More than 2 years in planning, the merger of the 230/102 finally happens
(click on any picture for fullsize)
The new incarnation of the 102 bus route, formed from a merger of the old 102 and 230 routes, started running in North east Dublin this morning, opening a link from Sutton to Dublin Airport for the first time, as well as providing a Sunday service on the Malahide to Airport section which didn’t have one before.
The picture above shows Harristown’s AV164 operating the first westbound trip from Sutton, at 1035.
While good, the merger of the two routes could have been better, and it is troubling that the opportunity to provide earlier services into the airport was missed. A huge number of people from this route’s hinterland work in the airport, and the first westbound services are far too late on every day of the week (and too late for people catching early flights also.
The revamp does open extra possibilities for transport though, linking the airport to the Howth branch of the DART rail network as well as the main northern spur.
A good move to bring these routes together, but a huge missed opportunity in terms of catering for the early morning market.
AllAboutBuses 
I like the optimistic statement “linking the airport to the Howth branch of the DART rail network”. Are you aware of the practice where the bus waits until the Dublin train is pulling into the station, then closes the doors and drives away before train passengers have a chance to board? This happens several times a day – this is why many people from Portmarnock won’t use the train/bus combination – Dublin Bus seem to deliberately avoid taking on passengers!
If you ever want to read a reader’s feedback 🙂 , I rate this post for 4/5. Detailed info, but I just have to go to that damn yahoo to find the missed pieces. Thanks, anyway!