Our plan is to extend our all-day, two-way, express service to these areas, by a route beginning at Swords Manor, passing Applewood, turning into the village at the Pavilions and travelling along Forest Road to Airside and past Holywell to the motorway. This service would be a tremendous boon to the area, not only because it would provide a fast, regular link to the city, but because it would link all these areas of Swords together as well.
Swords Express has had this new route with the Department of Transport since the beginning of this year awaiting approval.
The route is designed so that it avoids all the bottlenecks in Swords. Even people at the beginning of the route will get a fast, reliable service.
It is also designed to minimise walking distance to the route. The vast majority of the people of Swords will be within 800 yards of the route, and almost all of them will be within 1000 yards.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
what a cracking idea to run the service to applewood
hope to hear more about very soon at the moment being
serviced by what one can only say a very poor service
from dublin bus i know we would be able to rely on the
swords express to get us there on time all the time #
keep the pressure on to get the licence passed this would be an invaluable service to people like me
June 25th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Will this be a new second route or a rerouting of the existing service?
If a new route what frequency are you planning?
June 26th, 2008 at 10:11 am
It’s hard to say what the start up frequency would be at this stage. It depends on the commercial situation when we launch. One possibility is that the two services would run at peak times, and that the new service would run at all other times. All in all, we would aim to have a higher frequency overall.
We can’t do this on our own though. It is important to let your local representatives know that you want this.
June 26th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Fantastic idea - any projected start date?
June 26th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Great to see you guys planning on an additional route, I’m sure anyone in Applewood or Holywell would be delighted to hear that your service may soon be coming their way, hope to see the permission granted soon and Swords Express going from strength to strength….
June 26th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Doh! Forgot to ask my question, so I’m assuming that as the route is designed to come down the Forest Road and then to Airside, that it would be travelling through Boroimhe ? would that be correct ?
June 26th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
I have been getting the Swords Express for about 6 months now from Airside. It has taken a lot of trial and error to figure out what is the best time to get a bus without being left behind at the bus stop. I think I have managed that and now I am being told that its all going to change….again. I am concerned that if all the buses leave form these areas, firstly the time they arrive at airside could vary dramatically and secondly the buses will be full. At the moment by the time the bus gets to my stop its pretty full and that’s only coming from Swords village. What will be like when it start in Swords Manor of Applewood?
Will I be back to standing at a bus stop watching 3 full buses go past again????
June 26th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Where I think this is a very good idea, I reckon it will be difficult to get the permission given all the trouble the 41x had getting a licence to go through the tunnel.
June 27th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
I agree with David’s point above.
June 27th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
While I see Davids point the alternative is a bus operator that doesn’t adapt when the customers needs changes. Anybody remember the 41X before Swords Express opened. Years of full buses and they were unable to do anything about it. At least these guys rejig the timetable to try and improve capacity.
The admin posted above that there was a possibility of running two services at the same time. This wouldn’t change the current service much would it. It might even mean less people on the current service.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
i presume the bus going from Swords Manor or applewood would mean extra costs-are the fares going to go up AGAIN???
June 30th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Do you think Minister Kennedy could railroad through your route license application as quickly as he has done for DB?If reading the admin replies to previous questions Swords Express/Digital Messenger has applied for this route long before DB ever thought about it.
People are entitled to a choice of transport mode such as “no frills or a little comfort”. Will DB do what they have done to Morton’s Circle line which finished trading last Friday ,leaving twenty people without a job? Swords, according to our civil servants is set to become a city,why not start the infrastructure now? Competition is a healthy thing in business,but is the playing field fair,or can the goal posts be moved to suit the big boys? I know there is a huge amount of work being done in the background to make Swords Express a success. Keep up the effort and best of luck.
July 1st, 2008 at 6:04 pm
I agree with David also - it’s taken me ages to get a system going whereby I am not left at the side of the road at airside every morning. If this bus begins at Swords Manor and then onto Airside etc - people at Airside will not be able to get on the bus. It’s not clear whether you will be running a different service to the existing one or whether the existing one is being extended. Can you advise please ?
July 1st, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Great news that the bus will service Holywell!! Hopefully you will get permission soon!!
Delighted about that, my only concern is, will it be full when it gets to us? Hope there will be enough buses put on so that does not happen.
