Routs 13/A/B/C:
As of April 1994, the 13 operated from Poppintree to Palmerston Park. Half the services on Saturday and all day Sunday operated as Route 13A which ran to and from Kildare Street.
This timetable did not change until the 2/11/97 when the 13/A replaced the 36/A. The 13 operated to Merrion Square via Sillogue Road, while the 13A went via Coultry and Shangan Roads before following the 36 routing down Griffith Avenue and Drumcondra. Service was every 10mins combined Monday-Saturday, 15mins on a Sunday with services equally shared between the two routes.
In a pamphlet issued at the time, Dublin Bus indicated the following
Better Service:
- Bus services from Poppintree twice as frequent.
- More buses from Coultry and Shangan
- More consistent and Reliable services every 10mins for most of the day
Heart of the City:
- Every bus from Ballymun will now service O’Connell Street and cross the city to Merrion Square
Improved Vehicles:
- New Routes (13/A) will be served by Cityswift Double Deck buses.
(One should note that in fact given the 13/A has previously been assigned 92 D RHs, the improved vehicles for the most part could be summed up as a new coat of paint)
(Pamphlet Image 1, Image 2, Image 3, Image 4)
This timetable lasted to the 15/2/99, when a new Monday-Friday timetable was issued. Service was still every 10mins combined (Route 13/A). Notable was an 0815 extra 13A service which was continually dropped and reintroduced into the timetable (generally taken away for the summer)
In July 2002 the 0815 was a notable exclusion with some minor reworking occurring to the Monday-Friday timetable (Route 13/A). The 0815 was brought back on the 2/9/02. As was stated on the website “Route 13 will revert to its winter timetable from Monday 2nd September 2002”.
As of the 31/10/04 the 13/A were extended to Harristown operating via the Northern arm of Balbutcher Lane, back onto the Ballymun Road to Harristown Garage. This was the date it changed garages from Summerhill to Harristown.
This timetable was the first to show Dublin Buses intermediate times for the 13 route, both 13 and A noted as serving Drumcondra Station (which is not case for 13), then next intermediate point being Whitworth Road / Griffith Avenue (13A). Takes 10 mins to get from Drumcondra Station to Whitworth Road. Don’t know a quick U-ey and you’d be there in under a minute. Obviously Drumcondra Station should share with Whitworth Road, while Botanic Gardens may have been better for the 13 to share with Griffith Avenue (13A).
A minor change to the Sunday service was effective on this timetable as of the 25/9/2005. It only affected the last services, the 2320 13A from O’Connell St. remained, however the 2330 13 from O’Connell Street became 2315 from Merrion Square.
The Southern end of the 13 route had originally been Route 12 territory (Cabra-Palmerston Park) however this route was cancelled on the 12/1/1986. The 13 which had previously terminated on Beechwood Avenue was extended on the 13/1/1986 though at this stage the 13 operated to Wadelai Park only. In any case as of Apr 94 the routing was as listed above (Poppintree-Palmerston Park). As of the changes on the 2/11/97 the southern end of Route 13 was replaced by the 13B. The route operated from D’Olier street to Palmerston Park. Operative from the 3/11/97. Operated roughly every 40mins Monday-Saturday during the day, every hour at night, with a long gap between the 1840 and 2125 departures from D’Olier Street being noticeable.
Upon the 13 changes, this route remained within Summerhill garage but eventually reverted to Donnybrook garage. No exact date for this but the change was noted in Buses Magazine June 1999 fleet news.
There only appears to have been a slight change in the timetable when Donnybrook took the route and that was to change the last 2330 departure to 2325. This amendment first appears in my records in a timetable of September 99 so I can only guess that both occurred together. (Route 13B)
The service was operated by Donnybrook when the service was reduced on the 16/10/00 when the 13B was reduced to just 8 Monday-Friday peak hour journeys.
On the 9/7/01 a daytime service was introduced during the peaks but still only 11 return journeys and the last bus from town was still 1820. (Route 13B)
The service was replaced by the new 14/A changes on the 21/8/2005, which saw a few 14A services diverted via Palmerston Park.
Before its demise its timetable was reissued to include journey times. It was one of many routes that contained errors, this one noted an intermediate point outbound as Charlemont Street which of course the 13B did not serve. The inbound points noted Charlemont Park as an intermediate point but this doesn’t exist.
The 13X never actually ran but timetables were published. I picked up a copy in 59. Its operative date was to be from 27/9/99, departed at 0825 from Poppintree and 1620 from Belfield. The route was that of the 13A (not via Coultry / Shangan) to Clare Street (in fact between D.C.U. and St. Patrick’s College there were no stops, so it could have operated by Home Farm Road etc…) then via Route 27X to Belfield.
(Scan of timetable)
