In a previous article I said that I was preparing for
a short holiday and promised that upon my return I would be writing a ‘first
hand’ report on the bus services in Limerick, Ireland. I aplologise for the
delay as I have been rather busy since then but finally, here is that report.
Limerick has a small
number of bus routes linking to the Town Centre and their bus services are
still regulated and operated by Bus
Éireann which is owned by Transport for Ireland. It’s interesting to note
how most of the bus services in Ireland are still owned and run by the
government compared to Britain where the bus services have been privatised and
deregulated.
Some of the bus routes
in Limerick have a frequency of 30-60 minutes, depending on the route. One
particular route has a frequency of '15
minutes' which makes it quite frequent compared to some of the routes in
London provided by London Buses.
Below
is a Spider map of the bus services operated by Bus Éireann.
Here you can see an updated spider diagram map of Limerick's local
bus services, including services operated by Eurobus Limerick; the map is provided by Transport for Ireland.
Below
is a quick list of routes serving the Limerick Town Centre.
Route
|
Direction
|
Frequency
(Weekday)
|
Operator
|
301
|
Regional
Hospital - City Centre - Westbury
|
30
mins
|
Bus
Éireann
|
302
|
Caherdavin
- City Centre
|
20
mins
|
Bus
Éireann
|
303
|
Pineview
- City Centre - O'Malley Park
|
30
mins
|
Bus
Éireann
|
304
|
UL
- City Centre - Raheen
|
15
mins
|
Bus
Éireann
|
305
|
St.
Mary's Park - City Centre - Lynwood Park
|
60
mins
|
Bus
Éireann
|
306
|
Brookfield
- City Centre - Ballynanty
|
60
mins
|
Bus
Éireann
|
307
|
City
Centre - Cappavilla Village (University of Limerick)
|
60
mins
|
Eurobus
Limerick
|
308
|
City
Centre - Annacotty
|
60
mins
|
Eurobus
Limerick
|
Eurobus Limerick is a private Public Transport service established back in
2004. It’s interesting how a privately owned company is able to operate two
routes in the Limerick town area, hence the reason it has different local fares
in comparison to the services operated by Bus Éireann. I also found out that
you can use your Leap Card (smartcard) on the bus services
operated by Bus Éireann in Limerick.
Here are the links for
more bus information from Limerick Council (for Bus Éireann) and Eurobus Limerick.
I
have also produced some video footage of the bus services in Limerick Town
Centre for you to enjoy.
It's worth noting that
the green Mercedes-Benz Citaros featured
in the video are leased from Dublin Coach which is used for the Eurobus
Limerick services. At 03:43 on the video you can see the Mercedes-Benz Citaro
Artic, which is a former First Centrewest 11012 (LK53FBF) which was used for
London Bus services.
Overall, the rest of
the Bus Eireann local buses use the Volvo B7RLE Wright Eclipse 1 and 2 built in
Ballymena, Northern Ireland. The services operate from Roxboro Garage which is
not far from Limerick Railway station. I should mention that Wrightbus also
builds the New Routemaster for London Bus services.
As
we are approaching the end of 2015, I will leave you with a bonus bus video
from Limerick.
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