Aircoach Dublin-Cork express

foggy_lad

parsi wrote: »

That will certainly increase the chances of your reserved seat being available rather than occupied by Decco going down to visit his brother in prison.

Booking your ticket online guarantees you one seat on the bus regardless of how many Deccos are travelling!

coylemj

AlekSmart wrote: »

It's actually a tad simpler coylemj,the DSP has frozen the Free Travel Scheme allocation at 2010's level.

Effectively this means that the DSP cannot fund any new entrants in the time-honoured fashion.

It's not 'simpler' AlekSmart, the IMF says so, ergo it happens.

It's part of the bailout deal.

bk

Free Travel Scheme people can still take the train and can even get to the airport for free using the 747.

Which is sort of ironic, it will actually cost the government more not to allow Aircoach to take the Free Travel Scheme people.

Think of it, they are subsidising €90 worth of tickets to Dublin Airport on train + 747, versus €22 on Aircoach.

Personally I think the free travel should be capped at something like €25 return. If someone wants the comfort of the train, then they can pay the difference, otherwise they can take any of the new direct bus services for free. I'd imagine that would save us taxpayers some money. Seems fair to me.

LXFlyer

The free travel scheme does NOT cover the 747

AlekSmart

coylemj wrote: »

It's not 'simpler' AlekSmart, the IMF says so, ergo it happens.

It's part of the bailout deal.

Tis and tis'nt..."Chopper" and his associates from Head Office could not give a toss whether our Government actually expand the Free Travel Scheme to cover ALL public transport within the State.

Our sovereign Government remain free to allocate whatever resources they have as they see fit....however what the IMF will do,with some efficiency,is ensure that whatever agreed sum is budgeted for a particular service is adhered to.

Thus,we see the DSP,in particular,facing a potential financial meltdown as the numbers of working contributors into their Insurance based schemes falls dramatically,whilst the numbers of qualifying claimants increases equally dramatically.

The IMF will not instruct the DSP specifically to cut the Free Travel Scheme entitlement,but it will seek some very substantial evidence from the same DSP,that the overall cost of the scheme remains at the agreed level.

Our eventual outcome remains the same.......things as we knew them are about to change ....drastically !

dardhal

Going back to the thread primary subject, yesterday (Friday) I used the recently launched AirCoach service between Dublin City Center and Cork (and back). I can't complain at all about the service, as it seems affordable to me (22€ return) for what you get.

And what you get is pretty modern coaches (those VOLVO ones) with nice seat, three-point seatbelts, on-board WiFi, no toilet, and non-stop (see below) travel between the two ends. It must be said that the 8 am service from Dublin to Cork was used only by 8 people, while the return from Cork at 6 pm was about 50% full. We arrived in Cork at 10.45 am, while the return from Cork arrived in Dublin City Center slightly later than expected, at 9.10 pm.

And the above may be due to the fact that the return service from Cork was NOT non-stop, as the driver took a small detour from the M8 to pit stop at Urlingford for about 10 minutes, where most of the passengers took the advantage to buy some snacks and visit the gas station toilets. The fact is, shortly before, one passenger asked the driver about whether the service had any planned stops, as he seemed to be in a desperate need of a visit to the loo, but anyways most of the passengers left the bus once stopped, and the driver himself took the time to enjoy his third RedBull of the afternoon.

Anyways, a great service and very affordable, downtown to downtown, and travel times as advertised.

devnull

markpb wrote: »

I'd tend to agree with SandyfordGuy - there seems to be a small number of people on this forum who take every opportunity to attack Aircoach, discuss their apparent staffing and financial problems and predict their eventual demise. Just as people are free to discuss things here, others are just as free to question their motives when they do so (although thankfully some of them have given up and gone away so it's improved lately).

I'm not sure if that is a compliment towards me or not, a few weeks ago I was accused of being a shill now I'm being accused as the opposite. I think if you look at my posts, you'll see I'm nothing like those who have recently been banned or closed their accounts etc.

lxflyer wrote: »

The free travel scheme does NOT cover the 747

Is that since the route change? as I believe it was before?

dardhal wrote: »

It must be said that the 8 am service from Dublin to Cork was used only by 8 people, while the return from Cork at 6 pm was about 50% full. We arrived in Cork at 11.45 am, while the return from Cork arrived in Dublin City Center slightly later than expected, at 9.10 pm.

Which goes back to what I was saying previously, they need to market the service more as loadings are not anywhere near what they could be if more people knew about the service. The fact that 6pm would be prime time for such a route and it was only half full suggests that there is nowhere near enough demand for it at the moment. I guess you meant 10:45 on the 8am bus?

dardhal

devnull wrote: »

I guess you meant 10:45 on the 8am bus?

Of course, sorry for the mistake, correcting the original message at the moment.

LXFlyer

The 747 has never been covered by the free travel scheme.

antoinolachtnai

AlekSmart wrote: »

Tis and tis'nt..."Chopper" and his associates from Head Office could not give a toss whether our Government actually expand the Free Travel Scheme to cover ALL public transport within the State.

