Photo of the Week - Week 29:
Donnybrook's WV41 is seen operating Route 111 on George's St Upper on the 18th May 2011.
DublinBusStuff is dissapointed to announce that Donnybrook withdrew WV41-WV46 at the end of last week. These little buses have been great servants to Dublin Bus. Delivered to Clontarf in 2001, WV41-46 operated a variety of routes in Clontarf garage. Recollections of these buses on Routes 102, 103, 104, 130 and of course, Route 53, seem like only yesterday, yet these buses moved to Donnybrook over 3 years ago. The Donnybrook routes have been a tough test compared to the relative ease of the Clontarf Routes. Routes such as the 44B, 44, 59 and 63 all have steep hills to negotiate and at various times these buses were in poor states of repair, panel damage being a major issue.
Donnybrook's WV42 is seen operating the often WV operated Saturday Board (Bus 2) on Route 44 on the Ranelagh Road on the 10th March 2012.
Though not unexpected, due to their general dislike and poor reliability, the withdrawal of these 6 WVs before the high floor RV class is worth noting. Dublin Bus has leaned away from anything other than double deckers since these buses' arrival 11 years ago. With a 6 litre B6BLE engine, the buses were probably not much more efficient in fuel costs than the AV class, though with the AV class severely underpowered its probably not surprising. They also were not great buses to have spare, in that if last in the garage they were often put on routes were their size was a severe problem. However, there are plenty of routes were their size is not a problem but an advantage. These buses have more seats downstairs than an AV class bus. For social services they are therefore ideal. Routes such as 44B, 53, 59, 61, 63, 104, 111, 114, 161, 185 and 220 just to name a few are ideal for small buses. However, though a number of these are Donnybrook routes, poor reliability has meant that many of these routes get Double Decks in favour of WVs going out on Route 46A or 145. Dublin Bus will need to invest in a few new single-decks in the near future. Route 44B will always demand them, however I hope that Dublin Bus use this to get rid of Double Deckers off routes that no longer require them. Dublin Bus have trialed the AM class, and it seems that it a trial run not in service up to Glencullen went successfully, so maybe these buses will be next on the list. However, will Dublin order a non-Volvo bus for the first time in what is nearly 10years.
WV46 is seen on the Avondale Road operating Route 59 on the 18th May 2011.