Dublin Bus is a bus operator providing services in Dublin. It is a subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann. The company carried 138 million passengers in 2019
History
Dublin Bus was established on 2 February 1987, when Córas Iompair Éireann was split into 3 subsidiaries, Dublin Bus, Bus Eireann and Irish Rail. In September 2011, Dublin Bus received a significant technological upgrade with its introduction of real time passenger information.
Services
Dublin Bus operates an extensive network of 110 radial, cross-city and peripheral routes and 18 night routes in the city of Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area. The company carries around 325,000 people each day. The main radial routes are focused upon Dublin's sixteen Quality Bus Corridors which provide buses with daytime access to the city centre. Express buses operate on similar routes but have a limited number of stops and a higher minimum fare. These services run Monday to Friday at peak times and do not operate on public holidays. Dublin Bus operates a "Nitelink" service of 18 routes overnight which up until January 2009 ran between Monday and Saturday, with the greatest service frequency being on Friday and Saturday nights. Due to cutbacks necessitated by the economic downturn in Ireland, the midweek schedule was scrapped Special fares apply on Nitelink buses. Since December 2019 routes 15 and 41 have operated 24 hours a day seven days a week with no difference in fare. Dublin Bus also runs a Ghost Bus Tour through some of the supposedly haunted places in the city including St Kevin's Church and St Audoen's Church. The tour usually runs in the evening time and includes two stops where passengers leave the bus behind and visit locations where ghosts have allegedly been seen. In April 2010, Dublin Bus announced it would be simplifying many of its routes around the city in order to create better efficiency. This programme was called Network Direct. However, as part of these measures, the company also announced that 150 jobs would be lost. . During the 2010s, Dublin Bus rolled out an RTPI system at certain stops, which shows the amount of time before a bus arrives directly to the user. In 2016, the company carried 125 million passengers, which was a reduction of 14% compared to 2005 numbers. Between September 2018 and March 2019, 24 Dublin Bus routes and 125 buses were progressively taken over by Go-Ahead Ireland after the National Transport Authority put their operation out to tender.; however an equivalent number of new buses were provided to Dublin Bus to retain existing fleet numbers, with increased services and new routes or route variations introduced on the same day as Go-Ahead took over each route batch.
Route Map
Uniquely for a capital city's primary transit network, no full system-wide street map is available online. Dublin Bus cites high licensing fees from the fellow state-owned company, Ordnance Survey Ireland, which published a printed street map every two to five years and included bus routes. However, the latest edition, published June 2011 omits these for the first time. Dublin Bus' '' does, however, provide some visual information about key routes in the city.
Fares
Dublin Bus fares are generally calculated on a stage system based on distance travelled. There are several different levels of fares, which apply to most services. Certain routes use a different fare system. Dublin Bus operates an 'exact fare' policy. Passengers place the exact fare in coins in the farebox before the ticket is issued. In the case of overpayment, no change is given and the system of issuing 'refund due' receipt ended in September 2018. Routes 747 and 757, the express routes to and from Dublin Airport have a minimum fare of €7; banknotes are accepted, and change is given in cash. There are several types of prepaid tickets available, including the following:
Single-day and multi-day tickets
Tickets corresponding to cash fares
Travel 90-minute tickets which allow unlimited travel for 90 minutes
Tickets valid on Dublin Bus and Iarnród Éireann or Luas or all three, but tickets valid for all three systems are issued only by Iarnród Éireann.
Leap card, a prepaid smartcard that can be used for pay as you go travel in the Dublin area. It offers discounts over standard on bus cash fares and can also be used on Iarnród Éireann and Luas services.
All of these tickets have migrated to the Leap card. This process was completed in May 2014 when all Rambler tickets, all Travel 90 and some in the Bus/Rail and Bus/Luas range were no longer available to purchase as separate smartcards. Instead, they are now loaded into the Leap card. Prepaid tickets must be validated in a machine by the door of the bus at the start of each journey, although the validation process for leap cards differs depending on the distance being travelled. Old age pensioners and children aged five and under are allowed to travel free of charge; this is part of the national "Free Travel Pass" system operated by the Department of Social Protection. Minimum fares are payable on some services to discourage passengers wishing to travel short distances from using seats that could be used by those who wish to travel longer distances.
Fleet
As of October 2019, the fleet consisted of 1008 buses.
Preservation
As the vehicles of the Dublin Bus fleet come of age, they are withdrawn to make way for newer technology. Types of significance such as the GAC Ireland have been preserved by the National Transport Museum of Ireland who house R1. Many ex-CIÉ types have been acquired by private preservationists, some of whom associated with the Transport Enthusiasts Club. The vehicles are garaged, restored and run by the owners without state funds and take part in films, television programs and in vintage rallies. One event was CIE 60th. 30 October 2005 saw Dublin Bus host CIE 60th in the new Harristown depot. This event was done in coordination with the Transport Enthusiasts Club. Buses, new and old, were on display, showing the contrast and how far the company had come. competition. Dublin's main bus operator was formerly the Dublin United Transport Company. This company was incorporated into CIÉ in 1945.
Accidents
Christchurch
In 1989, a youth grabbed the steering wheel of a Tallaght bound Bombardier KD bus as it turned the corner opposite Christchurch and the bus crashed onto its side. Many passengers were injured but none were injured seriously.
On 21 February 2004, at Wellington Quay, Dublin, a bus mounted on pavement and ploughed into a queue of 30 people, killing five and injuring 14. The driver was tried for dangerous driving causing death, his trial began in February 2007 at Dublin Circuit Court, but he was acquitted.
On 5 February 2009, a bus en route from Abbey Street to Artane collided with a tree on North Strand Road and the entire roof section was torn off. The driver was treated in hospital for shock but apart from that, there were no injuries as no passengers were seated in the upper deck. The bus was an Alexander ALX400.
On 16 September 2009, a collision between a Red Line Luas tram and a number 16 Dublin Bus from Ballinteer to Dublin Airport in Dublin City Centre at the intersection of Abbey Street and O'Connell Street injured 21 people. Three people, including the Luas driver, were cut out of the wreckage. The Luas was derailed in the accident. Two female passengers remained trapped on the bus for up to 45 minutes after the crash.
On 16 March 2019, an out of service double-decker bus collided with a tram at the junction at Queen Street near the Smithfield Luas stop. Several people were hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries.
Service overhaul plans
In July 2018, the National Transport Authority revealed proposals for a major overhaul of Dublin's bus service. Proposed changes include renumbering routes and concentration of routes along primary thoroughfares, increased frequency, simplification of fares to include integrated ticketing allowing cost-free transfer to other public transport services, and creation of many new orbital routes.