Our sovereign Government remain free to allocate whatever resources they have as they see fit....however what the IMF will do,with some efficiency,is ensure that whatever agreed sum is budgeted for a particular service is adhered to.

No, they are not.

There was no fixed 'budget' for the free travel pass or the other household benefit schemes. They were demand-led and open-ended. It was agreed that the that the household benefit scheme be capped at the 2010 level.

The IMF will not instruct the DSP specifically to cut the Free Travel Scheme entitlement,but it will seek some very substantial evidence from the same DSP,that the overall cost of the scheme remains at the agreed level.

Well, it's the household benefit scheme overall. They don't really want 'substantial evidence'. They just want to know how much it cost!

The obvious way to reduce the bill without materially effecting anybody would be to take the intercity trains out of the scheme.

foggy_lad

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

The obvious way to reduce the bill without materially effecting anybody would be to take the intercity trains out of the scheme.

The subvention paid to Irish rail would have to be cut by about 80% if they take intercity trains out of the scheme as there are very few branch lines that are of any use to free travel users.

highlydebased

foggy_lad wrote: »

The subvention paid to Irish rail would have to be cut by about 80% if they take intercity trains out of the scheme as there are very few branch lines that are of any use to free travel users.

Free travel users are the main users of many branch lines...Limk-Galway, Ballybrophy branch, LJ-waterford...

devnull

lxflyer wrote: »

The 747 has never been covered by the free travel scheme.

Apologies - I assumed that it had been.

foggy_lad

highlydebased wrote: »

Free travel users are the main users of many branch lines...Limk-Galway, Ballybrophy branch, LJ-waterford...

How many use these few lines compared to the many intercity lines, Very few! the numbers do not warrent the massive subvention currently being paid for use of all rail services, I was being generous with 20% realistically it should be around 10% when income from these lines is compared to income from intercity lines.

It would be much cheaper on the state to close these branch lines and bus the passengers between stations especially considering the number of free travel users using the lines, As it stands many of the trains between Cork and Dublin are almost empty but money is wasted on sending a full set when a 3 car intercity set would suffice.

antoinolachtnai

It's just a matter of cost-effectiveness. If there is an alternative, cheaper way of providing a good level of comfort to these passengers, it should be done. There is a clear alternative for the intercity services. The alternatives on the branch lines are less clear, but they need to be considered.

dowlingm

there's plenty of other IE threads to go into this. Can we stick to Aircoach here please?

Cool_CM

dardhal wrote: »

Going back to the thread primary subject, yesterday (Friday) I used the recently launched AirCoach service between Dublin City Center and Cork (and back). I can't complain at all about the service, as it seems affordable to me (22€ return) for what you get.

And what you get is pretty modern coaches (those VOLVO ones) with nice seat, three-point seatbelts, on-board WiFi, no toilet, and non-stop (see below) travel between the two ends. It must be said that the 8 am service from Dublin to Cork was used only by 8 people, while the return from Cork at 6 pm was about 50% full. We arrived in Cork at 10.45 am, while the return from Cork arrived in Dublin City Center slightly later than expected, at 9.10 pm.

And the above may be due to the fact that the return service from Cork was NOT non-stop, as the driver took a small detour from the M8 to pit stop at Urlingford for about 10 minutes, where most of the passengers took the advantage to buy some snacks and visit the gas station toilets. The fact is, shortly before, one passenger asked the driver about whether the service had any planned stops, as he seemed to be in a desperate need of a visit to the loo, but anyways most of the passengers left the bus once stopped, and the driver himself took the time to enjoy his third RedBull of the afternoon.

Anyways, a great service and very affordable, downtown to downtown, and travel times as advertised.

I'm on it at the moment, the wifi doesn't work but we left Dublin at 2 and should be pulling into urlingford in a second. Price is right and there's no waiting around for the luas/walking to get to the city centre, which more or less makes it around the same length of journey city centre to city centre as using the train.
Very impressed and won't be using Irish rail for a while if aircoach can maintain this standard of service.

SandyfordGuy

If you can see the Aircoach_WiFi network and connect to it, but not get pages up, try the below page:

https://portal.moovmanage.com/aircoach/connect.php

Some devices and browsers cannot support the redirect to the connect pages after connecting to the wireless network.

devnull

Cool CM how many people were on your service? From what I saw last couple of days most coaches are at best a third full, no wonder with no advertising, GoBus will kill them when they launch and it'll be a very expensive defeat for them. Shame really as there is a huge number of people would use such service, if they knew about it.

In any case, not content with one service nobody knows about, the word on the street is that they may be launching another service soon between two different cities!

highlydebased

devnull wrote: »

Cool CM how many people were on your service? From what I saw last couple of days most coaches are at best a third full, no wonder with no advertising, GoBus will kill them when they launch and it'll be a very expensive defeat for them. Shame really as there is a huge number of people would use such service, if they knew about it.

Word will get round.

