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Dublin Bus Olympians

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During the late 1980s Dublin Bus began to consider replacement of their ageing fleet of Leyland Atlanteans, and so two double deckers were loaned to the company for assessment on various routes. These were registered F181 YDA, an MCW Metrobus (in full green livery) and allover white F817 URN which was a Leyland bodied Olympian. In spite of the greater attention to detail on the part of MCW, and the fact that they had already supplied 15 Metrorider midibuses to Dublin, the order went to Leyland and Alexanders. These were to be the first double deckers to be produced in the Belfast factory since 1975, and the first Olympians in Ireland.

The two demonstrators returned to the UK, with the MCW joining the fleet of Stevensons of Uttoxeter, while the Olympian went on trial to the Isle of Man, prior to their first order for Olympians as well. It was later bought by Solent Blue Line in Southampton, where it has given many years of faithful service to Hampshire commuters.

These two buses were loaned on trial to Dublin Bus in 1988/89 prior to the decision to buy a large fleet of Olympians from 1990 onwards. The green MCW Metrobus was on route 46A at College Green in September 1988, while the white Olympian was seen on route 54 at Burgh Quay. Following the end of the test period, both buses returned to the UK and were sold off to other operators. This Olympian was also tried by Isle of Man Transport, where it ran as 88 (BMN 88G), an identity later given to one of their first order of such buses.

The above picture was taken by Colin Parker in Ringwood, which is a market town between Southampton and Bournemouth, in September 1998. This is the white bus seen above with its present owner, Solent Blue Line, in their distinctive blue and yellow livery. This company is owned by Southern Vectis (Isle of Wight) and competes with Southampton Citybus.

The first two buses into service, RH1 and RH2 took up duty in Phibsboro garage from March 1990, initially working on route 10 and the standard Dublin Bus livery of two tone green with an orange stripe was applied. The first batch of buses comprised eighteen, with a second order of 45 quickly following, the last few of which entered service in early 1991. As their numbers increased, the Atlantean fleet was reducing, but some of the latter became driver trainers or were converted to opentop sightseeing buses. Buses RH19 – 30 entered service as 72 seaters, having two downstairs seats replaced by luggage racks for use on routes serving Dublin Airport. Subsequently RH140 – 42 arrived also so fitted, and remained as such for several years.

RH175, new in December 1993, marked the end of new Leyland buses on the streets of Dublin. The 1994 delivery was badged as Volvo, although still retaining the Cummins engine, hence a change of classification to RA was made. Externally the RA was recognisable from the square headlights and repositioned indicators. By April 1995, the Atlantean fleet was virtually all gone, and withdrawals of the KD class Bombardiers commenced around the same time. At this point there were 215 Olympians in service, all in green except for those in wedding livery or allover adverts. Curiously, the KDs, when new, had replaced the last of the RA class Leyland PD3s, and now RA class Olympians were replacing the KDs.......

RA216 was the first Olympian to be delivered in the City Swift livery, previously only used on single deck buses in the fleet. Lazzerini bucket type seats were fitted in both saloons, and the batch comprised just twelve buses, co-incidentally it was the twelfth group of Dublin Bus Olympians. Further batches of RAs continued to arrive, and by the end of 1996 up to RA325 were all in service. This bus ended the 18th Olympian order in Mallusk, with the next three batches going to operators in the UK. The 22nd series of buses (i.e. with body numbers prefixed D22) which comprised just five vehicles was an important development in the story. The classification was changed again, to RV, which signified the fitting of a Volvo engine, and these and all subsequent orders had the Volvo badge and bar on the front grille.

RV326 and 327 were delivered in green, 328 and 329 in Wedding hire livery, and 330 in green and cream city tours colours. The buses numbered from RV331 – 385 were painted in City Swift colours, and soon Dublin Bus decided to replace the green livery. After some trials, a livery of mid blue skirt, orange stripe and the rest of the bus in cream was chosen. This then meant that RV326/27 were both the first, and last, RVs to wear two tone green. RV386 onwards were turned out in the new blue, cream and orange colours.

As older Olympians became due for repaints, they received either blue and cream or City Swift branding. As the years passed the distinction between City Swift and standard livery became increasingly blurred, with CS buses appearing on non City Swift routes, and vice versa. Some buses were further branded with route specific identities, such as Stillorgan Flyer, Fingal Flyer, Malahide Road Flyer etc. Even this didn’t prevent buses straying, and I once saw a Malahide Road Flyer City Swift working on route 123 in the Crumlin area....

During 1999 the topic of Atlantean replacement once again surfaced, this time of the remaining few AN68 opentoppers. The KD training buses were also up for withdrawal, so once more these were to be replaced by Olympians. Six of the 1990 batch lost their roofs and a further 18 RH class became driver trainers. In 2001 a further ten tour conversions were planned, using RA216 – 19 and 246 – 51, then just six years old. However, fire damage to the upper deck of 1996 bus RA260 led to it being chosen instead of RA248, and the latter returned to normal service.

The last Olympian to enter service anywhere was RV630 in October 2000, although not the last to be produced. Dublin Bus’s highest chassis number is that of RV640, and just nine more were produced after that bus, seven for Yorkshire Coastliner followed by one each for Dublin independents Morton and Dualway. Thus ended around 20 years production of the last Leyland decker, which started out as a Bristol and ended as a Volvo!!!

