Throwback Thursday

This week we are going back fourteen years to 2007 and AV 263 on route 45 in Bray. Route 45 first started connecting Dublin city centre with Bray, via Ballsbridge and Cabinteely, in 1927. The route had two main terminii in Bray - the Esplanade along the seafront and Oldcourt from around 1975. AV 263 is seen here heading to the Esplanade. Based on the length of the route, this had to be one of the least informative destinations on the front of a bus in Dublin. In the early 2000s Oldcourt became the main destination, with Esplanade being served much less frequently. In May 2012 the 45 was removed from the network, as its usage had dropped over the years following the much more direct, and frequent, route 145. Route 45A still lives on, operating between Dun Laoghaire and Kilmacanogue via Bray.

AV 263 was delivered new to Dublin Bus in 2002. It was withdrawn around 2016/2017 but stayed in Dublin and moved to Executive Express. It spent all its career in Donnybrook Depott, though was involved in the shuttles for the Tall Ships Race in Waterford in 2005.

Behind the bus is the stadium of Bray Wanderers Football Club, that also doubled for Croke Park in the 1996 film, Michael Collins.25/07/2007

This week we are going back thirty-four years to D 608 in Swords with a service on route 43. This is the third route to use the number 43. The original route 43 operated between 1925 and 1939 connecting the city centre with Killester. The second route 43 went to Mount Merrion between 1940 and 1966. The Swords version started in 1986, operating to / from the city centre via Kinsealy. Originally terminating at the main stop in Swords as seen here, it was extended to Swords Business Park in the early 2000s where it still operates to this day.

D 608 was delivered new to CIE in Dublin in 1974. It was withdrawn by Dublin Bus in 1993 when it was sold for scrap.

Ryans Bar in the background is no longer standing, having been cleared to provide better views of Swords Castle behind it.

22/02/1987

This week we are going back thirty-one years to 1990 and KD 348 passing through College Green on route 10. This route started in 1940, operating between the Phoenix Park and Donnybrook. Around 1970 it was extended south to Belfield. This route has probably been used by a lot of people over the years, either heading to Dublin Zoo in the Phoenix Park on the northside, or to go study at University College Dublin in Belfield on the southside. However, in 2010 the route was removed from the network by Network Direct. Route 46A replaced it on the northside, and route 39A on the southside. 

KD 348 was delivered new to CIE in 1983. It was withdrawn around 1999/2000. Over the years it wore many different all-over advertisements. Here it is advertising Lee Cooper jeans. It also advertised PMPA Insurance and Telecom Eireann CallCards. 

05/08/1990

This week we are only going back nine years to EV 21 on Abbey Street with a service on route 31B to Howth Summit. This route started in 1988, originally running to Howth Station via Carrickbrack Road and Howth Summit. In the early 2000s it was cut back to just Howth Summit, operating via Strand Road in Sutton, as well as Carrickbrack Road. The route ended in June 2021 when the Bus Connects network started its roll-out. The 31B, and the similar 31A, were replaced by new route 6.

EV 21 was delivered new to Dublin Bus in 2007. It was initially based out of Clontarf Garage, but in 2016 the Enviro 400 joined the Dublin Bus tour fleet and lost most of its roof for its new duties. In the background is former Dublin Bus RV 522 in the livery of its new owners - Irlanda Tours. 

EV 21 is turning off Marlborough Street onto Abbey Street. In the foreground is the Luas Red Line. Today the Luas Green Line crosses the Red Line at this point as it heads south along Marlborough Street.

19/08/2012

This week we are going back twenty-years to RV 458 on Parnell Square. The bus is dressed for the brand new route 116 to Whitechurch via Stillorgan. This route was one of the many new routes that started around this time to tie in with the new Quality Bus Corridor along the Stillorgan Road. During 2000 the 116 was expanded to serve not just Whitechurch but also Clonskea, Sandyford Industrial Estate, Ballinteer and DCU. In more recent years the route has been cut back to just Whitechurch again. 

