thread

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