Dublin Bus route 104 was created on the 16th April 2000 along with a revised route 103 greatly enhancing connections to the DART network following the completion of a new DART Station near Fairview/ Clontarf Road.
Routes 103 & 104 resulted in the cancellation of former DART feeder 101 to Harmonstown DART Station & OMNIlink route 300 operating a circular route around Santry/ Coolock/ Clontarf using the ill fated Mazda Omni W class.
Wright Crusader bodied Volvo B6BLE's were delivered to Clontarf Garage, WV11- 20 were allocated, in Dublin Bus core livery. The WV class offered low floor accessible buses & were also easier to navigate some of narrower roads enroute.
While route 103 operated every 15 minutes weekdays, route 104 operated every hour on a long routing to Cappagh Hospital. While both operated from a purpose built terminus at Fairview/ Clontarf Road DART Station, the routes spilt along Castle Avenue, before rejoining each other at OMNI Park Shopping Centre ( the terminus of route 103 ). Route 104 continues on along to Ballymun, into Finglas via Jamestown Road & onto Cappagh Orthopedic Hospital. Cappagh Hospital is well renowned for its fine work with hip replacement & other bone related operations. Route 104 also operated via the Central Remedial Clinic ( CRC ) in Clontarf & Beaumont Hospital.
Dublin Bus went on to purchase 52 WV class between 2000-2001. The first 10 were delivered to Ringsend Garage to provide additional capacity on Rossmore route 150 operated by Ringsend, WV 11-20 as mentioned above for routes 103/104 in Clontarf Garage plus East Wall route 53, WV21 - 40 at Broadstone in City Imp livery to operate cross city route 123 replacing the ME class Mercedes minibuses, WV41-47 in City Imp livery at Clontarf to supplement route 130 to Clontarf, while 48-52 further to Ringsend for route 150.
The WV class is also used for a variety of ad hoc duties, for instance during the Special Olympics in 2003 & shuttle buses to events such as golf/ marathons. Lately, Donnybrook has adopted a large batch to operate its smaller routes, such as the 44B, 59, 63 & 111.
WV 44 is seen above at the 103/ 104 terminus as Fairview/ Clontarf Road DART Station May 2005.
Route
104
fairview DART /
clontarf DART
clontarf road
central
remedial
clinic
saint pauls
malahide road
coolock
beaumont
hospital
whitehall
omni park
shopping
centre
ballymun
jamestown
road
finglas
cappagh
hospital
Route 104 from Fairview/ Clontarf DART Station to Cappagh Hospital
