Throwback Thursday (275)
This week we are going back twenty-one years to 2000 and to KD 329 on Eden Quay. This was the last year of Bombardier bus operations in Dublin. The first KD double-decker entered service in May 1981 (it was KD 2 on route 8). CIE went on to receive 366 double-deckers in total between 1981 and 1983, the vast majority built in Shannon. Originally there were only meant to be 365 KDs but KD 366 was built in 1983 to replace KD 111 which had been written off in an accident in 1982. Another extra one was built and sent to Baghdad to be trialled there, this one being left-hand drive. The majority of the CIE buses operated in Dublin, but there were also some in Limerick, Galway and Cork. The final day of normal KD operation in Dublin was in December 2000. A farewell run ran in January 2001 when the final fare-paying passenger was also carried. KD operation in Cork and Limerick had finished in the late 1990s.
As can be seen here, the two-tone green livery was also on the way out. The bus stop is blue, and two Olympians in the background are in the new standard livery, while the third is in CitySwift livery.
Route 77 became a DUTC bus route in 1939, connecting the city centre with Tallaght. It became more frequent in the 1980s and 1990s as that suburb of Dublin began to expand, and became a CitySwift route in 1997. It became cross-city route 27 in 2011 under Network Direct, and this route still serves Eden Quay.
14/04/2000
Throwback Thursday (275)
This week we are going back twenty-one years to 2000 and to KD 329 on Eden Quay. This was the last year of Bombardier bus operations in Dublin. The first KD double-decker entered service in May 1981 (it was KD 2 on route 8). CIE went on to receive 366 double-deckers in total between 1981 and 1983, the vast majority built in Shannon. Originally there were only meant to be 365 KDs but KD 366 was built in 1983 to replace KD 111 which had been written off in an accident in 1982. Another extra one was built and sent to Baghdad to be trialled there, this one being left-hand drive. The majority of the CIE buses operated in Dublin, but there were also some in Limerick, Galway and Cork. The final day of normal KD operation in Dublin was in December 2000. A farewell run ran in January 2001 when the final fare-paying passenger was also carried. KD operation in Cork and Limerick had finished in the late 1990s.
As can be seen here, the two-tone green livery was also on the way out. The bus stop is blue, and two Olympians in the background are in the new standard livery, while the third is in CitySwift livery.
Route 77 became a DUTC bus route in 1939, connecting the city centre with Tallaght. It became more frequent in the 1980s and 1990s as that suburb of Dublin began to expand, and became a CitySwift route in 1997. It became cross-city route 27 in 2011 under Network Direct, and this route still serves Eden Quay.
14/04/2000