Dublin Bus adds extra services due to Dart closures this weekend

Dublin Bus will operate additional services in the city centre this weekend to accommodate increased demand due to planned disruption to Dart services.

The closure for upgrades to the Dart line from Grand Canal Dock to Bray will be in effect from Saturday to Monday, impacting southside Dart services and Dublin to Rosslare rail services.

Dublin Bus today announced it will add more services on route 7, serving the city centre to Dún Laoghaire, and the 155-service going from the city centre to Bray throughout the entire bank holiday weekend.

The Dart closure coincides with Leinster’s European Cup semi-final against Northampton Saints at Croke Park on Saturday.

This means many Leinster fans will have to find alternative methods of transport to the city centre to join the crowd of 82,000 fans expected to attend the game.

The line closure will result in 13 stations being closed, and Irish Rail has said that postponing the works is not possible as they are necessary for essential maintenance.

It added that the closure was organised last December, before the Leinster game was scheduled.

Dublin Bus and Go Ahead will accept rail tickets and provide extra capacity. For Dublin Connolly to Rosslare Europort customers, bus transfers will operate between Connolly and Bray in both directions.

Irish Rail said the May bank holiday weekend was chosen for the works as there were no major events scheduled at that time. However, events such as concerts and sports fixtures will be considered for future planning.

They added that cancelling the works for the Leinster rugby semi-final would have incurred “significant costs” and “affected critical project timelines”, particularly for the Train Protection System project.

Additional capacity will also be provided on Luas services for rugby fans travelling to the match. On May 5 and May 6, a revised timetable will be in place for all routes.