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Has the evening service around 6-6:30 been cut back? The bankers are being left behind again.
July 4th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Do Swords Express plan to link there Annual ticket with other public transport providers?
e.g Swords Express + Dart
or Swords Express + Dublin Bus
or Swords Express + Luas
Our company is offering a variety of annual tickets with a mix of public transport providers. Is this a future option for Swords Express.
July 7th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
I think this is a great idea. I wonder though have you thought any more about easier access for buggies etc. It would be great to have a service available to all areas of Swords and competition is great.
I do have to say to Paul C I’m sorry but I think you should get your facts straight before making such sweeping comments about DB. DB first used the tunnel over a year and a half ago on the 41X and have been fighting ever since to use it officially again,only being granted recently use in the mornings once it and Swords Express didn’t clash at any stop.
July 11th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
David Your Idea is seconded as I use a combination of operators to get to/from work.
I hope that Swords Express and the other operators will link up in the future.
Also - it would be great if in the new routing there would be a link up to Swords Business Campus. I know that there are already employees using the Swords Express to get to Work in the morning and to the city in the evening. There are also plans for another company to move in there later in year and this is a poorly serviced (Public Transport) Business Park.
July 18th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
The route brings us pretty close to the Swords Business Campus. The plan is to go up to balheary road.
July 20th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
I am sure there will be plenty of travellers using swords express if it starts from Swords manor, applewood etc, We are fed up to travel with some rude dublin bus drivers, suffer all morning in traffic and afternoon. It’s time for a change. I hope you get permission. You can put also extra bus in the near future if you get permision to start in swords manor, then people in holywell, airside etc can get seats as well and also enjoy a nice trip to the city going to work. We dnt want only people in swords manor, applewood to enjoy it but everybody so give it a try and see. The more people you get, the more money swords express bus get and can put additional bus and am sure you will get lots of profit. For me , i will even pay 4 euro to go to the city because i am sick to travel with dublin bus.
Good luck
Regular traveller of swords express
July 21st, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I have been checking this site on a regular basic and to my dismay have found that alot of the questions above have still not been answered by admin. can you address these?
July 22nd, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I am a bit dubious as to the avoidance of bottlenecks on the new route. At peak times a lot of the junctions you will be navigating get quite busy with the right turn onto the forest road being a prime example. I know there are junction improvemnts in progress on some of the other slow junctions at present so maybe this will improve some of the route.
I live near Swords Manor but still would prefer to make my own way down to the village for the real express service rather that spending 20-30 minutes driving around Swords before hitting the Motorway.
Perhaps a dual service would be the best idea when you are initially trying out the new route. I also feel that if you are offering this new route you would need to be able to accept buggies etc.. as a lot of your potential customers could be parents with Kids.
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I agree with David C. I’d sooner walk 20 from Swords Manor area to Penneys (as I do every day) than be stuck in a situation where I spend half the journey circumnavigating Swords for half the journey - that’s what used to annoy me about the 41X/C etc. I think of the Swords Express as being akin to a DART station in Swords, versus the more extensive but slower Dublin Bus routes.
Having said all that, good on Swords Express for listening to its customers.
August 5th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Private companys suck as yours put profit before people. How can you compete with a Bus company like DB that loses 80m a year! .. You will have to rase prices to survive. Private dosen’t work because of profit!
August 6th, 2008 at 9:48 am
We don’t put profit before people. We are in this business to provide a service. We believe we provide a pretty good service.
A lot of people make a profit out of Dublin Bus, even if Dublin Bus never makes a profit itself. There are lots of people to be paid at high salaries, lots of overheads and all the rest of it. I’m not saying there is necessarily anything wrong with that, but it is important to understand that Dublin Bus is not some sort of charity.
We have much lower costs than Dublin Bus, even without their scale.
The Dublin Bus subsidy is actually a lot larger than EUR 80m when you take into account capital investment.
Dublin Bus doesn’t make a loss. It makes a profit. The 80m extra is paid in by the government to ensure there is a profit. The subsidy doesn’t come out of nowhere. It comes out of your tax money.
I’m not saying that public transport doesn’t need to be subsidized. It does. I’m just saying that you need to get value for money and a great service for the money.
September 17th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Just wondering if there is any update on the extension of route to Applewood/Swords Manor
October 5th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Same here, is there an update on Swords Manor starting point?