The branding on the side of RV 458 (Stillorgan Flyer) refers to the 46A. It was part of the rebranding of that route as part of the Stillorgan QBC, even though the 46A was already a CitySwift route. 

RV 458 was delivered new to Dublin Bus in February 1999. The Volvo Olympian only lasted ten years, being withdrawn in 2009. It spent all its career in Donnybrook Garage. It was sold on to Procter of Leeming Bar in the United Kingdom. 

24/08/1999

Afaik the 116 only started in August 1999. And then it was between Parnell Square and Whitechurch via the QBC. It was in 2000 that it gained other routings.

This week we are only going back nine years to 2012 and AV 166 at the Blanchardstown Centre on route 236. When the shopping centre opened in October 1996, it gained three local routes (237, 238 and 239) that initially served the surrounding areas of Coolmine, Castleknock, Mulhuddart, Ballycoolin and Luttrelstown. Around 2001 the 236 joined this local network, serving the Ballycoolin IDA park on a circular route. It only operated in the peak-hours, and was branded as FactoryLink. For a while there was a separate route 236 that ran to a northern terminus in Tyrellstown. Under Network Direct the route was reduced again to just the Ballycoolin circular in 2010. In January 2019 the route passed to Go-Ahead Ireland, along with the other local routes in Blanchardstown. It was also joined by a new route, the 236A.

AV 166 was delivered new to Dublin Bus in 2000. It was withdrawn in late-2013 and emigrated to the United Kingdom where it joined the Beaverbus fleet in Leicester. 31/08/2012

This week we are going back only 11 years, to the final days of a bus route in Dublin in Autumn 2010. 

Dublin Bus AW 18 is seen at the terminus of route 4A at Stradbrook, near Deansgrange, in the south-eastern part of the city. Route 4A started in November 2007, running between Harristown (on the Northside of Dublin) and Stradbrook (on the Southside) via the City Centre. It was a derivative of route 4 which ran between Harristown and Blackrock and together they provided extra capacity along the Rock Road on the Southside, and the Ballymun Road on the Northside. However, under Network Direct it was decided to merge both routes into one, with the 4 extended to Monkstown Avenue via Stradbrook. This extension was also planned to replace part of the 46A route, which was removed from Monkstown Farm. These changes took place in September 2010, giving the 4A a lifespan of two years, 10 months.

AW 18 was delivered new to Dublin Bus in 2000. It was one of twenty bendy-buses delivered that year, as a trial to see if that type of bus could work here. After spending time on a number of routes (trying to find some they could be suitable on as the narrow streets of Dublin provided a challenge), they settled down on route 10 eventually. In 2006 they migrated to the new route 4, so were also naturally allocated to the 4A in 2007. The end of the 4A also marked the end of the AW Class, and over the following months they started to be withdrawn with them all gone by early-2011. A few of them went on to have careers in the United Kingdom. AW 18 itself was scrapped in the UK.

15/09/2010

This week we are going back thirty-eight years to KD 237 at Dublin Airport on route 41 to Dublin city centre. Route 41 started operating between Dublin and Swords in 1926, and still does so today in 2021. It has had a number of different terminus in Swords over the years, but the most recent one at Swords Manor has been in use since 1998. The route has also continuously served Dublin Airport since the 1940s. In December 2019 the 41 and the 15 became the first two Dublin Bus routes to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

KD 237 was delivered new to CIE in 1982. It remained in service right up to 2000 when the last Bombardiers were withdrawn in Dublin. It spent all its working life in Summerhill Garage. 

Buses no longer serve this upper ramp in Dublin Airport, instead the 41 serves a bus stop that is roughly where the trees by the church are in the background.

01/10/1983

For our 300th Throwback Thursday I thought I would go back to the start. The very first picture in this series was posted in 2016 and showed a bus in Bray Station, so here is a photograph of Dublin Bus GT 87 at Bray Station in 2016. Route 185 started in 1995, and was a direct replacement for route 85. It mostly operated between Bray and Enniskerry (Shop River). The change to 185 coincided with a reorganisation of local routes in Bray and the introduction of minibuses onto those routes. Around 2004 the 185 started serving the Palermo estate in Bray too. In 2018 Go-Ahead Ireland took over the 185 and it became two routes: Bray - Palermo and Bray to Shop River via Palermo. The route also switched from double-decker buses to single-deckers. Under Bus Connects, the 185 will be replaced by the L14 and L15.

