The return of Route 4 ... but not as we knew it!
Over the last few years, we have seen revivals of Dublin bus route numbers which had previously been discontinued as a result of route mergers and consolidation. However as Dublin continues to change and grow, numbers such as 8, 41A and 78, to name a few, have been resurrected to broadly cover their old respective stomping grounds.
On Sunday 12th March 2006, it was the turn of Route 4, two decades after its withdrawal, to make a re-appearance. The original service then covered a lot of similar ground to the 10, running between Annamoe Road in Cabra (via Phibsboro, O'Connell Street and Baggot Street) and Shelbourne Road in Ballsbridge.
The new cross-city Route 4 is more comprehensive. The service operates between Ballymun (Santry Avenue junction) on the northside and Merrion (Saint Vincent's Hospital) on the southside, taking in Dublin City University, Phibsboro, O'Connell Street, Trinity College, Holles Street Hospital, Morehampton Road and the RDS. This will help significantly to accomodate the ever-busy passenger traffic on the 7s, 10s, 13s, 19s, and 45 - and not only because of the routing; the service mostly uses the high capacity AW-class bus.
The first journey from Ballymun was at 1000, being covered by AW6 (above).
The first bus from St. Vincent's was operated by AW2 at 1035. Unfortunately, Route 4 had not yet been programmed into the destination display, so there was not much the driver could do!
AW6 made it to Saint Vincent's for the 1100 return, terminating at the last stop on Nutley Lane after turning around further up the road at Belfield. At the time of introduction it was expected that buses would actually terminate in the hospital grounds themselves, but ongoing reviews of Route 4 may see a more long-term change to that original plan.
Other pictures and features on this event are also available on the following websites:
DublinBus.cc
Irish Buses .com
Photo Bus Dublin
Transport In Ireland
March 2006