Travelling Home for Christmas Has Never Been Easier - As Bus Éireann Unveils Festive Timetable
Travel and Lifestyle Blogger Lauren Arthurs Gets #InTheDrivingSeat to Help Launch Holiday Services
Bus Éireann today alongside popular travel and lifestyle blogger Lauren Arthurs, announced its timetables for Christmas and New Year, confirming details of services nationwide over the festive season. Buses will run every day across the Christmas holiday period - apart from December 25 - with services operating standard timetables with some slight exceptions.
On Christmas Eve all departures up to 2100 will operate to a normal timetable, apart from the following routes, which will not operate:
- Route X1 - 1945 Belfast-Dublin
- Route 2 - 2100 Dublin Airport-Wexford; 1830 & 2030 Wexford-Dublin Airport
- Route 4 - 2000 Waterford-Dublin
- Route 23 - 2000 Dublin-Sligo
- Route 32 - 2045 Dublin-Letterkenny; 1945 Letterkenny-Dublin
- Route 100X - 2030 Dundalk-Dublin
- Route 871/890 - Expressway Eurolines services to and from London
A small number of Expressway services will operate after 2100, these include
- Route 4 - 2200 Dublin Airport-Waterford,
- Route 30 - 2130 Dublin-Donegal
- Route 100X - 2140 Dublin-Dundalk
If you’re getting a little bit of cabin fever on 26 December, a full Sunday schedule will operate across the entire network, excluding the below departures, which will not operate.
- Route X1 -1815, 2015, 2115, 2215 & 2315 Dublin-Belfast; 0530, 1945 & 2200 Belfast-Dublin
- Route X2A - 1015, 1615, 1715 & 1915 Dublin-Belfast; 0645 & 1445 Belfast-Dublin
- Route X5 - 0930, 1130, 1330, 1530, 1730 & 1930 Dublin-Newry; 0815 & 1015 Belfast-Dublin; 0915 Belfast-Newry; 0715, 1315, 1515 & 1715 Newry-Dublin
- Route 32 - 0030 Letterkenny-Dublin
- Route 40 - 0940 Cork-Waterford; 1040 Cork-Rosslare
- Route 51 - 0725 & 0835 Limerick-Cork; 0725 & 0825 Limerick-Galway
- Route 64 - 0625 Donegal-Sligo; 0635 & 0810 Letterkenny-Derry; 0735 Sligo-Derry
- Route 871/890 - Expressway Eurolines services to and from London
However, if you’re travelling between Dublin and Belfast on 26 December, additional departures will operate from Belfast-Dublin at 0445 and from Dublin-Belfast at 1715 & 1915.
From December 27 to 30 inclusive, a full regular schedule of services will operate on all routes.
On the 31 December, Bus Éireann will make sure you arrive to your final destination to ring in the New Year, as all services will be running a normal timetable up until 2200 (apart from 871/890 - Expressway Eurolines services to and from London which will not be operating)
With the following exceptions, services due to start after 2200 will not be operating on 31 December
- All Expressway services will operate as normal
- Route 220 - Services will resume from midnight on 1 January 2020 and operate a full timetable
Commenting on the Holiday timetable, Bus Éireann Chief Executive Officer Stephen Kent said: “Our new Christmas service schedule has been designed to ensure we connect our customers to who and what matters to them - helping to facilitate more shopping, more visits to friends and relatives and more frequent services to the airports and Christmas markets as we gear up for the festive season. We wish all of our customers safe and enjoyable travel and look forward to bringing further service improvements across our network of routes in 2020.”
If you’re living in Cork then you’re in luck as Bus Éireann have added additional late-night services to Midleton and Blarney on Route 215 and 261 on Friday the 6th, Saturday 7th, Friday the 13th, Saturday the 14th, Friday the 20th and Saturday the 21st of December. The pick-up is from St Patrick’s Street only and services will depart to Midleton and Blarney at 01:00, 02:00 and 03:00 hours.
If your heading into Cork City for some last-minute Christmas shopping, then the annual Seasonal Park & Ride from County Hall in Cork might be the perfect route for you. This service operates every 15 minutes from 09.30 to 20.15 on Saturday and 10.45 to 20.30 on Sundays, until, December 22 with the exception of Sunday, 23 December, where it will close at 18.30
Speaking at the launch of the Bus Éireann Christmas and New Year service schedule, Lauren Arthurs said: “As a Cork native, I’m delighted to see all of the additional services added, especially the Park & Ride from County Hall into the city, which I definitely will be using for some last minute Christmas shopping when I’m home. It’s never been easier or more comfortable to travel by bus and with free Wi-Fi, extra comfy seats and power sockets available onboard, all you have to do is sit back, relax and enjoy the drive home for Christmas.”
We would like to wish all our customers a happy and safe Christmas and New Year. For further details about any of our services over the festive season, check out www.buseireann.ie.
Wednesday, 11th December, 2019