Throwback Thursday (500)
For the 500th Throwback we are going back to 2016 (the year the series started) and to SG 161 in College Green, with a service on route 40 to Liffey Valley.
SG 161 was the first of the 110 members of the 2016 batch of the SG Class. It entered service in May of that year. The first member of the class (SG 1) was delivered new in 2014, and eventually Dublin Bus received 621 SGs in total - though did not have them all at once. In 2018 some of them transferred to Go-Ahead Ireland, but they also received 44 of them brand new, which means a total of 665 Wrights Gemini 3 buses have been delivered for city services in Dublin. The last of these buses were delivered new to Dublin Bus and Go-Ahead Ireland in 2020, and these were also the last pure-diesel buses delivered to Dublin. Following orders have either been hybrids or pure electric.
SG 161 is in the Dublin Bus "fleet standard" livery. This livery was introduced in 2003. However, when Go-Ahead Ireland started operations in 2018, Transport for Ireland introduced a new general livery for all public service obligation buses. However this initial TFI livery was not very well-received, and in 2021 a new green/yellow livery was introduced. by mid-2025 all the Go-Ahead Ireland buses had the new livery, and the vast majority of the Dublin Bus fleet also received the new livery. SG 161 was repainted in late-2024.
SG 161 is seen on route 40 to Liffey Valley shopping centre. Route 40 started running between Finglas and the city centre on the 14th September 1925. In 2011, under Network Direct, it was merged with routes 78 & 78A and was extended to Liffey Valley via Ballyfermot. In 2017 it was extended north to Charlestown. In 2022 it was cut back from Liffey Valley to the city centre under Bus Connects when the western part of the route was covered by new route G2. It is currently planned to replace the remaining part of route 40 in October 2025 with the F-Spine under Bus Connects.
Since Throwback Thursday has started, Dublin has said goodbye to routes 8, 13, 17, 17A, 18, 25, 25A, 25B, 29A, 31, 31A, 31B, 32, 46A, 61, 63, 66, 66A, 66B, 66E, 67, 75, 75A, 76, 76A, 79, 79A, 84, 84A, 90, 145, 155, 175, 184, 185, 239, 747, 748 and some other less-frequent routes. And in the same time the city has said hello to routes C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, E1 ,E2, G1, G2, H1, H2, H3, L1, L2, L3, L11, L12, L14, L15, L25, L26, L27, L51, L52, L53, L54, L58, L59, N2, N4, N6, S2, S4, S6, S8, W2, W4, W6, 6,19, 52, 60, 74, as well as some other less-frequent routes.
All-in-all, there has been quite a change to the bus scene in Dublin since Throwback Thursday started in January 2016.
17/06/2016
Throwback Thursday (500)
For the 500th Throwback we are going back to 2016 (the year the series started) and to SG 161 in College Green, with a service on route 40 to Liffey Valley.
SG 161 was the first of the 110 members of the 2016 batch of the SG Class. It entered service in May of that year. The first member of the class (SG 1) was delivered new in 2014, and eventually Dublin Bus received 621 SGs in total - though did not have them all at once. In 2018 some of them transferred to Go-Ahead Ireland, but they also received 44 of them brand new, which means a total of 665 Wrights Gemini 3 buses have been delivered for city services in Dublin. The last of these buses were delivered new to Dublin Bus and Go-Ahead Ireland in 2020, and these were also the last pure-diesel buses delivered to Dublin. Following orders have either been hybrids or pure electric.
SG 161 is in the Dublin Bus "fleet standard" livery. This livery was introduced in 2003. However, when Go-Ahead Ireland started operations in 2018, Transport for Ireland introduced a new general livery for all public service obligation buses. However this initial TFI livery was not very well-received, and in 2021 a new green/yellow livery was introduced. by mid-2025 all the Go-Ahead Ireland buses had the new livery, and the vast majority of the Dublin Bus fleet also received the new livery. SG 161 was repainted in late-2024.
SG 161 is seen on route 40 to Liffey Valley shopping centre. Route 40 started running between Finglas and the city centre on the 14th September 1925. In 2011, under Network Direct, it was merged with routes 78 & 78A and was extended to Liffey Valley via Ballyfermot. In 2017 it was extended north to Charlestown. In 2022 it was cut back from Liffey Valley to the city centre under Bus Connects when the western part of the route was covered by new route G2. It is currently planned to replace the remaining part of route 40 in October 2025 with the F-Spine under Bus Connects.
Since Throwback Thursday has started, Dublin has said goodbye to routes 8, 13, 17, 17A, 18, 25, 25A, 25B, 29A, 31, 31A, 31B, 32, 46A, 61, 63, 66, 66A, 66B, 66E, 67, 75, 75A, 76, 76A, 79, 79A, 84, 84A, 90, 145, 155, 175, 184, 185, 239, 747, 748 and some other less-frequent routes. And in the same time the city has said hello to routes C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, E1 ,E2, G1, G2, H1, H2, H3, L1, L2, L3, L11, L12, L14, L15, L25, L26, L27, L51, L52, L53, L54, L58, L59, N2, N4, N6, S2, S4, S6, S8, W2, W4, W6, 6,19, 52, 60, 74, as well as some other less-frequent routes.
All-in-all, there has been quite a change to the bus scene in Dublin since Throwback Thursday started in January 2016.
17/06/2016