Patton Flyer (mod warning post #404) SEE POST #659 ALSO

patrickbrophy18

Yeah, I only noticed this a week or two ago. It's one or two doors up from the Grafton Barber Dalkey Branch upstairs. It will be interesting to see how this one goes. I'm happy for him. If he is providing buses, I wonder if he is planning a licensed route in the near future or if he will be hiring them out?

patrickbrophy18

I hate to dig up a very old thread. However, the new alignment which the 703 Aircoach service now takes to the Airport from Killiney/Dalkey (that has been in effect since the 1st of January of this year) has sparked a campaign from locals seeking a return of The Patton Flyer. It comes amid outrage that the new routing now takes up to 2 hours from start to finish. It is somewhat understandable because the bus ends up in rush hour traffic at peak times. Whilst The Patton Flyer disregarded the licensing laws in the past, if they were to proceed through the legal channels this time, could this service be like a phoenix rising from the ashes?

Failing that, could Dublin Coach or another independent operator take up the mantle of the 703?

There is an active Facebook chat on-going at the Dalkey Open Forum page at the following URL:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/rhona/

Cookie_Monster

patrickbrophy18 wrote: »

Whilst The Patton Flyer disregarded the licensing laws in the past, if they were to proceed through the legal channels this time, could this service be like a phoenix rising from the ashes?

Even if they started off follow all the rules why would the NTA, or anyone else for that matter, trust them to continue to play by the rules in the face of past experience.

If people want something done about the time taken start campaigning for a rail line to the airport, not a bus

devnull

patrickbrophy18 wrote: »

I hate to dig up a very old thread. However, the new alignment which the 703 Aircoach service now takes to the Airport from Killiney/Dalkey (that has been in effect since the 1st of January of this year) has sparked a campaign from locals seeking a return of The Patton Flyer. It comes amid outrage that the new routing now takes up to 2 hours from start to finish. It is somewhat understandable because the bus ends up in rush hour traffic at peak times. Whilst The Patton Flyer disregarded the licensing laws in the past, if they were to proceed through the legal channels this time, could this service be like a phoenix rising from the ashes?

Failing that, could Dublin Coach or another independent operator take up the mantle of the 703?

There is an active Facebook chat on-going at the Dalkey Open Forum page at the following URL:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/rhona/

You have to remember it was a service that only ran every two hours, started later and finished earlier, gave no discounts for children or returns and didn't offer Wifi, plug sockets or leather seating etc. There would be higher costs for Aircoach operating a service 24 hours a day every hour with a higher standard of vehicles and offering more discounts.

I suspect that adding the Ballsbridge section in was to try and keep the route running every hour 24 hours a day when it was deemed that the previous alignment was not performing adequately since the alternative would probably be a frequency cut and that would have been an even worse outcome.

The current timetable during peak times is not fit for the job and needs to be revised and more in line with the traffic flows. If they feel that recasting would make the service too unattractive they really have to revisit the decision they made to change the alignment and think of some other solution.

I cannot see Trevor coming back, he won't get a license, unless it's something totally brand new and different from the previous service or Aircoach drop out, which I also can't see happening.

schemingbohemia

There may be a virtual campaign for the return of an illegal service but I'm not seeing any flyers or public meetings in Dalkey at all. I got the Aircoach home from the airport on Sunday night, very busy service and it flew home to Dalkey. The new timetable is unreliable though and hopefully Aircoach will look again at it.
What could Patten offer to differentiate his service from Aircoach that would justify a second licence on the route? Because I would doubt running a different route on the half hour from Killiney would be enough and there simply isn't the market to justify it.

Rock Steady Edy

Used the 703 for the first time since just before the route change. Very frustrating to turn right at the East Link and meander around the IFSC on the way back from the airport. Route change added 15 minutes to the journey, and that was off-peak.

When I'm travellign alone, more often than not I use my annual taxsaver to get to the airport now. From Blackrock you can be at Pearse in 15 minutes by Dart, a 10 minute walk to Jury's on the north quays to pick up the 747 and you're invariably at the airport in another 15 minutes.