Donnybrook Garage took the honour of receiving the first batch of 2006 Alexander Dennis ALX400's with the 1st 3 ( AX 449 - 451 ) arriving there on the 7th April 2006.
They are the first ALX400's for Dublin Bus to be classified AX instead of AV for record purposes & have very minor bodywork/ interior differences.
RH 89- 91 ( 91 D 1089- 91 ) were withdrawn & placed in undercover storage at Donnybrook. They will see further service during the Ryder Cup in September 2006. As further AX's were delivered into Donnybrook as part of the 20 expected there ( AX 449 - 468 ), more Leyland RH's are set to be withdrawn thus ending
The new AX's at Donnybrook are so far spending most of their time allocated to route 7 ( City Centre to Cherrywood / Loughlingstown ). Route 7 had recently lost most of its regular Olympian batch ( RV 550- 565 ) when these were transfered to Harristown Garage. Route 7 was one of the few Dublin Bus routes NEVER to have any AV ( low floor ) operation however that has all changed now & along with new route 4 using the AW class Volvo bendi's, this adds a massive injection of low floor / easy access buses to the Merrion Road/ Ballsbridge corridor.
AX 464, just delivered some days previously is seen operating route 11 between Wadelai Park on the northside, via O' Connell Street & Clonskea to Kilmacud near Stillorgan on Saturday 6th June 2006.
Lower saloon of your typical Dublin Bus ALX 400
Upper deck view of AX 464, the yellow grab rails as standard.
Route 11 once enjoyed its own allocation of AV 69-88 almost exclusively until 2005, however with the increasing batches of AV's at Donnybrook, any AV is likely to turn up within the varous routes.
