Dublin Coach Experience Discussion Thread

it’s not like it’ll be going to waste Citylink will operate it the only difference to it is they won’t stop at Kildare village or the red cow

How would making it a PSO route be rewarding someone?

I wouldn't necessarily exclude DC from bidding from any such contract if say they decided to get their act together and started operating buses in roadworthy conditions, improve the standards of driver training and customer service etc. Probably very unlikely as long as the current management are there mind you.

If it's not enforced it's not really a condition is it?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122895804/#Comment_122895804

Because the government pay for the route and cover any loses.

So it goes from a route that DC lose money on to a route that they now make a guaranteed profit on but at the expense of the tax payer. It is basically free money for DC.

But that's exactly the definition of a PSO service. If there isn't a subsidy the service doesn't run. Do you want to remove them all?

I suppose its there in case of really bad performance/service, they can implement it if they want/need to. My query was in relation to the 726. You actually find that you will always get a better performance on PSO routes because they don't get paid if they don't run the service!

Yes there are a number of factors, e.g. demographics, population etc. Some are designated so as to provide access to HSE services maybe once or twice a week. The new local link services seem to be doing well at adapting service requirement to needs. They reguarly launch a route and then tweak it in terms of frequency or stopping points.

Regarding state(semi) companies, they are subject to EU competition rules so as to provide some competition in the market. So Dublin Bus or Go Ahead or Bus Eireann can all bid for the work on an even playing pitch.

I don't think there has ever been a route that just gets 'rolled over' into a PSO route. That's not a thing, they have to go to tender.

I'm not at all familiar with Galway. I would expect that City Direct operate under licence, but they could likely find themselves having to tender for the routes that they already operate. In a similar way to how GoAhead was able to get into the Dublin market. They left all current routes with Dublin Bus at the time, and new routes were open to tender.

Anyway apologies we're straying way away off how unbelievabley shyte Dublin Coach are. I think their service has only improved at the moment because there is some extra capacity in the market over the winter when there is less tourist busses in use. Normal service will resume around Easter!

yeah fair enough, another NTA failing. Understandable that it has to be done in an emergency, but there should have been a tender process commenced at the same time with the intention of having an operator in place in 12 months

I wouldn’t be surprised if the only one they operate by the end of next year is the 726

cause nearly all the coaches they have have gone to the scrapyard

The NTA have determined that the Portarlington→Monestavern section of the 816 will require a PSO replacement service, which is some good news at least!

No indication on timelines for the launch date or who shall be running it yet, however.

@devnull I take it all back 🤣

Hopefully it'll be Martleys or someone similar, they're running a lot of good services locally.