Dublin Coach Experience Discussion Thread

belfast stephen · 14-01-2020 02:58PM

devnull wrote: »

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 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/

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Aircoach don't own the stop in Glengall street so dublin coach can use it

devnull · 14-01-2020 03:23PM

belfast stephen wrote: »

Aircoach don't own the stop in Glengall street so dublin coach can use it

That's extreme oversimplification.

Aircoach tried for years to stop in the Europa but Translink and the Department of infrastructure were not having any of it and there were lots of speeches about how they were not stopping Aircoach from stopping there, followed by words like but, however and various reasons why it hasn't happened yet.

As you may be aware, Aircoach had enough and went to the Office of Fair Trading on the basis that the powers that be might be breaking EU competition law, which was highlighted in the press. Some time after this and just before Aircoach started their non stop service, it was quite widely reported in the trade that Aircoach had won a case which meant they had to be given access.

At this point Translink stopped using Glengall Street altogether for it's own services and the powers that be allowed Aircoach to stop there, as technically it is considered part of the Europa. Since Aircoach had won this case, they were hardly likely to be able to stop Dublin Coach from stopping there also, as Dublin Coach would just point to the Aircoach case as prescident.

So it's true that Aircoach don't own the stop, but what they did meant that it became possible for privates to stop there which it probably never would have been possible since you can't imagine that the powers that be there would ever just welcome anyone in with open arms of their own choice, if they were willing to do so, there'd be no reason for Aircoach to take action in the first place.

Drifter50 · 14-01-2020 08:16PM

devnull wrote: »

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.

Fairly clear that its their own staff. If you take a look around their depots you`ll see gearboxes, axles, various carcases of coaches etc etc

d51984 · 16-01-2020 07:54PM

New double deck plaxton elite coaches on way for Belfast run. This will cascade the Belfast coaches down and hopefully withdraw all the setras. They need a few more new units for the Portlaoise route though. Would single deck coaches work on this route?

devnull · 16-01-2020 08:04PM

d51984 wrote: »

New double deck plaxton elite coaches on way for Belfast run. This will cascade the Belfast coaches down and hopefully withdraw all the setras. They need a few more new units for the Portlaoise route though. Would single deck coaches work on this route?

The allocations for the new vehicles were never going to be any other way really though, were they?

d51984 · 16-01-2020 08:06PM

Nope. Belfast is like the 46A of Dublin bus.

belfast stephen · 16-01-2020 08:08PM

d51984 wrote: »

New double deck plaxton elite coaches on way for Belfast run. This will cascade the Belfast coaches down and hopefully withdraw all the setras. They need a few more new units for the Portlaoise route though. Would single deck coaches work on this route?

I heard that it was scania double Deckers Coming for belfast route

devnull · 16-01-2020 08:09PM

d51984 wrote: »

Nope. Belfast is like the 46A of Dublin bus.

If the competition dropped off the route, that would probably change though.

Have to feel sorry for the long suffering passengers on their other routes who have to deal with all of the vehicles that are heavily getting on in years whilst Belfast gets new ones every year to fight a bus war with Aircoach on the route, although Aircoach Panthers are hardly luxury, it has to be said.

Odyssey 2005 · 16-01-2020 08:10PM

devnull wrote: »

If the competition dropped off the route, that would probably change though.

Have to feel sorry for the long suffering passengers on their other routes who have to deal with all of the vehicles that are heavily getting on in years whilst Belfast gets new ones every year to fight a bus war with Aircoach on the route.

And they are on the best road in the country..

d51984 · 16-01-2020 08:13PM

Deffo Plaxton elites, theres a photo on Flickr of one complete. Ill try find it again.

devnull · 16-01-2020 08:17PM

d51984 wrote: »

Deffo Plaxton elites, theres a photo on Flickr of one complete. Ill try find it again.

They already have a 162 reg Plaxton Elite.

d51984 · 16-01-2020 08:19PM

Yea they bought that 2nd hand.

punisher5112 · 16-01-2020 08:21PM

Wonder are they going for plaxton as that's what aircoach are using....

devnull · 16-01-2020 08:23PM

punisher5112 wrote: »

Wonder are they going for plaxton as that's what aircoach are using....

