Photo of the Week - Week 25:


Donnybrook's EV28 is seen at the Temple Road (Blackrock) Terminus of Route 84 on the 9th June 2012. The routing in Blackrock is quite complicated. Coming From Stradbrook Road buses turn right onto Newtown Avenue. In Blackrock buses contine straight onto Carysfort Avenue then left onto Frascati Road, before left again onto Temple Road. Then on the outbound, it turns left onto Carysfort Avenue and left again onto Frascati Road. Why the Blackrock Station terminus wasn't used beats me.

Historic Route 45 made its final bow on Saturday 26th May 2012, see here for a feature looking back at its last days. The following day, Sunday 27th May saw a few ammendments to some other Bray routes in order to compensate for the loss. Firstly was the 84's withdrawal from UCD Belfield, instead operating from Cabinteely as Route 45 before terminating in Blackrock Village. A new Route 84A was also introduced, being a short 84 between Blackrock and Bray Rail Station, providing a 30min frequency at peaks on an otherwise hourly Monday-Friday frequency. Route 84 and 84A are based out of Bray depot.


EV29 is seen operating Route 84 on the Vevay Road on the first day of the new service, the 27th May 2012.

The 84 has almost exactly the same timetable, one notable difference being that only certain departures go via Sea Road Kilcoole, as opposed to all of them previously. Interestingly, instead of one bus serving Sea Road outbound, and the other inbound, it is usually the case that one bus alone serves Sea Road in both directions, while the other does not. This does not serve well for reliability, the 84 very seriously stuggling to meet its 90min headway from my observations, something which is hard to justify given it has been struggling to meet the exact same schedule since the September 2010 changes.


Donnybrook's AV329 is seen exiting O'Byrne Road onto Vevay Road on the first day of the new 45A route via Wolfe Tone and Boghall Road on the 27th May 2012.

The 45A was rerouted to cover the southern, unique section of Route 45. The 45A had mirrored the 145 from Ballywaltrim to Shankhill, the notable and important difference being that the 45A served Bray Station. This replaced the initial concept of the rail feeding minibus 145 which was introduced in the mid-90s. However, the 45A was neither predicatble enough, nor frequent enough to replace this once frequent minibus service and passenger numbers hardly justified its service between Ballywaltrim and Bray Station. The new service follows Route 45 from Bray Main Street, down The Vevay, before serving Wolfe Tone Square, Boghall Road (past the Oldcourt terminus of withdrawn Route 45) before rejoining its former route on Killarney Road, terminating at its Ballywaltrim Cemetary terminus. It is interesting to note that Wolfe Tone Square is now served by the 45A. Route 45's service into this estate was very hit and miss, being more miss that hit from this author's observations.


Donnybrook's AV393 is seen turning from Wolfe Tone Square North onto Wolfe Tone Square Middle on Route 45A on the 9th June 2012.

DublinbusStuff commented previously about the Shanganagh service and how the 45A would most likely be Network Directed away from this diversion, as per the original concept of the revisions and like Route 49's diversion via Bohernabreena. However, I also commented at the time that it was in fact quite well used in the area. Well, though the bill of the 45A has not changed, one interesting outcome is that the 1250 ex Dun Laoghaire on a Saturday now does go via Shanganagh Cliffs, something which was noted in timetable but never occured in practice. This error in the running boards, and then replicated on the RTPI (the 1250 was never shown via Shanganagh Cliffs on RTPI till now) has been fixed and Shanganagh Cliffs once again have an afternoon departure. The journey I took did go via Shanganagh Cliffs, however I'm sure the odd senior man may forget given the bill, which hasn't changed other than this, didn't used to say this.


Donnybrook's AV395 is seen on the Boghall Road operating a Route 45A service to Dun Laoghaire Station on the 9th June 2012.

N.B. This website is not affiliated with Dublin Bus. The information contained herein is intended for enthusiast reference. For all current timetable and route information please refer to the official Dublin Bus Website.