Dublin Coach did little promotion when they started Dub-Limk...a few months on and it's doing very very well.

foggy_lad

devnull wrote: »

Cool CM how many people were on your service? From what I saw last couple of days most coaches are at best a third full, no wonder with no advertising, GoBus will kill them when they launch and it'll be a very expensive defeat for them. Shame really as there is a huge number of people would use such service, if they knew about it.

In any case, not content with one service nobody knows about, the word on the street is that they may be launching another service soon between two different cities!

It would be worse to have an over-used service where people were turned away when they try to use a new service as they then see it as unreliable.

devnull

highlydebased wrote: »

Word will get round.

Dublin Coach did little promotion when they started Dub-Limk...a few months on and it's doing very very well.

They did a little promotion however and their vehicles are actually advertising the route and they've done some promotion in Limerick. Also Dublin Coach have no real competition on that route, sure there are stopping Bus Eireann and JJ Kavanagh services but they can't compete on time.

GoBus are going to be starting up in 3-4 weeks at the latest as they got their license in mid February and they have to start the service within three months as per terms of the license and if they don't get the passenger numbers up by then GoBus can easily come in and steal their thunder.

foggy_lad wrote: »

It would be worse to have an over-used service where people were turned away when they try to use a new service as they then see it as unreliable.

I don't think the accountants would say that!

foggy_lad

devnull wrote: »

I don't think the accountants would say that!

I should have said overused due to a massive start-up advertising campaign to boost start-up numbers which would then calm down to normal levels.

What others and Aircoach seem to be doing is letting the service find its own passenger levels from the start without any inflation from big advertising campaigns and when they get an idea of loadings throughout the day and week they can work on advertising lesser used services.

LXFlyer

As with any new service, loads build up gradually.

I wouldn't read anything into the current loadings. I'm sure Aircoach will be marketing it as they see fit.

I have to say devnull that I'm finding your arguments re Aircoach somewhat puzzling. On the one hand you were praising them when others were forecasting doom and gloom in the Ballinteer cutbacks thread, yet here you seem to be forecasting doom and gloom yourself and making lots of critical comments with very few praising them for their initiative.

Maybe I'm getting the wrong end of the stick, and if I am I apologise, but your attitude towards Aircoach does appear slightly odd.

devnull

Purely stating as I see it, I do agree that it is great we finally have a non stop service here as it is long overdue, however at the same time I just don't happen to think they are going the right way about it. I've never actually had a problem with their services per se or them operationally, I just believe that in other areas there could be an improvement.

There was never enough demand for a half hourly service on either the Ballinteer or the Greystones or Dalkey routes if you ask me, hence why it is a sensible step to cut them back especially with trading conditions being quite difficult, although the Cork route is a different kettle of fish, namely with existing competition and more to come that it needs more of a push for it to work.

I agree that numbers build up gradually, although with GoBus coming on the scene in the very near future, they would be happy to see lack of marketing from the other operators, as this will no doubt make it easier for them to attract the potential passengers if they get their marketing right. If word gets out about an existing service before GoBus launches, that makes it harder for GoBus to take a larger share of the marketplace.

Vahevala

Personally speaking, I see a hell of a lot of Aircoach coaches going to Dublin Airport with noone on them or only one or two people on it. I think they need to scale back a bit with services in Dublin/Wicklow, there isn't the market there for it anymore.

markpb

Vahevala wrote: »

Personally speaking, I see a hell of a lot of Aircoach coaches going to Dublin Airport with noone on them or only one or two people on it. I think they need to scale back a bit with services in Dublin/Wicklow, there isn't the market there for it anymore.

If they scale back the frequency, the service will become less appealing. They seem happy enough with the demand right now, perhaps the market is there but you just don't see it?

LXFlyer

Remember too that one leg of a round trip may be busier than the return leg - so they may well cover their costs on one half of a round trip.

bk

In terms of marketing I don't think you have to spend a fortune on it, with fancy TV ads, etc.

Instead, well the first step would be to get articles in the newspapers and news about the new service. I'm very surprised this service launched and not a single mention of the new service in the press or news. This is first step would be simple PR.

Then hire a few of those flat bed trucks with the ads on the back, put on the ad, Dublin to Cork 3hours for €22 and park them outside Heuston and Bus Aras and a few people wearing those ad boards with loud speakers and handing out leaflets outside Heuston and Bus Aras.

Basically just directly target the existing people who travel Cork to Dublin.

I think the bus industry needs a Michael O'Leary type of character. Someone to do controversial things and get lots of free publicity.

coylemj

Vahevala wrote: »

Personally speaking, I see a hell of a lot of Aircoach coaches going to Dublin Airport with noone on them or only one or two people on it. I think they need to scale back a bit with services in Dublin/Wicklow, there isn't the market there for it anymore.

They are a commercial organisation, they will match the service to the demand in order to make a profit.

And as another poster has pointed out, just because a bus is empty going in one direction doesn't mean it isn't 75% full and making lots of money going in the opposite direction.