Go-Ahead Route 197

The only way it will be an acceptable replacement for the 41b is if there is an interchange option at no extra cost in Swords, as the new 197 service is not going into Dublin.

There is a significant demand for a service from Ashbourne to Swords, Ashbourne is the second largest town in Meath, and not well served by public transport, in as much as the only viable option at present is to go to the airport on the 109a, and then get a bus to Swords, which even with LEAP and fare capping will add to the journey cost, and the return to Ashbourne means going via DCU on the 109a, so that makes for a slow journey time. The only other option is to go via Dublin on the 103, which also means a long journey, so this new service should be a popular alternative to the car.

In addition, the 109a is notoriously unreliable at present, there are frequent no shows, and at times, there are delays of up to 40 minutes, which makes a mockery of trying to plan a regular usage for commuting purposes, and this can also significantly disrupt travel plans if a flight is involved. To add insult to aggravation, there is no engagement from BE management with the problems, they are being ignored, so as far as I am concerned, I am delighted that BE did not get this route.

I find it incredible that there is no direct bus to the airport from Finglas, but that's probably a subject for another day and a different thread

dublinman1990 wrote: »

Those adl Enviro 200's are very nice looking buses.

Has anyone read or heard any reviews about them through word of mouth or online?

Standard Enviro 200s are terrible vehicles that are built to a price, go ask Bus Eireann what they thought of their AMs. The newer Enviro 200 MMCs, which the photograph is of, however are a better bus than their predecessor and are a whole vehicle product rather than body on chassis.

I'd be interested in the maintenance and spares arrangements for those vehicles, bearing in mind that ADL do not have a service presence in Ireland, which is what puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to tenders since they simply cannot compete with Volvo's dealer market. As there's only a few of them Go-Ahead may simply do as much as possible in house, but wouldn't be viable for a large fleet unless ADL invest in a support network.

Stephen15 wrote: »

Although there have been some ADL and Dennis intergral products operating in this country both past and present. As you give the example of the BE AM class and there has been DBs DT class and there have been a number of private operators particularly some the Airport shuttles that use them for hotel and staff shuttle buses and Ashbourne Connect also now have an Enviro 400MMC.

The DT was not an integral product. The Trident 2 chassis was created by Dennis of which the Alexander ALX400 (totally independent of Dennis) was one of a number of different body options on that chassis. Later on there was a merger of Dennis, Plaxton and Alexander that formed Transbus International, that went bust and Dennis and Alexander was bought out by Brian Souter and became Alexander Dennis, with Plaxton soon coming back into the group.

It's one thing to maintain a handful of vehicles that are not worked around the clock yourself without dealer support, it's completely another to have a huge fleet of them operating high frequency intensive city services like DB have. ADL have not gained any real traction with their integral products on the Irish market. The Bus Eireann AMs are the largest fleet of them,

Volvo do so well in Ireland in both the bus and coach market because their support is class leading and the amount of bus and coach business that the depot in Santry does is truly impressive with a lot of Aircoach, Bernard Kavanagh, Eirebus, Dublin Bus and Bus EIreann vehicles going through there.

local row brewing over the absence of stops between the N2 and Rolestown, there are several places between them that were expecting to be served.