A new heart transplant.

WV 37 making a dash from its main O'Connell Street stop.
But why an ugly rear shot, well we wanted to show you the new engine fitted to WV 37.
Isn't it amazing, well, you cant really see it since the engine cover is closed, you'll just have to take our word for it.
The WV class are so popular & versatile on the flagship route 123, that they are all currently getting an overhaul, a good scrub, new body panels & of course some getting a new engine, you could say it like going to one of those health spa clinics for a little TLC.
Now, anybody for a mud bath ?

Fit for the job

Dial Dublin Bus to the rescue again.

Not alone a rail replacement bus service on the Skerries service, but over the weekend another service in Dublin City Centre, as essential upgrade rail works forced the closure of rail services between Grand Canal Dock & Connolly Station.

I've never been down Barrow Street, so you learn something every day, especially on the Sunday morning. The whole area is plastered with low bridges, some even that would rip the aerial off a car, let alone a bus.

Nevertheless, the Dublin Bus WV, that little bus, which began here often there soon, proves itself again, providing the service. Even Barrow Street's low height didn't have WV 52 doing the lambada, as the DOIRT passengers shuttled on the shuttle bus.

Two fingers to the Routemaster

Watched a superb feature on London's iconic Routemaster bus earlier.
Stumbling on the Discovery Channel earlier, the screen was filled with RED as a piece on the bus was featured as part of the ‘Industrial Revelations’ series featuring iconic & ground braking achievements.
The documentary was all going so well, with some classic shots of the Routemaster when introduced, many street scenes, plus some top down shots of the RM 2217 which featured an interview with one of the designers, sharing some tit bits of the buses design, from the rear open platform, the leather trim on the seats & even the pull cord.
It was all going so well until at the end of the interview Rory made reference to Ken Livingstone, when along comes a two fingered gesture.
With the aid of modern technology, the two fingers was just a blurr, but also blurred the entire segment, the viewer was left in no doubt that this wasn't a serious documentary but rather like some of the clientele usually found habituating towards the rear of the upper deck.
Nice one Rory

UpGrading the LowGraders

Never has it been easier to get on a low floor bus.
The 78A is one of those routes that steadfastly never had a low floor route, part of a handful of citywide routes that escaped the kneeling bus, due to a number of factors.
In 2009, the high frequency flagship 78A got an injection of some low floor buses as the fleet continues its onwards & upwards...or downwards towards the kessel kerbing.
A snapshot of Conyngham Road, with ALX400 AV409, originally delivered for new route 151 especially, is about to overtake a new Enviro400 EV51 on route 69 from Rathcoole.
Despite these two buses coming from the same builder, they are incredibly different in appearance.

The end

Welcome to the Zone, or the end of it.

With the introduction of the 50 Cent City Centre Fare, its time to put an end to the confusion & an end to where the fare ends.

Whats better than a panel than a ZONE ENDS HERE, in pink of course. Its reminicent of the historic " Cityzone " bus stops dotted around the edge of the network.

Its time to draw a line, literally !!!

The Bus Eireann Marathon

Laminates are all the rage these days.

Its a huge step forward for customers, especially when diversions & changes are taking place, as not everyone has www connection.

Bus Eireann on their marks this year, with a nice shiny Olympic style laminate on a desolate Kildare Street, where traffic had been banished from.

The laminate directed its customers towards the nearest replacement stops, of either George's Quay or..........The Stillorgan Park Hotel. Ouch, better get your runners on, that's a marathon stop away.

San Monique tours on route 007

Superb action sequence from Lie & Let Die, featuring 2 London Transport AEC Regent buses, RT 246 & 2513, getting the chop at a low bridge, a familiar story.

Roger Moore had to take a very quick crash course in bus driving for the sequences & even managed the traditional quip " all change, end of the line ".

a new designer destination

My first shot of route 140's extension to flat packed land.

To an alien or those living away from The Pale, the 140 route itself must be an alien itself & then to stick IKEA as the destination must be completely out of this world, especially on Dublin's premier strasse.

Could this be the first time an actual brand has been a destination on a Dublin Bus ?

Another interesting conundrum is the via point of Phibsboro, some die hard old timers spell Phibsboro with the traditional Phibsborough, then again, flat packed life wasn't around in them days either.

Anything pre 87 is history, route 140 is the future...in a box.

From mega rear to bra size....

Busworld is forever talking about mega rears, those full ads slapped on the backs of buses, but its all getting very personal on the sides of some Dublin buses at the moment & its nothing to do with the bus to Malahide.

The queue of sucess

Route 123
How good are we, ask any of our passengers.....

a different train of thought

Oh no, a photo of a train on a bus blog.
I must confess, I did take the photo, so no copyright fringes here, but its still an offense isn't it.
Find yourself on any train site these days & read between the lines, but a growing cynicism is developing.
Here is a quote from a site I have just visited...( opps, copying & pasting going on )

photography is now largely confined to continental Europe as the UK and Irish ( rail ) scene leaves me cold. It’s all some form of railcar and it’s all plastic

It seems that the huge investment at Irish Rail in the last 10 years has left the train enthusiasts a little lack lustre with all the new models. Mostly gone are the engines & indeed personalities, replaced with clones or railcars. Lets be honest when you look at the above photo, its a railcar & they all look exactly the same. To the customers, well they have air con, the smoothest & fastest journeys times, with loads of legroom & comfy seats & yes, plenty of plastic. Plastic is everywhere, even the can of Coke is on a plastic bottle these days.
So, why the rant about trains...well, buses are full of plastic these days too. Wood & metal framing has been replaced by oil in the form of hardened plastic, but thankfully bus design & appearance is slightly different to trains, its still interesting, isn't it......
( at least buses have their company logos on the front )

the END of TOWNS street

Despite the rush to low floor buses & routes, some have stayed firm, like Donnybrooks route 44 to Enniskerry. Its one of the few routes that rarely sees a low floor bus. The workhorse RV Olympians continue the arduous trek on this very mountainous route.
RV 582 is seen laying over at its city terminus, unlike some others buses & BLOGS, its displaying the correct destination.

