Dublin Airport Bus Service Changes & Discussion

The Aircoach Citaros were running 24x7 for 15-16 years and towards the end they were really struggling and because there are so few of that generation in the UK and Ireland in articulated form, parts were becoming harder and more expensive to come by and it became clear that it wasn't sustainable to keep them all running until the new electric vehicles were delivered. This has affected other operators of the same generation artics.

Even a couple of years ago it was not uncommon for over a third of them to be out of action at any one time, which is why First sent over the Plaxton Primos and the extra Wright Eclipses and even at one point had to use coaches on the car park shuttles to avoid having to pay penalties for cancelling shuttle services. First did purchase the ex Brighton and Hove Citaros of a similar age in 2022 with the idea being they could provide parts for the Aircoach fleet, but it was found that they were in little better condition than the Aircoach ones so in reality they only helped a very small amount.

It was obviously not going to be economically sustainable to buy or lease new articulated diesel vehicles when the Airport wanted to go over to full electric vehicles in the near future which would make the new articulated vehicles essentially redundant with a very limited second hand market demand for them which would make them something of a white elephant and an absymal return on investment. It simply would not have made business sense but it also didn't make business sense to have to pay the DAA compensation for non operating of services either, so the Evoras were a compromise.

The idea with those Evoras (which are very well built and probably the best modern single decker out there right now) which are 12.9m spec makes them the longest and highest capacity single deck two axle bus on the market, is that they are an interim solution for a short period until the Irizars come on board, and when the Irizars do come on board, the Evora's can then be converted back to a more conventional city bus and then deployed elsewhere in the UK and Ireland. I agree it's not perfect for passengers, but it makes perfect business sense. Now the whole thing has not been helped by the fact that the Irizars in London entered into service late, and the knock on effect that has had on the Aircoach order that is now also said to be running late.

The one piece of good news I can give you is that out of the 23 to be delivered, I have heard that at least 14 of them will be articulated and at least 6 of them will be rigid. I don't know about the other three.

Six rigid Irizar Ie.Trams have now been accepted by Aircoach and been issued with registration plates.

The vehicles are as follows:

242-D-21350 (69801)
242-D-21347 (69802)
242-D-21349 (69803)
242-D-23697 (69804)
242-D-23698 (69805)
242-D-23699 (69806)

They are 12.16m long which makes them a little shorter than the 12.9m Evoras.

The service is still and has always been licensed to Dualway despite incorrect claims that it no longer had anything to do with them. It seems the operation was contracted out by Dualway for the relaunch a couple of years ago but the route still belongs to them.