BusConnects Dublin - Bus Network Changes Discussion

I took the 19 once from Merrion to Drumcondra and it took 30minutes to get to OCS. Ridiculous. Traffic was busy, but fairly standard levels. Will never take it from there again.

From town I used to take the 11 or 13 most often to get to Drumcondra, but now you have to go to Parnell to get the 19, which is extremely awkward/useless, so I'm taking the 41 from Abbey instead.

Inbound from Drumcondra to town, I've noticed a big decrease in service levels. Used to be a turn up and go service, but now you can wait up to 8minutes to get a bus that only goes to Parnell or Abbey. More often than before, buses are full, especially the 16, so the driver won't stop or let you on.

Very frustrating. Roll on the A Spine please!!

They appear to have problems with hills. Certain areas of Dublin are quite hilly. Athlone is not.

The engine roar issue on older Volvo units (RA/RV/RH/AV/AX) was apparently due to them also not being great on hills. The 66 as-was was particularly bad, as there's a significant hill each way out of Lucan, then one going out Leixlip village on all the route variants (Captains Hill and the hill at the church)

I would walk or wait for any other bus over the 16. You will still be in town before the 16, stops at every single stop or driver chagnes at Parnell Sq.

The 13 gone is very noticable on a Saturday timetable for gaps.

From what I can see the E1 has stopped serving bus stop 6182 (northbound) just north of Santry Avenue. The pole and sign has gone too, but there doesn't appear to be any official notification of this.

Its stupid that that and stop 90 is so close still, surprised stop 90 wasn't removed with the launch of the E-spine tbh.

The E terminus in northwood is very undersized, it is frequently full with buses and another on the road blocking traffic

Funny enough, it being "set down only" isn't even enforced. I got on a northbound E1 at that stop on Thursday evening, together with like 7 other people, without any problem.

It doesn't make sense for it to be set down only anyways. It is just across the road from DCU, so natually students will want to get on a bus from there.

I wonder is it to do with space available compared to the amount of students alighting there? Only reasoning I can see

Is that stop used as a set down for the 44 or the 104 near DCU or do they have their set down stops inside the campus?

It seems the E1 is causing pile ups at both ends of their route. I’ve seenThe terminus at Ballywaltrim overloaded also with buses stalled opposite the Cemetery.

The timetables on routes L3 and L15 are changing from next Sunday (30th March).

https://www.goaheadireland.ie/timetable-change-30th-march-2025

On the L3, the layovers at the Delgany terminus have been reduced to just 2 minutes. There has been a lot of complaints from the residents of Greystones and Delgany that they can't get their cars up Chapel Road while the NTA/Wicklow County Council have also failed to build a proper bus layover. I'd imagine they'll be a number of reliability issues on the route now that the turnaround times are so tight, especially at peak and school hours.

On the L15, there are no timetable changes but for some reason, the number of the bus stop in Enniskerry Village is changing from 4097 to 10395, even though it is in the exact same location. There is only one vehicle on the route and the run times are still tight, though the bus can usually recover time once it gets out of Bray.

The 185T predates the other routes you mentioned it used to be a numberless DB operated service from Enniskerry to Southern Cross that wasn't in the public timetable. It switched to GAI and became the 185T in 2021.

There used to be a lot of DB school bus routes that were contracted out to private operators kind of similar to BE school buses in rural areas. I'm open to correction but I think these are mostly gone now so the routes you mention could've replaced some of them idk.

The road from Delgany to the top of Applewood is due to close for 6 months over the the summer to be upgraded. Possibly they'll include a lay-by for the buses in the plans, but IDK where the L3 will go in the meantime.

I would imagine Summer at the earliest would be the next possible date for any changes, but almost every date has been pushed back so far, so time will tell.

With regards to the North Circular Road, bar the four or so stops west of Aughrim Street, most of the road crosses very high frequency routes in close proximity to each other (Prussia Street, the Luas, all the routes running north/south/east/west through Phibsborough, Dorset Street and Amiens Street) so there are loads of alternatives. The frequency will return to every 8 minutes along the road once the O route starts.