Citylink Complete Acquisition of GoBus

GoBus have announced that they will be revising fares on their Dublin to Galway Service

The majority of changes effect on bus fares.

Dublin City to Galway On Bus Fare Changes

• Adult and child single fares increase by €1
• Adult and child return fares increase by €2
• Family single increases by €2
• Family return increases by €6
• No changes to student fares

Dublin Airport to Galway On Bus Fare Changes

• Adult single increases by €1
• Adult return increases by €2
• Child return drops by €1
• Family single increases by €5
• Family return drops by €2.
• No changes to student fares

Interesting that they've gone down that path on the Dublin to Cork route where CityLink have never had a presence.

It would make more sense from a customer perspective to have something like that on the Dublin to Galway Express route, especially when they're using the same stops at Dublin Airport, accepting each others tickets and the CityLink timetable includes GoBus services.

But I suspect there may well be other reasons why they are not doing it on the Galway route.

No - that's not correct.

The recently launched T range has replaced the TX Range, the EX range has been around since 2015 and unlike the rest of the Vanhool family, the EX are built in Macedonia to save on costs and the range is primarily aimed at the lower to mid-range segment of the coach market.

The Belgian built TDX continues to be top of the Vanhool coach range (probably will see it get reworked at some point soon I'd imagine) followed by the new T Series which is also built in Belgium, (replacing the TX) with the Macedonian built EX being beneath that.

See article from 2015 here about the launch of the EX series:

And article here about the launch of the T series replacing the TX series

It was always going to work out this way, as I have mentioned earlier in this thread and in other threads.

The GoBus/EirEagle/CityLink brands between them are operating up to four services an hour in some form between Dublin and Galway when you include all the various patterns of services they run between the two cities. Before and just after the merger both CityLink and GoBus were dropping in the odd service in here and there to cover any gaps. Anybody with any clue about the commercial realities of the market would know that the sheer number of services those companies were running between them would make it almost impossible for a new entrant to make the route successful as has proven to be the case.

I know that there were a number of people involved in CityLink/GoBus who were happy as pigs in a certain something that Aircoach were willing to start operating on that route, because there is no way they would have been able to have merged their operations without having to make some serious concessions otherwise. It couldn't have worked out better for ComfortDelGro in terms of this corridor since the takeover went through, they removed a big competitor and were left with a weak one that never stood a chance. The competition authority themselves said without the Aircoach route, they'd have not allowed the merger as was.

What is totally clear now though is that the relevant competition authorities and the NTA must take action on the Galway corridor. There is no way now that a new operator is going to go into that corridor unless CityLink are made to relinquish one of their licenses or the NTA are willing to sanction non stop services on the Galway to Dublin route. It's very disappointing Aircoach didn't kick up a fuss, they should have.