My Plaxton is bigger than yours, etc!

punisher5112 · 16-01-2020 08:23PM

devnull wrote: »

My Plaxton is bigger than yours, etc!

Oh it's like that is it:-)

punisher5112 · 16-01-2020 08:24PM

See aircoach is 20 years in existence.
Obviously not always under First but started up by DC owner.

ExoPolitic · 16-01-2020 09:19PM

Curious, where does DC have outstations? I know there's one in Waterford on the Tramore Road, I drive past it every day, usually one or two coaches parked up in the yard. One for breakdown coverage and one for the late night terminator and early morning start from Waterford.

belfast stephen · 16-01-2020 11:04PM

d51984 wrote: »

Deffo Plaxton elites, theres a photo on Flickr of one complete. Ill try find it again.

that was 2nd hand coach bought from the UK was new in 2016 and is a lovely coach to travel on

p_haugh · 17-01-2020 12:21AM

ExoPolitic wrote: »

Curious, where does DC have outstations? I know there's one in Waterford on the Tramore Road, I drive past it every day, usually one or two coaches parked up in the yard. One for breakdown coverage and one for the late night terminator and early morning start from Waterford.

Well I think they use part of the quick park they run in Dublin airport to park up coaches as well.

lab man · 17-01-2020 06:40AM

p_haugh wrote:

Well I think they use part of the quick park they run in Dublin airport to park up coaches as well.

small place in ennis 2 or 3 busses always left there

road_high · 18-01-2020 02:42PM

end of the road wrote: »

tbh i would be surprised if the dublin cork via waterford service would get any through patronage, but you never know i suppose.
i would reccan the journeys are dublin kilkenny, dublin waterford, kilkenny waterford, waterford cork.
i think and it's just a guess, that the service is just a combination of 2 services, dublin waterford and waterford cork, for whatever reason. probably to allow the usage of less vehicles and drivers, i presume dublin cork via waterford isn't a very frequent route?

I’ve gotten it once from Kilkenny down to cork. Long enough journey in itself on their ****e buses but lots of passengers stayed on all the way to cork. Well over a dozen at least that day. They’d have had to get on either in Dublin City centre or the Red Cow luas

road_high · 20-01-2020 10:32AM

When i got it back from Cork the bus took a very circuitous route in Waterford- turned left after WIT/old Waterford Crystal site and up through older housing estates and by the Super Valu and down into the Quays- does it normally do this? I'd have assumed it would take the normal route into the city via Manor st as that would be much quicker I'd imagine?

LineOfBeauty · 20-01-2020 10:39AM

Mixed experiences. The few times I've traveled with them they've been late by at least 15 mins, maximum 35 mins. The drivers are odd, on one long trip to Dublin we had a young guy who looked like a skater absolutely tearing it up the motorway, an old lady behind me was fit to lose her life, shouting loudly (well within earshot of the driver) about how the driver is mad and she's never taking this bus again!

On the flip side, I was once stuck in the middle of nowhere, stormy weather, stood at a bus stop for a Bus Eireann bus that it seems wasn't going to arrive only for a Dublin Coach to pull up, asked me where I'm going, told me to hop on and drove me into the city centre for free. Really cool thing to do!

road_high · 20-01-2020 10:48AM

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

Mixed experiences. The few times I've traveled with them they've been late by at least 15 mins, maximum 35 mins. The drivers are odd, on one long trip to Dublin we had a young guy who looked like a skater absolutely tearing it up the motorway, an old lady behind me was fit to lose her life, shouting loudly (well within earshot of the driver) about how the driver is mad and she's never taking this bus again!

On the flip side, I was once stuck in the middle of nowhere, stormy weather, stood at a bus stop for a Bus Eireann bus that it seems wasn't going to arrive only for a Dublin Coach to pull up, asked me where I'm going, told me to hop on and drove me into the city centre for free. Really cool thing to do!

Yes the timetable often runs late. Especially on the run up from Cork it seems to get tipped out of kilter very easily. I wouldn't like to be commuting with them for work where you are tied to time.

