Is Citylink the best way to travel Galway - Dublin?

wet-paint

I'm booking buses to go to the airport in a week's time, and I'm getting travel times of four hours on the return leg. The price is fine, at a fiver. No sign of those €1 fares, but the fiver'll do.
But how can it be four hours when the motorway cuts it to half that for cars? Does it stop in every single hole of a village or something on the way down?

joeKel73

They haven't updated their timetables since the motorway. Got to the airport with citylink in under 2.5hrs recently. You're too late to book the €1 tickets, need to be a month or two before you travel, I think there's just two €1 seats on each bus.

Royale with Cheese

Took me about 2hrs 30 mins to get from Galway to Dublin back in January. Very comfortable bus, has wifi and damn cheap too.

Some of the busses were down as being 3hrs 15 mins, and some 2hrs 45. I deliberately booked one of the 2hrs 45 ones.

muppetkiller

I have to say their service to Dublin now is fantastic.
The non-stop is nearly an hour quicker than the train and much cheaper.
Very Comfy buses too.

Robbo

I was 2.5 hours from Dublin Airport recently and as bus journeys go, it was great.

The only stop was in that retail park that forms a perfectly good substitute for Athlone.

citycentre

Citylink run both a non-stop service and the usual stop in every village service. You just have to be careful you book the non-stop version on the website.

Of course you have to remember that they operate their non-stop service illegally so personally I prefer to use GoBus...

muffinman

BTH wrote: »

Of course you have to remember that they operate their non-stop service illegally so personally I prefer to use GoBus...

+1.. Foreign-owned company operating (possibly) illegally vs galway-based licensed operator.. It's a no-brainer for me

Sponge Bob

Gobus is the only company licenced to operate a direct service and Citylink could be off the road for licence breaches if it loses its current court case this week.

Citylink never operated direct till Gobus got a licence and then breached their own licence in an attempt to put Gobus off the road. If they put Gobus off the road they would be back stopping everywhere over 3-4 hours

So as a Galwayperson I support Gobus.

inisboffin

+1 absolutely for gobus - for the reasons above, but also for the FAR superior service, timekeeping etc. Their drivers are way sounder (in general), the buses comfier/cleaner, and they leave on time.

Tenner each way to Dub City. They are also the latest run coming back around 11pm and 1am from Dublin if you get stuck there late.

dafunk

I've only got GoBus once and wasn't too impressed. What really pissed me off about it was I got on in Dublin Airport and they said 'Galway Direct, no stops!' but they went through the ****ing city before they started heading west. What a crock of ****. It took three hours and 20 minutes. It would make way more sense to go

city centre -> airport -> galway

rather than airport -> city centre -> galway

Plus, the bus stank of vomit. I wouldn't use them again.

KevR

As far as I know, City Link multi-stop takes 3hr 45mins Galway-Dublin Airport and roughly 4hrs on the way back (there's a long-ish wait in Dublin City Centre).

The non-stop service takes 3 hours each way according to the timetable but it usually does it a fair bit quicker than that unless there is extremely heavy traffic in Galway or Dublin.

@Robbo, was it a City Link non-stop service that stopped in Athlone? If so, I wonder if they are now doing one quick stop in Athlone so they won't technically have a non-stop Galway-Dublin service anymore. Maybe they will argue that they aren't breaching their licence by stopping in Athlone..

While I don't exactly like the fact that City Link are operating this service without a licence, I wouldn't like to see their non-stop services cut. I think the competition is good. Between Go Bus and City Link there is a very high frequency of express services and I think they have both taken customers from the train!

I used Go Bus quite a bit before City Link started non-stop and now I use whichever one suits me best. Have been on Go Bus loads of times since City Link started their non-stop service and haven't noticed that it's any less busy than before..

Personally, I would like City Link to rebrand their non-stop service to an 'Express' service which stops in Athlone. If the timetables were done properly people could interchange between the express and multi-stop buses in Athlone. I think there would be good advantages to this - people in Athlone would be able to avail of an express service to Galway or Dublin and Go Bus could lay claim to being the only Galway-Dublin Non-Stop service.

