EV in, RV out...

Conyngham Road are currently putting their new EV's into service. As a result RV's in the 330's & 340's are being withdrawn...RV343, in Cityswift livery and RV336, in fleet livery are seen in April 2005 in Conyngham Road Depot.

Its looking baaaaad

Well no pork on the menu and now beef looks worrying too...

Still though at least the sheep are holding their own outside the Department of Agriculture on Kildare Street...
While in bus related news the new style bus stops have also set up shop on Kildare Street and just so there's now favourism, even the 172 stop has goten an upgrade...
And incase you needed anymore details on the 172, check out the Dublin Bus website by clicking here.

Get out of town...

A guaranteed lift home for a fiver... Get out of town!

The enhanced Dublin Bus Christmas Nitelink services kick in this weekend...
More details on the Dublin Bus website, click here.

The Wright Choice...

Both Dublin Bus & Bus Eireann have ordered new Wrights Gemini double decker buses this year.

Bus Eireann has recieved VWD1-10 of 10, and VWD2 is seen in Broadstone:
Dublin Bus has received VG1-4 of 50, and VG4 is seen in Broadstone:
The first of these VG's, 1-11 are to be allocated to Phibsboro Garage.

Happy December....

Hello all! Yes, there's been quite a gap in updates on the blog, apologies. Its December, so the count down to Christmas has begun. While we won't be doing the advent calender this year, I promise more regular updates have returned... so to begin... back to December 2007, VT33 only recently delivered at the time, meets now withdrawn RA229 in Broadstone.

Holidays are coming... holidays are coming... :)

Giving the elbow...

A reference made by another enthusiast on another blog (cough cough)... spurred me to look back into my own archives of the same time to see what other photos I took...
A fuel cell Citaro on Route RV1. Following trials, these buses have now been withdrawn.
National Express Plaxton Panther 20542 about to enter Golders Green bus interchange.
A Docklands Light Railway train in Canary Wharf station
An Arriva single decker in the bus interchange at Bluewater Shopping Centre.
Services H1, H2 & H3 are three local services around the Golders Green area. If you every want a hair raising spin on a minibus... Route H2 is it. The route winds its way around narrow streets and operates a hail and ride service along the way. When I first visited Golders Green Metroline had the contract for this service, however, on this return trip Arriva had taken over the service, still using Optare Solo minibuses as see above.

She's Electric!

No, this isn't a post about the Oasis concert in Slane next year... its the new Wrights Hybrid Pulsar Gemini which has just arrived in Summerhill.

The bus, which is to be classified, WH1 will carry the registration of 08D69001. It's fitted with a Ford Puma diesel engine and a Lithium ion battery pack.

The bus will receive its external graphics next week, and then driver familiarisation will begin after that.

Here are some photos of the Hybrid taken in Summerhill Garage on Wednesday, 22nd October 2008. Click on the image for a larger version.
And this is how the dash looks...
A Wrights Hybrid Gemini is also in operation in London...

Hungry for information...

Tickets, check.
Wallet, check.
Passport, check.
Food, sorted!
Timetable, fantasy!

While Burger Kings ads are now visible across the Aircoach stops in the city, it seems a lack of a timetable has left us hungry for information...

Driving School

Driving School buses are hard to get photos of. They only appear Monday to Friday and mainly between 8.30am & 4pm.

Former Donnybrook RA181 is seen here in O'Connell Street. This must be nerve racking for any trainee driver as the unpredictability of people and vehicles on O'Connell St. is something else!

And finally, before Showbus 2008 - the last installment from 2007

Stagecoach showed off their new Enviro 400's for the Cambridge Park & Ride services...


And Stagecoach Lincolnhire also showed an Enviro400, but in standard Stagecoach corporate colours...
And finally, a British Airways Merc Citaro...
If your heading to Showbus 2008 this weekend, have a great time!

More from Showbus...

More photos from Showbus.

A site shuttle runs around the Showbus event. Last year a Plaxton Primo was involved in the shuttle...
Also present last year was a National Express wheelchair accessible coach tri-axle Caetano Levante...
and a Wrights Gemini decker from First
More to follow...

Showbus

Its Showbus in Duxford in the UK this coming Sunday, the 28th September...

In preperation for the event I was looking back at photos from Showbus 2007.

Here is First York Wrights 60928:
More Showbus 2007 photos across the week...

New Route 47

From Monday 8th September Dublin Bus are introducing new Route 47 between Belarmine and Donnybrook Church serving Stepaside, Sandyford, Stillorgan and Belfield.

Route 47 offers an improved service from Belarmine, connecting with high frequency Routes 10/A, 46A & 145 on the Stillorgan QBC at Donnybrook. Previous to this Belarmine was only served infrequently, mainly at peak times by extended 46B's & the 118. These routes will now stop serving Belarmine with the commencing of the new 47 service.
AV390 is seen in March 2007 at the Belarmine terminus on the 46B. For more photos, click here for our archive feature on the 46B.

Also from Monday 8th September, Route 67X has increased departures, Routes 31 & 31B have revised timetables and the evening departure on Route 58X from the Airport at 17.10 is cancelled. More details are available on the Dublin Bus website here.

All kinds of everything... logos & fonts anyway...

When it comes to branding Bus Eireann is changing its style for the better and has so far been very pro-active about the revisions.
However, up at Dublin Airport all kinds of logos and fonts are in operation at present, as can be seen the flag sign is the older block font, the main shelter panel is the CIE2000 font and the new logo is being shown off on the top of the shelter!

I'm sure they'll all be the same soon... but overall its great to see Bus Eireann offering better customer inofrmation and improved branding.

Even 'Out of Order' can be out of order...

Took this photo on Saturday at the LUAS stop, and temporary terminus, in Abbey Street.

The display should read 'Display Out Of Order', however, it seems the out of order notice is out of order!

Advertising the bus...

It important to advertise for all products and services... and at Bray DART Station this has been taken to heart.

An impressive display of timetables in an advertising frame is how passengers are informed of services at the station...
A great idea but a pity about the mess on the plastic cover but thats some people for you...

London

I was reminded today by a friend that this time last year we were in London, after going back to look at the pictures from the trip I decided I'd share them by means of a blog entry...

Metroline Enviro 400 TE on the 24 to Hampstead Heath, this route is now operated by London General still using Enviro 400's.During the trip we visited BBC Television Centre, and took a tour which is well worth it, very interesting.
East London's Dennis Trident ALX400 17496 on Route 101
We also took a trip to Oxford, travelling by Oxford Tube
Oxford has an interesting bus scene:
ALX400's operate the frequent Park & Ride service
They also have Plaxton Verde buses, similar to our old P Class but with a different engine. As can be seen in the background, one is about to be towed...
And also Merc Citaros... as the branding says 'in comfort, in style, in a Merc'!
While Irish interest is maintained by former RH Olympians operating the CitySightseeing open top tour. Former Ringsend RH13 is seen here.On the return from Oxford, we alighted the Oxford Tube early at Hillingdon and travelled back on the 'real' tube, Piccadilly line.
Then we took a trip on an elusive tube line, the Waterloo & City line...
Not much choice about where to get off... Waterloo or Bank???

Lucan Road goes tri-axle...

A number of VT's at Phibsboro have had their allocations changed and are now operating on the Lucan Road corridor routes.

VT27 is seen here on the 25X at Belfield and also on the 25A at Lucan - Esker Church terminus.

The VT's look surperb and can really be noticed no matter where they go. If only they'd fix that 25A scroll, despite what it says on the scroll the route does not operate 'Via Esker Church', but in fact terminates across the road from it!