Go-Ahead Transport Services (Dublin) Limited, known as Go-Ahead Ireland is a bus operator in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

that commenced trading in September 2018. It is a subsidiary of the

Go-Ahead Group The Go-Ahead Group plc is a passenger transport company based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, with operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Singapore, Norway and Germany. Formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange, in 2022 it was purchased ...

History

With the aim of improving efficiency, in 2015 the National Transport Authority put the operation of 24

Dublin Bus Dublin Bus ( ga, Bus Átha Cliath) is a State-owned bus operator providing services in Dublin. By far the largest bus operator in the city, it carried 138 million passengers in 2019. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann. ...

routes out to tender. In August 2017 the contract was awarded to the

.NAT Announces Go-Ahead as preferred bidder for bus routes in Dublin
National Transport Authority 10 August 2017 This represented 10% of the incumbent operator Dublin Bus existing monopoly operated network. Go-Ahead Ireland commenced operating one new route, 175 from

Citywest Citywest ( ga, Iarthar na Cathrach) is a suburban development on the southwestern periphery of Dublin, originally developed as a "business campus." It contains a large hotel, with a convention centre, a small shopping centre and a small but ex ...

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

, on 9 September 2018. A further four transferred from Dublin Bus on 7 October, then another three on 21 October, four on 2 December, nine on 20 January 2019 and a final three transferred on 24 March 2019. By this time the fleet had grown to 125 buses after taking over all the services that the company was scheduled to commence operation on. The contract is for five years with an option for a two-year extension. On 26 July 2019 a second depot was opened in Naas in County Kildare. This depot is being used to manage a number of Dublin commuter coach routes which the company won the tender to operate, formerly operated by

Bus Éireann Bus Éireann (; "Irish Bus") is a state-owned bus and coach operator providing services throughout Ireland, with the exception of Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area, where bus services are provided by sister company Dublin Bus. It is a subsidia ...

, which were transferred to Go-Ahead between December 2019 and January 2020.

Routes

Dublin routes

Dublin Commuter routes

Go-Ahead Ireland took over the operation of a further six routes from Dublin to

Offaly County Offaly (; ga, Contae Uíbh Fhailí) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Uí Failghe. It was formerly known as King's County, in hono ...

Laois County Laois ( ; gle, Contae Laoise) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medi ...

Kildare Kildare () is a town in County Kildare, Ireland. , its population was 8,634 making it the 7th largest town in County Kildare. The town lies on the R445, some west of Dublin – near enough for it to have become, despite being a regional cen ...

and Meath from

between December 2019 and January 2020. These are the 120, 120C, 123, 124, 126 and the 130. They started operating the 126 and 130 on 1 December 2019 which coincided with the introduction of new route 125 from Newbridge to UCD. They took over the 120 and 120C on 19 January 2020.

Route 197

On 24 November 2019, Go-Ahead Ireland started operating route 197. This route is part of a separate contract with the NTA. It uses

Alexander Dennis Alexander Dennis is a British bus manufacturing company based in Larbert, Scotland. The largest bus and coach manufacturer in the United Kingdom with a 50% market share in 2019, it has manufacturing plants and partnerships in Canada, China, ...

Enviro 200MMCs owned by Go-Ahead rather than the NTA as is the case on the Dublin city and commuter routes.

Fleet

Go-Ahead Ireland commenced operations with nine buses. By the time it took over its final routes from Dublin Bus in early 2019, the fleet was scheduled to expand to 125 buses comprising 24 new

Wright Gemini 3 The Wright Eclipse Gemini is a Low-floor bus, low-floor double-decker bus body that was built by Wrightbus since 2001, based on the single-deck Wright Eclipse design. The second-generation Eclipse Gemini 2 was launched in 2009, followed by the ...

bodied

Volvo B5TL The Volvo B5TL is a 2-axle low-floor bus, low-floor Double-decker bus, double decker built by Volvo Buses, Volvo. It replaced the Volvo B9TL, B9TL as Volvo's Euro 6 2-axle double decker product for the UK and Irish markets. Design The B5TL is po ...

s and 40

Wright StreetLite The Wright StreetLite is a low-floor midibus introduced by Wrightbus in 2010. It was originally available in only one body style (wheel forward) before the door forward and StreetLite Max variants were introduced in 2011 and 2012 respectively. ...

s, with 12 Wright Gemini 2 bodied

Volvo B9TL The Volvo B9TL is a low-floor double-decker bus built by Volvo from 2002 until 2018. It superseded the Volvo Super Olympian and the Volvo B7TL. The 2-axle version has been superseded by the Volvo B5TL in 2014 and the 3-axle version has been sup ...