By the way, I thought Go Bus was owned by Veolia (a foreign company) and a Galway-based company operates it on their behalf. City Link is pretty much the same as far as I know. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Robbo

KevR wrote: »

@Robbo, was it a City Link non-stop service that stopped in Athlone? If so, I wonder if they are now doing one quick stop in Athlone so they won't technically have a non-stop Galway-Dublin service anymore. Maybe they will argue that they aren't breaching their licence by stopping in Athlone..

I have no idea what the service was promoting itself as, I just rolled out of Dublin Airport at a late hour and hopped on whatever bus was promising to have me in Galway sooner. Athlone was the only stop though.

muffinman

KevR wrote: »

By the way, I thought Go Bus was owned by Veolia (a foreign company) and a Galway-based company operates it on their behalf. City Link is pretty much the same as far as I know. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

No, Burkes own it AFAIK.. He used to be involved with veolia pre-gobus.. Says here that at the time it was written he owned 5 buses and rented 5 from callaghans..

biko

Any bus can be hit and miss depending on the people travelling.

"Best" is to drive yourself but best for the wallet/environment/etc is the bus.
I've used Gobus and it was good, except for crawling through fecking Dublin.
But they have a toilet which is good.

KevR

Robbo wrote: »

I have no idea what the service was promoting itself as, I just rolled out of Dublin Airport at a late hour and hopped on whatever bus was promising to have me in Galway sooner. Athlone was the only stop though.

Was probably a non-stop service so. Sometimes the very late departures (both Go Bus and City Link) from Dublin Airport will make a quick stop in one or two towns along the way as the multi-stop services don't run as late and some people coming in on late flights have no other option. The passengers who want these intermediate stops have to check with the driver before departure, it's entirely at the driver's discretion whether he makes the additional stops or not..

KevR

dafunk wrote: »

I've only got GoBus once and wasn't too impressed. What really pissed me off about it was I got on in Dublin Airport and they said 'Galway Direct, no stops!' but they went through the ****ing city before they started heading west. What a crock of ****. It took three hours and 20 minutes. It would make way more sense to go

city centre -> airport -> galway

rather than airport -> city centre -> galway

Plus, the bus stank of vomit. I wouldn't use them again.

That would only be better for people going to/from the airport. What about people going Galway-Dublin City? If you were coming back from Dublin City to Galway you would have to go via the airport - that would be a pain! They would lose out on a lot of business to the train if they did that.

I think the current set up (below) of works quite well for everyone; I frequently use buses to both Dublin City and Dublin Airport.
Galway --> Dublin City --> Dublin Airport
Dublin Airport --> Dublin City --> Galway

When did you take the bus that took 3hrs 20mins? Must have been before the motorway was fully open. Would be quite rare for a bus to take that long since the full opening of the motorway.

As for the smell of vomit, that's unfortunate/unlucky. I have never found City Link or Go Bus to be dirty or bad smelling. Bus Eireann on the other hand......

By the way, for any late night services departing Galway, they will go direct to the airport on the M50 if nobody has bought a ticket to Dublin City Centre.

siltirocker

Magnus wrote: »

Any bus can be hit and miss depending on the people travelling.

"Best" is to drive yourself but best for the wallet/environment/etc is the bus.
I've used Gobus and it was good, except for crawling through fecking Dublin.
But they have a toilet which is good.

As does City Link Direct, €1 wifi, toilet, nonstop, no problems.

wet-paint

City Link it is then. If Gobus want my money, they can offer me the same price.
Cheers folks.

unJustMary

Magnus wrote: »

"Best" is to drive yourself

I'd agree if the car could manage to find its' own way (GPS ain't quite that good still), AND find itself a free parking space at the destination.

inisboffin

Good luck with the Citylink Website:rolleyes:
I think it is 2 x seats per bus at the €1 fare, but they have another slightly cheaper one than gobus too.

I use Citylink to Clifden, that's pretty much it.
I totally understand the power of the price OP, but for me
I take the bus so regularly to Dublin that the less hassle with webs/working loos/working wifi, the better, and it is worth a few shillings more.

Happy travels! Give us an update from the bus!