Dublin Coach Experience Discussion Thread

In service Dublin Coach Tourismo, front door. 

How in the name of God is this company still on the road?????

12 yrs is a long service life ...maybe too long.

Only the NTA can revoke a licence

I was on 2 of the Vanhools on the Portlaoise run yesterday, one from 2012 and the second from 2009. Both are in bits but being on the 726 route which is 24 hours a day doesn't help and from what I can gather on Dublin Coach tracker they never seem to get a break! it's almost like the only time they'll get a break is to go to the depot to get fueld, cleaned and sent back out again.

I heard a rumor that they'll be getting more Scania Ayats (like the ones on the 600) this year. The smart thing to do would to be take the 21 reg Ayats off the Cork run and place them into Portlaoise, then use the brand new ones on Cork, resulting in the Vanhools being binned off.. there's your problem sorted!

Alot of the doors on them are broken, I've seen drivers pulling them closed as they're closing so that they're closed properly.

Toilets are supposed to be cleaned when they go for fueling ect and water supposed to be put into them too. There's always a strong smell of p1ss from them 🤢

Yes was on the M9 bus lately and the front door was also broken, might be the same one. Also toilets are not well maintained. Light appeared not to be working ( I assume it should be automatic). Shame to see these lovely new buses not being well treated and cared for already. I think they’re extremely comfortable and can move too

Well I'd imagine what they'll probably do instead is if they end up using all the Scania Ayats for the 300 and 600 (including the new ones if that rumor is true) then you'd see a massive increase in Tourismo's on Portlaoise. The 750 is allocated the same Setras both 08 reg and the Portarlington route usually gets a Sprinter van that also appears on the 750. A Citaro single deck city bus was on Portarlington recently

They have a new 141 double-decker that’s supposed to be going on the airport route from this week. That’s the one that was replacing the 2009 one

That 141 regs are probably more ex Stagecoach Megabus Vanhool's. I was told by a friend of mine in the UK that Stagecoach are starting to withdraw their 14 plate Vanhools

Those Setras must have inter galactic mileage on them.

It's a testament to their build quality they're still going, rather than good maintenance.

For a coach in service 7 days a week for a good 18 hours everyday other road it's a lot. Yes buses can last the best part of 20 years but most will be much more lightly used on their final years in services than their first couple of years.

BE usually relegate their older fleet to schools after 12-14 years in service, DB usually put their oldest vehicles out only at peak times and Aircoach don't hold on to much after 10 years.

Dublin Bus usually had a 15 year rule and would sell buses off after that to private operators mostly for school work and some private hires. That rule has been kinda postponed with the oldest buses now in their 18th year but that's down to covid delaying everything. I wonder when we'll see Dublin Coach no longer running Setras or Vanhools!

On this point, I have been in email tennis with the NTA for a while now and I asked them what their criteria is for whether a service is operating in 'compliance' and more specifically how do they decide if an operator is compliant with regard to punctuality and service operation i.e. how late is late and how many services need to be missed before they decide that an operator is not compliant. They are refusing to tell me.

Unfortunately we are unable to give specific information on some of your questions as it may prejudice or impair the prevention, detection or investigations of offences or the effectiveness of lawful methods, systems, plans or procedures employed for the purpose of enforcement.

Hi to the NTA heads lurking here...yes it's me asking you to publish your own standards!

Do they not have brake/gear locks that won't let the bus move until the door is fully closed like a lot of the newer city buses do?