s and 49 Wright Gemini 3 bodied Volvo B5TLs to transfer from Dublin Bus. It was later decided that an extra 12 double decker buses were required in order to be able to fulfill the full quantity of routes due to transfer. These buses were diverted from an order of Wright Gemini 3 Volvo B5TL buses originally meant for Dublin Bus bringing the fleet up to 133 buses. In 2022 Go-Ahead Ireland received 3 more Wright Gemini 3 Volvo B5TL buses from Dublin Bus and were numbered 11601 to 11603. These were former SG272, SG273 and SG275 of Dublin Bus Broadstone Depot. Go-Ahead Ireland use five digit and six digit numbers for fleet numbering with their 96 B5TLs being numbered from 11501 to 11593 and 11601 to 11603, 12 B9TLs are numbered from 11901 to 11912 and the 40 Streetlites are numbered between 12101 and 12140. 9 former Dublin Bus AX class Volvo B7TL buses with

Alexander ALX400 The Alexander ALX400 (later known as the TransBus ALX400 and the Alexander Dennis ALX400) was a 2-axle double-decker bus body built by Walter Alexander Coachbuilders (later by TransBus International/Alexander Dennis). It was one of the ALX-seri ...

bodywork have been added to the fleet as additional buses. These were numbered 11701 to 11709 and were new to Dublin Bus as AX497 to AX505. Ten

Mercedes-Benz Citaro The Mercedes-Benz Citaro is a single-decker, rigid or articulated bus manufactured by Mercedes-Benz/EvoBus. Introduced in 1997, the Citaro is available in a range of configurations, and is in widespread use throughout Europe and parts of Asia ...

s and five Wright Gemini bodied Volvo B7TLs were transferred from

Oxford Bus Company Oxford Bus Company is the trading name of The City of Oxford Motor Services Ltd. Company Number 91106 It is a bus operator serving the city and surrounding area of Oxford, England. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group. History Horse trams ...

and

Go-Ahead London Go-Ahead London is the trading name used collectively for the London bus operations of the Go-Ahead Group. The name first appeared in August 2008, before which the company had traded under separate names and brands. It is currently (as of 2021) ...

as driver trainers. In March 2022 they received 3 former B5LH Wright Gemini 2 vehicles from Go-Ahead London also for driver training. These are numbered 8501 to 8503. In 2022 Go-Ahead took delivery of 3 Wright Streetlite's numbered 12141 to 12143. These vehicles are formerly owned by Metrobus in the UK and have replaced Enviro200MMC's numbered 2701 to 2703 on route 197 between Ashbourne and Swords. The 3 Enviro200MMC's were sold to Metrobus in exchange for the Streetlites. The Dublin Commuter routes are operated by a mixture of double deck VDL Futura coaches and Sunsundegui SB3 bodied

Volvo B8R The Volvo B8R is a 7.7-litre engined coach and intercity bus chassis manufactured by Volvo since 2013 for Euro VI markets. It was designed as a replacement for the B7R and the B9R. In 2017, Euro III and V versions were launched worldwide with ...

interurban buses. Go-Ahead Ireland's Dublin City fleet is managed from its primary depot on the site of a former

DHL Express DHL is an American founded, German logistics company providing courier, package delivery and express mail service, which is a division of the German logistics firm Deutsche Post. The company group delivers over 1.8 billion parcels per year. DHL ...

depot in

Ballymount Ballymount (), is a locality on the south side of Dublin, near the mainly residential areas of Walkinstown to the east, Tallaght to the west and Greenhills to the south. Ballymount is accessed by a number of public bus routes from Dublin city c ...

. A second depot in

Naas Naas ( ; ga, Nás na Ríogh or ) is the county town of County Kildare in Ireland. In 2016, it had a population of 21,393, making it the second largest town in County Kildare after Newbridge. History The name of Naas has been recorded in th ...

where the Commuter routes are based opened on 26 July 2019.UK bus group Go-Ahead gets green light for depot
The company also has outstations for Dublin City routes in Dublin Airport for routes 33a, 33b and 102 and for Dublin Commuter routes in Edenderry. ''

Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper and online publication which is owned by Independent News & Media (INM), a subsidiary of Mediahuis. The newspaper version often includes glossy magazines. Traditionally a broadsheet new ...

'' 16 February 2018 In August 2020 Go-Ahead Ireland began operation of 8 new routes in North and West County Dublin. The fleet they use on these routes are eight Ex- Dublin Bus 2006 ALX 400 class buses formerly AX497-505 now they are numbered 11701-11709. They are currently operating on route 33S,102A/C/P/S,220S,236S&270S

References

{{Go-AheadGroup Bus transport in the Republic of Ireland Go-Ahead Group companies Transport companies established in 2018 2018 establishments in Ireland