DART
Replacement bus service
October Bank Holiday weekend 2007
DART services were affected again by ongoing constructions works at Lansdowne Road stadium over the October Bank Holiday weekend, with DART services only running northside from Connolly & southside to Sydney Parade.
Dublin Bus provided a rail replacement shuttle bus from Booterstown to Connolly Station serving most stations enroute & free to all rail ticket passengers from Saturday 27th to Monday 29th October 2007.
Above AX 641, recently transferred to Donnybrook on loan at the entrance to Booterstown DART station heading inbound for Connolly Station Monday 29th October.
EV 34 of Donnybrook, delivered to Dublin Bus in Donnybrook in late September & usually allocated to high frequency route 145 is seen loading up at Booterstown DART Station.
The arrival of the EV batch to Donnybrook ( EV 23-36 ) has allowed the withdrawal of early batches of its RA class before shipment to Southdown PSV in the UK.
EV 28 & AX 619 parked up at Booterstown Station.
AX 619 has just been transferred to Donnybrook Garage in a small batch AX 617-619. Donnybrook was due to get 3 tri-axle's of the VT class ( VT 21-23 ) but their production has been delayed at Falkirk, so these 3 AX's are substituting pending the arrival of the VT's.
EV 35 in the above 2 photos at Booterstown DART Station about to depart for Connolly Station. Every train arrival has usually 2 buses to transfer passengers to the city centre, with extra buses as required. Some further buses depart between train arrivals to maintain a frequent service & add capacity to stations enroute.
EV 33 with Booterstown DART Station in the background.
The car park had been closed for the weekend, to allow the shuttle buses easy access. While the city bound DART's were operating to Sydney Parade, there is no parking facilities for the buses, so Booterstown was selected given its spacious conditions.
The shuttle buses operated from Booterstown along the Rock Road, Merrion Road ( pick up / set down ) at shelters close to Ailesbury Road, Simonscourt Road, via Shelbourne Road ( pick up / set down ) at intersection with Lansdowne Road, Pearse Street stop, Custom House Quay set down & finally terminating at Connolly Station.
Donnybrook based AX 542 emerges from Lower Sheriff Street heading for the pick up point outside Connolly Station. AX 542 is usually allocated to route 7 in batch AX 526-545.
While the bulk of the October weekend shuttle operation was handled by Harristown & Donnybrook, Ringsend based AV 318 is seen above at Connolly Station on Sunday 28th helping out.
Monday 29th October 2007 brought its own problems for bus services with the holding of the annual Dublin City Marathon. Many routes, in particular southside routes suffered curtailments, diversions & short workings.
Donnybrook AV 350 is seen above along the Strand Road with the Dublin landmark chimneys, outbound on route 45 to Oldcourt in Bray, expelled from its usual Merrion Road as part of the Marathon route.
Former route 13B terminus at Palmerston Park was re activated with route 11 & 14/14A services cut short to this leafy & sleepy corner of Darty.
AX 641
EV 34
EV 28 & AX 619
EV 35
EV 35
EV 33
AX 542
AV 318
AV 350
AX 530 & RV 575
