Dublin Coach Experience Discussion Thread

Drifter50 wrote: »

DOE inspections are quite regulated and approach a vehicle from the safety perspective,not from whether its gleaming shiny or new. So long as the safety boxes are ticked, the age or clean condition does`nt count. Not really relevant to the inspector / mechanic

So the Aircoach`s get a daily wash, might be disguising an underlying issue

Who are Dublin Coach vehicles maintained by? Most of the work on aircoach vehicles is done by Irish commercials like most Volvo customers in Ireland. Aircoach only do minor stuff themselves.

wetoutside19 wrote: »

And Im sure people of belfast who want to support their local economy / give their fellow countrymen jobs will do so and I take my hat off to them.

Belfast is part of the UK, no matter how much me or you think it should be part of Ireland, it doesn't change the fact that Belfast right now is part of the UK and Aircoach have provided jobs for staff there, just like they do in Ireland.

I work at the airport, I have never seen a ROI registered aircoach operating this route over the last few years, unless you know otherwise then your argument is null and void as this route is 100% serviced from their UK company even during times of disruption.

I was on one in December and a couple of other times last year and have seen ROI vehicles on the service a good number of times. So therefore my argument is not null and void but yours is misleading, incorrect and doesn't stand up to scrutiny

Just a few examples:
https://flickr.com/photos/75694280@N02/48793192131/
https://flickr.com/photos/75694280@N02/48947755942/
https://flickr.com/photos/75694280@N02/33333072908/
https://flickr.com/photos/75694280@N02/33665503048/
https://flickr.com/photos/sheffield-transport-photography/31838860507/

And Volvo truck and bus garages are don't restrict the vehicles they operate on to only in country registrations meaning a ROI registration can rock into Volvo NI and vice versa.

Nobody said they do, but if you have a breakdown or a delay, it's far better to have depot facilities with coaches and drivers either side of the border rather than having to send a coach all the way to Belfast from Dublin, when a vehicle breaks down in Belfast. It results in better outcomes for customers.

Again your argument for this route is null and void, as you are so fond of stating DC put their new coaches on this route. I clearly stated I think some of their older fleet should not be on the road.

I hardly think that the fact that a well known bus operator in this country has been up before the RSA and found guilty of tacograph breaches as well as drivers not taking their rest periods is something that can be just brushed asid e and considered to be null and void and instead some anti British feeling is more important. If it came to putting my loved ones on a British coach or an operator who has been found guilty of road safety offences, I wouldn't chose the later.

Regarding revenue going to ROI arm, that is due to VAT rules, its not at the discretion of the bus operator. I am sure the UK company operating the coaches and employing the drivers will be paid a service charge. I'm also talking about driver pay, driver social insurance, employment etc etc.

Do you think that it is anything much different to what is happening on other cross boarder services, such as the servie operated by Ulsterbus and Bus Eirann jointly, or the enterprise service operated jointly by Northern Ireland Railways and Irish Rail? This is the very nature of companies operating cross border, some will have some staff in one company in one country and some in another for all sorts of reasons. I've never really had a big problem with it but I've never been one to be hugely anti British either, even if I am pro-Irish.

Look all I am doing is countering your argument that DC are playing unfair which you seem fond of bringing up without reference to Aircoach also taking advantage of the route being cross border to have an advantage with costs. Gobus / Kavanagh etc wont touch this route because of the advantages that aircoach can get from operating UK based coaches and drivers on this route. Please at least recognize this part of my argument.

Of course nobody else will touch the route because there is already a massive supply on that route, two coaches an hour from BE/UB, a train service, a coach every hour from Dublin Coach and Aircoach, there simply is not the demand for another service and any newcomer would quickly see themselves get eaten alive by the current operators on that route.

Dublin Coach themselves based much of their initial strategy on heavily below cost pricing, free or cheap tickets and hoping to gain customers that walked up to Glengall Street who were looking to travel with Aircoach. That kind of strategy is not allowed under rules within the ROI because the NTA believe that head to head running from the same stops at virtually the same time is not deisrable, which I would happen to agree with.

The ironic thing is that the only reason either of them are stopping at Glengall street is because Aircoach were believed to have taken Translink to court to get access to that location, which by all means was said to be a long, drawn out battle that went on for a long time.