Electric, Hydrogen & Hybrid Electric Buses in Ireland

Also, could the current diesel buses not be run on bio diesel? Short .term solution I know ..

Dublin Express have also moved all their coaches (at least the BK operated ones, not sure about the Quinns ones on the 785) to HVO as well

I'd say yes, especially for coach operators that use a proper station as their termini. The infrastructure, ie rapid chargers, should be fairly easy to install at these locations.

The Dublin Coach ideology of filling the busses diesel tank once per day and dropping you off on the side of the road would struggle mind…

Any idea when these will come into service?

Was told they should be up and running soon, take it with a pinch of salt tho

Its really nice to see the fleet, not just in Dublin but nationwide develop and the latest technology been rolled out. I have to say I like the 'new' TFI green livery, it gives a modern fresh look to the different classes of buses.

Hats off to Wrightbus on these new electroliners, as a passenger there smooth, fresh, modern and are a dream to travel on ,compared to the older types they are replacing.

We have come a long way from clapped out Bombardiers constantly breaking down everywhere, leaking oil all over the streets, smelly damp and dusty seats, clapped out interiors that were far from wheelchair friendly.

These new electric buses, coupled with new routes like the N4, N2, new 24 hour bus routes, liffey valley interchange, 90 minute fares, more frequent routes, new local link services been added almost weekly, new town bus services…

We are not there yet folks, but we are in a much better position then we have ever been, looking forward to the next phases.

I slightly miss the old Db livery, especially on the SG’s. I wish they had just implemented the new livery on the buses that came in after it was announced. Apart from that, it’s nice to see some positivity about Busconnects on this website. I agree that the PA’s and the EW’s, especially with the extra legroom upstairs, are far more comfortable than some of the older models that some people on these forums love. I haven’t had the chance to use the EW’s hugely but the limited experience I have with them has been some of the most comfortable buses I’ve taken in this country

Not a fan of the new livery myself. Preferred the original TFI livery that GAI used at the start and some BE buses still have. Also think there should be two liveries one for urban services and another separate livery for provincial services.

I think a tourist for example you could quite easily get on a BE bus in Dublin city centre by mistake and then discover the bus won't stop to let you off until you get well outside of Dublin.

Most cities I've been to have different liveries for BE type provincial services and a one for regular city buses and we did have this when DB buses were blue and yellow and BE was still white and red now everything is all green and yellow. I realise down in Cork and Limerick everything was always BE red and white.

They could have put the current TFI green and yellow on the city buses and kept the original TFI livery for the provincial buses. I thought the original livery looked really good on the GAI LFs now their in the new livery.

Truthfully I don't think having a consistent livery is the problem, but likely other factors about the network that may mean having a consistent livery is a problem. I think liveries beng that helpful is not a sign that they should be used for identifying various services, but that there are underlying issues with the network meaning you may have to. Four problems I could immediately think of are:

Timetables should be better consolidated onto one website, especially for all PSO services. Having to look between 3 different websites (for Dublin) is tedious and casues confusion. The TFI app/website does help, but quality aside I don't think it has enough informations at times and can be very tedious to use if you are trying to plan more than a few hours in advance. This can be even worse in areas where town services are operated by smaller operates, whether that be local link (most town services) or a private company (such as Wexford town and Tralee).

There should be more/better network maps. This is also related to website consolidation, as you should be able to find maps showing both regional and city routes on them. Not only do several town networks not have any map, technically dublin doesn't even have a proper network map. The official map on TFI is for rail only and is out of date since the introduction of the new fare zones.

Information at bus stops needs to be improved. I have noticed some routes have abstract transit maps and I think that is helpful, and should be introduced to more routes as I have so far only seeing them at G-spine stops. Though I also think displaying higher detail maps would also be good. Additionally I think there needs to be better information for interchanges, such as arrows pointing where to go to switch betwen regional and city services, between BC spines, etc.

Most importantly, there should never be duplicate numbers within the same region. This honestly shouldn't even be a problem. A quick run through the DB, BE, and GAI websites and I found 4 duplicates: 4, 111, 120, 130, and this has gotten better since the start of BC.

I know this might sound a bit like I'm ranting about other issues, but I also do get where you are coming from as I have been there. I believe this is related to the livery problem you mention, as I think it is all related to a lack of accessible and concise information and/or being given confusing or inconsistent information. I don't believe you should have to look at a bus's livery just to figure out which website to go to for a timetable or to find information about the route.

That would most likely be one of the three Hydrogen buses operated by Bus Eireann that have been on long-term trial. They are only really used on peak-time 103X/105X services. Also, while they are based in Broadstone - in order to refuel them they have to go all the way to the BOC yard on the Naas Road, as that's the only place capable of refueling them.