Photo of the Week - Week 40:


Harristown's VG12 is seen at the Burlington Road terminus of Route 39X about to begin the first outbound service to Ongar (click on photo for larger version).

The latest route to hit the city streets is Route 39X which began operation on the 9th October 2017 operated by Harristown depot, nearly 7 years after it ceased operation on the 29th October 2010 as part of Network Direct. It is the latest addition to a new wave of peak hour services which have recently been added, new variants and letter suffixes that bring a little more interest to the city streets. The introduction of the route saw two new maps created, a welcome sign, though the first produced maps missed basically all stops in the city, the words "all stops to Burlington Road" being missed by the map designer. This was subsequenctly updated, and the maps of the route are available here. The new 39X is quite different from the former service that was withdrawn in 2010. Firstly, it operates from Burlington Road instead of Belfield, it operates via Baggot Street instead of the entire length of Leeson Street. It also serves Stoneybatter in both directions, the former service having served Phibsborough with the exception of one departure. The routing around Blanchardstown is also quite different, avoiding the Hartstown/Huntstown loop, making a more direct route for the new areas of Hansfield and Ongar.


AX457 is seen operating a Route 39X departure to Ongar on Baggot Street, on the first day of operation, the 9th October 2017 (click on photo for larger version).

The first morning was marred by the inability of any of the allocated buses to display 39X. This is not the first time this has happened, with weekends seemingly being a difficult time to update the scrolls. Given the ready availability of SGs, and their automatic scroll updating, one would think they should be the obvious allocation for first morning operations, with a more relaxed allocation as scrolls are fully updated. The evening services did display the route number correctly. The order of the operation was as follows:

  • 0700 from Ongar: AX552 (displayed "Sorry Not In Service")
  • 0715 from Ongar: AX535 (displayed "Sorry Not In Service")
  • 0730 from Ongar: AX546 (displayed "Sorry Not In Service", but did have a paper slip in window with 39X written on it)
  • 0745 from Ongar: AX561 (displayed "Entering Service", but also had a paper slip with 39X written on it in the window)
  • 1655 from Burlington Raod: VG12
  • 1710 from Burlington Road: AX455
  • 1725 from Burlington Road: AX547
  • 1740 from Burlington Road: EV74


Harristown's AX546 is seen on the first morning of Route 39X on Nassau Street. Note the paper slip in the window showing 39X due to the scroll not being able to display the route (click on photo for larger version).

N.B. This website is not affiliated with Dublin Bus. The information contained herein is intended for enthusiast reference. For all current timetable and route information please refer to the official Dublin Bus Website.