Agree re the drivers, they are odd. They seem to be on edge sometimes, almost entirely foreign- id' say they're very strictly monitored cash wise as I've seen one double check where people were getting off and the ticket they had- one lad had to get off as he planned to stay until next stop and hadn't paid for that far (and must have had no cash!). No codding them

LineOfBeauty · 20-01-2020 10:54AM

road_high wrote: »

Yes the timetable often runs late. Especially on the run up from Cork it seems to get tipped out of kilter very easily. I wouldn't like to be commuting with them for work where you are tied to time.

Agree re the drivers, they are odd. They seem to be on edge sometimes, almost entirely foreign- id' say they're very strictly monitored cash wise as I've seen one double check where people were getting off and the ticket they had- one lad had to get off as he planned to stay until next stop and hadn't paid for that far (and must have had no cash!). No codding them

It's an eclectic mix is the best way to sum them up. There's one older, Eastern European gentleman who is something else, I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall and seen the reaction when he showed up for his interview.

road_high · 20-01-2020 11:03AM

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

It's an eclectic mix is the best way to sum them up. There's one older, Eastern European gentleman who is something else, I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall and seen the reaction when he showed up for his interview.

I'd say it's extremely hard to recruit in Ireland (especially for a company like DC). A few weeks ago driver on mine was a very well spoken middle class Irish guy which was quite a shock, very much the exception.

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime · 20-01-2020 11:58AM

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

The drivers are odd, on one long trip to Dublin we had a young guy who looked like a skater absolutely tearing it up the motorway, an old lady behind me was fit to lose her life, shouting loudly (well within earshot of the driver) about how the driver is mad and she's never taking this bus again!

The old woman in this case needs to go away and not distract the driver on a motorway at high speed. Doing what she does only annoy drivers more and aggravate them.

There's no such thing as a bus flying up the motorway in the way described. All coaches are limited to the same 100km/h as each other. Only incredibly slight differences based on tyre wear.

If I were to drive my bus in accordance to the old people like her looking over my shoulder all day we'd be driving miss Daisy around the country side all day at 60 kmh , stopping for tea and biscuits every 30 mins. Them days are gone. People have places to be !

punisher5112 · 20-01-2020 12:01PM

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime wrote: »

The old woman in this case needs to go away and not distract the driver on a motorway at high speed. Doing what she does only annoy drivers more and aggravate them.

There's no such thing as a bus flying up the motorway in the way described. All coaches are limited to the same 100km/h as each other. Only incredibly slight differences based on tyre wear.

If I were to drive my bus in accordance to the old people like her looking over my shoulder all day we'd be driving miss Daisy around the country side all day at 60 kmh , stopping for tea and biscuits every 30 mins. Them days are gone. People have places to be !

Only issue is I've seen these coaches going a lot more then 100km/h

LineOfBeauty · 20-01-2020 12:10PM

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime wrote: »

The old woman in this case needs to go away and not distract the driver on a motorway at high speed. Doing what she does only annoy drivers more and aggravate them.

There's no such thing as a bus flying up the motorway in the way described. All coaches are limited to the same 100km/h as each other. Only incredibly slight differences based on tyre wear.

If I were to drive my bus in accordance to the old people like her looking over my shoulder all day we'd be driving miss Daisy around the country side all day at 60 kmh , stopping for tea and biscuits every 30 mins. Them days are gone. People have places to be !

Personally I didn't mind so much and was rather enjoying the sense of panic created by this woman who thought she was in some kind of death-trap but it was a combo of speed and a couple of dodgy overtakes that set her off.

Muller1991 · 20-01-2020 12:19PM

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime wrote: »

The old woman in this case needs to go away and not distract the driver on a motorway at high speed. Doing what she does only annoy drivers more and aggravate them.

There's no such thing as a bus flying up the motorway in the way described. All coaches are limited to the same 100km/h as each other. Only incredibly slight differences based on tyre wear.

If I were to drive my bus in accordance to the old people like her looking over my shoulder all day we'd be driving miss Daisy around the country side all day at 60 kmh , stopping for tea and biscuits every 30 mins. Them days are gone. People have places to be !

Fair enough about distracting the driver , But I've seen a DC go well above 100kmph on many occasion. Last week for instance I was doing 100 and one overtook me on the M50, It was going at least 120-130 kmph

Dublin Coach Experience Discussion Thread

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