Bus Eireann operate a high frequency Drogheda town service, from the town centre to both north & southside suburbs, using route number 173.
Both routes operate from St Peters Church on West Street close to Drogheda town shopping centre, every 30 minutes on a circular routing, with a flat fare of 1 euro.
Services operate Monday to Saturday from 9 am till 6 pm, with later buses on Thursday & Friday night to facilitate late night shoppers.
Copyright : Stephen Lynch
DD 24 & DD 26 seen at the 173 terminus outside St Peters Church on West Street. Both north & southside routes depart together talking 30 minutes on their circular route.
These DD double deckers are Volvo B7TL's with East Lancs Vyking bodywork. 10 of these were delivered in 2004 to increase capacity on the Dundalk/ Drogheda/ Dublin corridor which had previously been operated by a mix of Volvo VC, VP & VR coaches but growing demand for services required for high capacity buses.
While Dublin Bus opted for the Alexander body, Bus Eireann chose the East Lancs product, having been pleased with the first batch of DD's received in 2002 for the busy Ashbourne/ Dublin 103 route in particular. While also increasing capacity, high backed coach seating in Bus Eireann corporate trim along with the easy access low floor & wheel chair space. These DD saloon is clutter free, with a single layer floor & plenty of hopper window vents.
DD 26 overtakes DD 24 from the terminus, operating the southside 173 route. The orange LED displays are disappointingly programmed with no alternations & the " Ballsgrove " font is left indented into the route number. Given that route 173 is a circular route operating to many housing estate, there is room for improvement.
DD 24 heads for Moneymore or Muine Mor in Irish. Dundalk Garage has 10 DD class, with Broadstone holding the other 4 from the 2004 batch delivered. The DD do not exclusively operate the 101/ 100 as the Drogheda town service illustrates, they can also be seen operating rural services from Dundalk & Drogheda, like to Newgrange or Navan.
ML 107 is a sole Mercedes 811D with Leicester Carriage Builders bodywork allocated to Bus Eireann Drogheda.
While its originally operated the town services in Dundalk , capacity problems along with complaints about the actual minibuses themselves, especially for elderly people boarding/ alighting forced Eireann to allocate full length easy access low floor single deckers, such as the DPC & DWR class. The minibuses in various towns like Drogheda, Dundalk & Athlone became a victim of their own success with increasing passenger numbers using the services.
ML 107 is seen above resting at Drogheda Bus Station, with a Moneymore board on the dashboard.
Route 173 is operated by a variety of routes from the DD class, to ML 107 & the DWR cadets.