Normal withdrawals of the 1990 batch commenced in 2002, under a 12 year replacement policy. Of the 59 buses registered in that year, Dublin Bus retained sixteen of them, with the rest passing to Ensignbus for resale. Eight of them were acquired by Dualway of Rathcoole, five went to the Isle of Man, and others went to Ipswich Buses, Chambers of Bures, Fourway Coaches in Essex, Barton of Maynooth, Morton of Rathfarnham, Malahide Coaches and Bruen of Coolock.

A small number of the 1991 series were passed to Ensignbus in 2003, but then fleet renewal turned to replacing the older single deckers and midibuses. A new livery of yellow and two shades of blue was chosen in early 2004 to replace both the City Swift and blue and cream, and apart from the RV and RA variants, several of the RHs were also scheduled to be repainted. Once the single deckers had been removed from the fleet, withdrawals of the RA variant began, and again these have been re-appearing with U.K. operators, and with Dualway's sightseeing fleet in Dublin.

Online photos relating to some of the vehicles on this page can be viewed by clicking on the underlined fleet/registration numbers (or on the driver trainer/opentopper text) for Dublin Bus views, or on an operator name (for sold buses), in the fleetlists below. The ultimate aim would be to link to a photo of EVERY bus listed on this page (either with Dublin Bus or a subsequent owner,or even both!!!). If your website has one or more photos of these vehicles, please email me and I'll include the link. Photos by e-mail for adding to our own Fotopic collection are also welcome. Note that ALL photos which are linked from this page are strictly copyright; please respect this.

The following lists detail the various batches of Dublin Bus Olympians, but there are some gaps in the information to hand. Any updates or corrections would be welcome.

1990

RH3 was the first Olympian to receive Dublin Bus wedding hire livery, and is seen here in the Phoenix Park leading a line-up of green buses at a Dublin Bay rally. The first five RHs were initially used on route 10.........

... while in 1999 RH3 became the first Olympian to lose its roof and receive Dublin Bus tours livery. Behind it is one of the Volvo bendi buses, which succeeded the deckers on route 10. Photo by Kevin Horgan.

A feature of the Drogheda St. Patrick's Day parade was the inclusion of a Dublin Bus Coca-Cola bus. RH45 took over the lead role from KD353 and made a number of appearances. Here it's seen in 1997 passing the Bus Eireann bus station at the start of the parade.

1991

RH63 was originally a Clontarf bus and spent much of its career there. It was later moved to Conyngham Road garage for use on west Dublin routes, such as the 25A to Lucan. Photo by Kevin Horgan.

Rear view of a wedding bus, Conyngham Road's RH82 seen in Middle Abbey Street at the tail end of a line up of KD class Bombardiers.

RH114 seen working on route 70, under a very threatening sky, at the Blanchardstown shopping centre. Route 70 (to Dunboyne) is the only Dublin Bus daytime service into County Meath (night bus 88N was added later to serve Ashbourne).

RH120 from the fifth order (RH109 - 123) was used to promote bus commuter tickets. Thus painted, it attended the ITT Bangor rally in 1992 along with D840 and D376. The yellow bus is an ex Citybus Daimler Fleetline playbus, also bodied by Alexanders in Mallusk.

1992

RH134 was one of ten green Olympians to receive this half-and-half livery of green and allover advert. The advert for 98FM radio covered the rear and offside and the other nine were RH42/43/44/63/66/83/98, 124/25.

1993

1994

RA176 seen while in mid-build. The bus has been painted and received DB logos, but had yet to be glazed or fitted out internally. This was numerically the first of the RA class Olympians, and the vehicle's identity was ascertained from written details on the white board covering the radiator.

1995

RA216 seen while taking part in a Dublin Bay Rally at Ardgillan House near Skerries. This was the first double decker Cityswift, and the first Olympian to have been delivered in a fleet livery other than two tone green.

1996

1997

Buses from 326 onwards were classified as RV, and could be identified by the Volvo badge and bar across the front grille. RV326 was new in 1997 and attended the ITT rally in that year, with a destination display for route 220. It was one of the last two new green double deckers to enter service in Dublin.

RV350 took part in the Dublin Bay rally in 1997, and in this view is seen at a stop on the coast road between Balbriggan and Skerries, in company with RV340 and a nicely preserved ERF truck.

RV379 and many of its sisters were allocated to work the longer routes along what was then the N1 road (i.e. Swords/ Skerries etc.). This rear view at Dublin Airport shows the elliptical effect of the application of the City Swift image on the rear panels.

1998

1999

RV460 was the first Olympian to be fitted with the electronic destination display instead of roller blinds. Subsequently most of the RV500 and 600 series were delivered with these displays as well. Photo by Kevin Horgan.

RV513 - 516 were specially painted from new for the Airport express service, complete with multi-lingual electronic destination displays. These buses, new in 1999, were the first new double deckers for this service since Leyland Titans R541 - 546 in 1953, and were introduced as a result of a competing service started by Aircoach.

And the new Dublin Bus image for the 21st century, two shades of blue and yellow, as seen on RV548. Photo by Kevin Horgan.

2000

We finish off with a few of Kevin Horgan’s photos of ex Dublin Bus Olympians sold to other Irish operators.

Passing by Trinity College is 90-D-1045 which is now owned by Barton of Maynooth, County Kildare.

Next is 90-D-1046 which has had the Dublin Bus blue replaced with red and is used on Bus Eireann contract work by Malahide Coaches.

Seen at Stephens Green on March 9th 2003 are two of the opentop conversions. Former City Swift bus RA218 is overtaking sold RH59 now owned by Dualway Coaches. Both companies compete on the sightseeing tour, and the Dualway buses were acquired via Ensignbus.

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