GT 87 was delivered new to Dublin Bus in 2013. It is still with Dublin Bus, however it is now in the new Transport for Ireland (TFI) green and yellow livery. The TFI logo on the side of GT 87 has since been updated to a new style one. GT 87 was built by Wrights (on a Volvo chassis) in Ballymena and back in 2016 Dublin Bus was still receiving buses from that company, but of the SG class. The last SG was delivered in 2020, after Wrights were brought out of administration. However, starting in 2021, Dublin Bus have been receiving new hybrid buses from Alexander Dennis, the SG being the last fully diesel bus to be bought by TFI.   

A lot has changed in the five years since this picture was taken, and since Throwback Thursday has started. Who knows what the next five years will bring? Thanks as always for looking at my photographs. 22/10/2016

This week we pop back twelve years to 2009 and AV 242 and VG 34 at the terminus for routes 33 and 33X in Skerries. AV 242 is on route 33X to Tara Street station in Dublin, via the Port Tunnel. This route has had two existences. It first ran for around three to four years, ending in 2002, operating between Skerries and UCD Belfield. It returned in 2007, but only operated as far as St. Stephen's Green. It was a limited service, mostly operating once a day in each direction during the weekday peaks. However, that changed in August 2009 when part of the railway viaduct over the Broadmeadow Estuary in Malahide collapsed. With the railway line into Dublin cut in two for over three months, Dublin Bus had to rapidly step in and increase the number of buses on the corridor, predominately with the 33X. After the railway line reopened in November 2009, the 33X was cut back but still maintains a number of departures (far more than one) in each direction during the peaks to this day. 

VG 34 is on route 33. This route can trace its origins back to the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) and passed to CIE in 1958, when it became the 33. Certain departures on this route are extended to / from Balbriggan. Whereas the 33X uses the M1 motorway and Port Tunnel after Lusk to access the city, the 33 takes the longer and slower route via Swords and Santry.

AV 242 was delivered new to Dublin Bus in 2002. It was withdrawn around 2016/2017 when it moved the United Kingdom and entered service with Walton's Coaches of Preston. While in Dublin it spent all its working life in Clontarf Garage. It ended up on the 33X as all garages needed to pitch in during the viaduct collapse to provide buses and run services on the route, as Summerhill Garage could not cover them all.

VG 34 was delivered new to Dublin Bus in 2009. In 2015 it joined the Airlink fleet and repainted into the livery for that service. In 2020 the Airlink service was suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic, and in 2021 Dublin Bus announced that the service was not going to return.  

16/10/2009

This week we are going back seven years to VT 7 on Leeson Street. The bus is operating a service on route 46A from Dun Laoghaire to Phoenix Park via the city centre. The 46A started operating in 1926 between Dublin city centre and Cabinteely. In 1936 it reached Dun Laoghaire.In the late 1990s the route became 'super charged' when it joined the CitySwift network and the Stillorgan Road Quality Bus Corridor became operational. The route started the new millennium as one of the most frequent in the city. In 2010 it became a cross city route when its northern terminus became the Phoenix Park, after it absorbed the northern half of route 10 under Network Direct. 

VT 7 was one of twenty Enviro 500 tri-axle buses delivered to Dublin Bus in 2005. When these buses arrived their presence on the streets were certainly noticeable as this was a class of bus more associated with Hong Kong than with Europe. These buses were initially allocated to just the 46A (and some of the other 46 family of routes) but in 2007 another fifty arrived and the class started to appear on some of the busiest routes around the city. VT 7, along with the rest of the other first twenty VT buses, was withdrawn in 2018. It was sold to the UK and is now used on school services by Sussex Coaches. 28/10/2014