Route runs between: Monkstown Avenue and Harristown Bus Garage.
Operated by: Harristown Bus Garage
Route Status: Cross City
Buses alloacted: Mainly 142 SG's, with a few other SG's and GT's. SG53 is a regular on this route. Euro duties are usually operated by AX's and VG's, sometimes an EV.
Main attractions/places of interest served by the route: Harristown (mainly for bus enthusiast's and plane enthusiasts although it's not the best angle for plane spotting), Ikea (although it is a bit of a walk from the bus stop), DCU, the Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin Cemetery, O'Connell Street, Trinity College, Ballsbridge, Merrion Road Shopping Centre/St. Vincent's Hospital, Booterstown Nature Reserve, Frascati Shopping Centre.
Frequency: M-F every 15 mins, Sat every 30 mins & Sun every 60 mins.
Journey time from end to end: Roughly 1 hour.
Note: This is one of the routes that the NTA requires to be dual door operated.
Route 4 was part of the Celtic Tiger routes (These were routes created during the boom/Celtic Tiger, they included the 47, 128-now the 15, 140 and 151.), it was created in 2006. It was an iconic route back when it rolled out, due to it being the home of the AW class (bendy buses), that were unfortunately withdrawn in 2009. It was created to provide extra capacity to the Ballymun Road and Merrion Road Corridor's; areas that suffer from minor capacity issues at peak times. Route 4 being created as a sweeper route essentially as-well as a capacity booster, it's frequency is significantly slashed during the weekend's to every 30 minutes on a Saturday and every 1 hour on a Sunday. Something, that baffles many bus enthusiasts to this day.
An SG on the 7 is seen in front of an SG on the 4 along the Rock Road Corridors.
The route like most of the Celtic Tiger routes is very direct, runs along mostly long straight roads and runs along mostly main road's/corridor's. Most of the route is served by either the 7/7A or 13 as mentioned above, it also connects withe the 84 in Blackrock and Deansgrange, the 17A in Ballymun and the 63 in Mokstown Farm, as-well as a bunch of routes in the City Centre. The route does also have some stops that are served exclusively by it, scattered around the route. The route isn't particularly fascinating with it not offering very much now that the AW's are no longer in service. The route is fairly busy throughout the day, and does tend to get quite full. On the southern end the route runs almost parellel to the Dart Line until Mokstown Road where it branches off to Deansgrange, before going through Monkstown to the Monkstown Avenue terminus. Neither of the 4's termini's are very scenic either, the southern end being Monstown Avenue, where the route terminates along the bus lane after a round about. Monkstown Dart Station isn't very close with it being a 10-15 minute walk.The 46A and 75 stops are about a 5-10 minute walk as-well, Dún Laoghaire is also quite close to the terminus, no more than a 15 minute walk. Something of note is that while most of the southern route is fairly straightforward and nothing spectacular, there is a long stretch form Stradbrook Road to Frascati Shopping Centre, where the bus has the opportunity to pick up a fair bit of speed.
A Harristown SG passing Monkstown farm.
A Harristown SG at the Monstown Avenue terminus of route 4.
Route 4, has been Harristown's first choice for conversion to new buses, being home to the AW's (although not really new when the route was launched.), then being converted to EV and VG operation, upon the arrival of the GT class it was allocated GT's and upon the arrival of the SG's it was allocated them. The route is also one of 4 Harristown routes that terminates in Harristown Garage. Harristown is only served, because Harristown Bus garage is there, and also that is where driver changeovers happen. Most of Harristown's changeover's happen in the garage. Otherwise there isn't really anything else at the Harristown terminus, one of the ariport car parks is there and beyond that is the Airport Runway and Airport itself, planes can be seen taking off and landing from Harristown. Overall route 4 is a very practical and popular route, but not one that has anything special to offer for bus enthusiast, there are a bunch of euro duties in the morning and evening peaks Monday to Fridays, however AV's usually aren't allocated to the 4 euro duties, however AX's, EV's, VG's and GT's or SG's are allocated to the euro duties.
Interesting fact about the route: There is a euro duty in the morning usually done by VG16 which does a 33X to St. Stephens Green then does an OOS (Out of Serivce) to Monkstown Avenue before doing a return 4 from there.
Harristown's EV64 is seen operating on an evening euro duty on route 4 on the 26/3/2018.
Harristown's SG273 is seen operating on route 4 at O'Connell Street on the 5/4/2018.
Note: This is one of the routes that the NTA requires to be dual door operated.
Route 4 was part of the Celtic Tiger routes (These were routes created during the boom/Celtic Tiger, they included the 47, 128-now the 15, 140 and 151.), it was created in 2006. It was an iconic route back when it rolled out, due to it being the home of the AW class (bendy buses), that were unfortunately withdrawn in 2009. It was created to provide extra capacity to the Ballymun Road and Merrion Road Corridor's; areas that suffer from minor capacity issues at peak times. Route 4 being created as a sweeper route essentially as-well as a capacity booster, it's frequency is significantly slashed during the weekend's to every 30 minutes on a Saturday and every 1 hour on a Sunday. Something, that baffles many bus enthusiasts to this day.
The route like most of the Celtic Tiger routes is very direct, runs along mostly long straight roads and runs along mostly main road's/corridor's. Most of the route is served by either the 7/7A or 13 as mentioned above, it also connects withe the 84 in Blackrock and Deansgrange, the 17A in Ballymun and the 63 in Mokstown Farm, as-well as a bunch of routes in the City Centre. The route does also have some stops that are served exclusively by it, scattered around the route. The route isn't particularly fascinating with it not offering very much now that the AW's are no longer in service. The route is fairly busy throughout the day, and does tend to get quite full. On the southern end the route runs almost parellel to the Dart Line until Mokstown Road where it branches off to Deansgrange, before going through Monkstown to the Monkstown Avenue terminus. Neither of the 4's termini's are very scenic either, the southern end being Monstown Avenue, where the route terminates along the bus lane after a round about. Monkstown Dart Station isn't very close with it being a 10-15 minute walk.The 46A and 75 stops are about a 5-10 minute walk as-well, Dún Laoghaire is also quite close to the terminus, no more than a 15 minute walk. Something of note is that while most of the southern route is fairly straightforward and nothing spectacular, there is a long stretch form Stradbrook Road to Frascati Shopping Centre, where the bus has the opportunity to pick up a fair bit of speed.
Route 4, has been Harristown's first choice for conversion to new buses, being home to the AW's (although not really new when the route was launched.), then being converted to EV and VG operation, upon the arrival of the GT class it was allocated GT's and upon the arrival of the SG's it was allocated them. The route is also one of 4 Harristown routes that terminates in Harristown Garage. Harristown is only served, because Harristown Bus garage is there, and also that is where driver changeovers happen. Most of Harristown's changeover's happen in the garage. Otherwise there isn't really anything else at the Harristown terminus, one of the ariport car parks is there and beyond that is the Airport Runway and Airport itself, planes can be seen taking off and landing from Harristown. Overall route 4 is a very practical and popular route, but not one that has anything special to offer for bus enthusiast, there are a bunch of euro duties in the morning and evening peaks Monday to Fridays, however AV's usually aren't allocated to the 4 euro duties, however AX's, EV's, VG's and GT's or SG's are allocated to the euro duties.
Interesting fact about the route: There is a euro duty in the morning usually done by VG16 which does a 33X to St. Stephens Green then does an OOS (Out of Serivce) to Monkstown Avenue before doing a return 4 from there.
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