Dublin Bus launched new route 4 from Ballymun via O' Connell Street to St. Vincent's Hospital on Sunday 12th March 2006.
Route 4 is being operated by Harristown Garage just up the road from Ballymun, using some of the 20 strong Volvo B7LA's with Wrights Fusion articulated single deckers ( AW class ).
AW 6 ( 00 D 65006 ) is seen above at the first stop at Ballymun about to operate the first ever service @ 10:00 hours.
Interior views of AW 6, with individual bucket type seating with plenty of grab rails & grips.
AW 3 is overshadowed by one of Phibsboro Garages Wedding Buses, AV 382.
While route 10 is now almost exclusively operated by the ALX400 AV class, the 20 strong AW bendi's were allocated to the 10 route until they were deemed to cumbersome for the route & transferred back to euro duties at newly opened Harristown Garage in Winter 2004.
AW 6 rests at Nutley Lane opposite St Vincent's Hospital. The terminus arrangements at the hospital had not been finalised when route 4 was launched, so the buses continued up to the top Nutley Lane past the RTE Studios, turning left onto the Stillorgan dual carriageway & right over the Belfield flyover before heading back. Eventually route 4 services will enter the hospital grounds from Nutley Lane, heading along a new roadway & back out onto the Merrion Road.
Well done to George, the first driver on the new route for skillfully driving & putting up with the various photo stops.
AW 3 is seen at the main Belfield bus interchange, resting between departures & an appreciated photocall.
AW 3 was aptly the 3rd board on the 4 today.
Offside shot of AW 17 ( 00 D 65017 ) on the Stillorgan dual carriageway.
Route 4 is designed to compliment routes 11 & 13 groups on the Northside, particularly the heavy student traffic to/ from Dublin City University, while on the southside route 7 to Ballsbridge & along the Merrion Road.
With a weekday peak time frequency of 15 minutes, allot of resources have been ploughed into route 4, given that it just overlaps existing bus services & not to some new destination.
Could this finally be a niche for the much unwanted AW class since their backfire on route 10 ???.
Phibsboro Garage ALX 400 AV 279 ( 02 D 20279 ) passes by AW 17 resting between departures on the Stillorgan dual carriageway, just past the Belfield flyover. The presence of the 4 is only a temporary sighting here as the route will soon terminate shorter at St Vincent's Hospital & officially the last stop is still outside the hospital.
Route 4 was extended on the southern end from St Vincents Hospital to Blackrock villiage, via Merrion Road & Booterstown in May 2007. Its last set down stop is in Blackrock village at the post office, with the first northbound stop outside the Frascatti Shopping Centre.
EV 46, an Enviro400 is seen operating route 4 at the O' Connell Bridge stop on the 6th March 2008.
