Photo of the Week - Week 3:
Donnybrook's former Wright Crusader 2 bodied Volvo B6BLE is seen at Belfield flyover operating a morning Universal on Route 46A on the 22nd November 2013.
And so there are only 2, 2 single-deckers that is in the Dublin Bus fleet. WV50 was withdrawn in December. It wasn't noted in December, so it may have been early December. This late November photo showed WV50 on a morning Universal on Route 46A from Foxrock Church to Mountjoy Square, a service it had operated at least most days that week. This universal pulled straight in to the garage, with WV50 not to be found in the afternoon. This may well be the last time anyone took a photo of WV50. It was nice to get in on an unusual route.
WV50 is seen during its Ringsend days operating Route 150 turning into Crumlin Village on the 26th March 2011.
WV50 was delivered to Ringsend in April 2001, displacing one of the ML1-8 batch, joining WV1-10 already on Routes 150/201/202. By 2009, all the WV1-10 batch had gone, with many having gone sometime previously to Harristown and then onto Donnybrook. But still WV47-WV52 soldiered on until May 2011, up and down to Rossmore each day. The 150 was then Network Directed, merged with Route 121, and the WVs were suplus to requirements. Onwards to Donnybrook to join WV41-46 which were already there, to Routes 44B, 59, 63 and 111 mainly, though Donnybrook were known to spread these around to strange routes, especially when they had 12 of them. It is expected that the withdrawal of WV51 and WV52 are imminent, leaving a completely double-deck fleet. It will make things very boring. In 2016, a number of the local and orbital routes will be tendered for privatisation. Most of these routes would be ideal for single-deck or midi-buses. So hopefully these will be regular sights on the city streets once more.
WV50 in a downpour operating Route 63 in Dun Laoghaire on Crofton Road on the 17th June 2011.