Wait, its the new TAIT 8235

Here it comes, the funky new TAIT radios are starting to be fitted to the fleet.

As part of the long awaited two function automatic vehicle location & real time passenger information systems being introduced to the Dublin Bus fleet, the new Tait radios are starting to be fitted, allowing not just driver/ controller exchange but also data to be sent by the individual bus for the AVL/ RTPI in the future.

The hardware installed on each bus will also have the ability to change/ delay traffic light sequences at pinch points giving the bus priority, memories of the Ringsenders with those black plastic disks glued to the side of the bus..........

We've seen our own bus stops advertising everything from flam'in burgers to outdated timetables, but how's about this for being blunt...take a look to see if the bus is operating.

What a pity there is only 7 days in a week, " as seirbhis " comes to mind.

MTY @ NEC

The annual Bus & Coach Show was held at the NEC in Birmingham over the past two days & while this year is part of the " lull " show given the European version at Kortrijk in Belgium, the lack of buses & stalls at the event reflected the mood & downturn in the economy.
As well as being banished to one of the far corners of the mega NEC city, even the big boys of Wrights, Alexander Dennis & Volvo had pitiful displays, barely managing one or two buses.
All it was short off was a white flag at the entrance, as hungry sales reps from companies who did turn up, desperately trying to make eye contact with passing visitors.
Like the old Berlin Wall, keeping the buses in & the illusion of emptiness out, 1/4 of the hall was off limits, they just forgot to lean a double decker in full view.

Dont sit next to strangers

Spooky ad, WV's used to be hassle free buses.
The most spooky thing is the destination on the front of the bus...An Lacha Cara.
Irish translations on buses have always being spooky translations, ask anybody on route 185, so what or where is An Lacha Cara, my duck friend ?

Variety is the spice of life

Wouldn't bus enthusiasm be very boring if all the buses looked the same. From the symmetrical squarish lines of the Dutch VDL Berkhof, to the bubbly appearance of the Scania Irizar alongside, as well as the contrasting liveries, & while a branding crisis for a marketing departing given that the logos are different font & even the dogs look like one has been feed on Pedigree while the other on scraps, ah individuality is good.

Postcard from Donabate

It was a trek north today in search of the new route 33D, operation Donabate Railway Station.
Donabate is off the beaten track & usually only a blinking eye heading further on the scenic route 33B to Portrane.
It was a learning curve as the station entrance was not as expected, instead down a narrow lane alongside some houses & after a few twists, the station complex. Alas, the grande entrance is far from appealing, with a scrapyard of pipes on one side & on the other a deserted housing construction site.
Suffice to say it had a very damaging effect on the photos of the impressively swanky Dublin Bus Enviro400, Ringsend Garage EV 5 doing the honours.
How's about getting one of those daytime tv shows in here, you know the type that come in & do your house up, a few layers of new wallpaper & a lick of paint.
Instead of changing rooms we could have changing railway stations.

Going commando in the Liffey

Were those people insane swimming in the annual " Liffey Swim " today. I presume they were wearing blindfolds & pegs on the nose. No wonder the Dublin Civil Defence had their own flotilla of vans & emergency rescue vehicles at the finish line down at the Custom House, hopefully some power-washing for the survivors.

One very interesting vehicle was half bus half van & it brought back a few memories of the old 1990 Wrights Mercedes MW class that Dublin Bus had. It was the rear that stirred the memories, for it had an identical styling to the MW's, well styling is an exaggeration, as the rear wasn't so aerodynamic nor aesthetically pleasing, it was life as if somebody got the bread knife & sliced down the back of the bus, with little regard for an creative body panels.

Still, that was the MW, painted gaudy yellow & red, dressed as an 83 & overnight an instant success. If you were at the back of the bus, then it was just the dust, as it bounced up & down the Rathmines Road every 10 minutes....the little devils

Lana Bus Extra

Ah, the way a bus lane should be, nice & wide to stop drifters on the outside lane skirting over that big white line, a bus stop, complete with kessel kerbing, bus shelter & even a bin.
Does it get any better, well no traffic does help !!!
This is on the Old Airport Road, although officially known as the Upper Drumcondra Road.
Utopia does exist.

What's seldom is wonderful

In the ould days, something different on something different in busworld was greeted with excitement & awe, however nowadays its seems the slightest freaky bus occurrence is open house for the begrudgers to get up on their well worn soap box & bemoan.

Its not everyday an "ould " airlink is jetting between Marino & Drimnagh ( eh, I hate the destination Kilnmanagh Road ), so the sight of AV 127 on the 123 today is something to get excited about.

The poor "ould " AV class are banished from the 123 in general, due to " operational reasons ", whether is the parked cars at either end, the AV's longer turning circle or even the gutters at St James' Hospital, so when one does creep onto the route, its something worth photographing.

Route 123, once a flagship route for Dublin Bus, has really been left to wither in recent years, the bright & gaudy yellow n red imps, either the mini's or the midi's have been replaced by standard core coloured buses with little fanfare. The 123 continues to be a hugely popular route yet needs a jab of adrenaline to bring it back to flagship status.

Thankfully, the much await AVL system, linked to Real Time Passenger Information is set to be lauched on the route on Monday 14th September & some other enhancements are also planned for the future. Not directly associated with the RTPI, but aptly timed, new kessel kerbing is currently being installed along the northbound route from Ballybough & Fairview through to Marino.