Major blow for commuters & tourists as Irish bus service axes journeys

A MAJOR Irish bus service is being forced to axe journeys after a shortage of drivers is set to have huge impacts.

Aircoach, a popular bus service that connects Dublin Airport to the city centre among other areas, has been forced to cancel certain journeys.

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They service has apologised for “service disruptions” and claimed they are experiencing a shortage of drivers across the industry.

The company has now cancelled a number of services on the 700, 701 and 702 routes which travel to north Wicklow and south Dublin.

They said in a post online: “Our Dublin and Wicklow (700/701/702) routes are experiencing some short-term service cancellations. Though temporary, this situation is regrettable, and we recognise and apologise for the inconvenience caused.”

Four services on the Dublin to Wicklow routes were cancelled on Monday, while 17 are cancelled today and another 12 are set to see cancellations tomorrow.

It is understood that there has been issues among drivers when it came to their new rosters last month.

Siptu negotiators have been reported to have recommended taking an offer of a 4.8 per cent pay rise from the company.

Aircoach said it has now finished discussions with Siptu and said there was a positive engagement during the talks.

Aircoach told Extra.ie: “We are actively pursuing an intensive recruitment drive to restore services to normal as swiftly as possible.”

Despite recent cancellations, earlier this month, Aircoach increased their number of journeys this summer “in response to customer demand” on their popular Dublin to Greystones routes.

In addition to the 65 additional services scheduled, new stops have been put in place across a number of routes.

New hourly services have been added to and from Greystones on Route 702.

Aircoach’s well-known airport coaches will now run every 15 minutes between Dublin Airport and Dublin City Centre.

New stops on the route include Cherrywood Business Park – which will be serviced every half hour, while pick-up at Pearse Station to Dublin Airport will run every half hour.

Other new stops expanding the network include Merrion Square for Route 701 – which will come every 30-minutes, Loughlinstown Hospital, hourly on Route 702 and Greystones and Hawkinswood on route 702 – which will be an hourly service.