Throwback Thursday (301)
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 It was withdrawn around 2016/2017 when it moved the United Kingdom and entered service with Walton's Coaches of Preston.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
Throwback Thursday (301)
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