Novelist Denyse Woods reckons she spent “at least a third” of her six years in Dublin waiting for the 46A.
An exaggeration surely, but it does reflect how thousands, if not many hundreds of thousands, of former passengers feel about Dublin’s most famous bus route.
Commemorated in book, in song and on screen, the 46A ceases on Saturday after 99 years in service.
The route was such a part of Ms Woods’ life that, when she got married 40 years ago, she wanted the 46A to be there too.
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“Call me sentimental. Everyone told me I was mad, that there was no way, that it would cost a fortune, etc, but I’m not easily discouraged. I wrote to CIÉ, Dublin Bus as was, where my letter landed on the desk of a lovely man, who, to my astonishment, made sure I got my bus. It made my day,” she said.
“When I came out of the church, the 46A was waiting for me, for a change. Our guests loved it.”
Ms Woods said the initial posting of her story on her social media accounts last November drew a huge outpouring of nostalgia. “I never imagined it would get so much attention” she said.
Such nostalgia has swept rapidly across social media since the National Transport Authority confirmed that, from Sunday, January 26th, a new service would replace the 46A.
Much of the nostalgia recalls how the 46A featured in the May 1980 hit Summer in Dublin by Bagatelle.
The late frontman Liam Reilly wrote: “When my hummin’ was smothered by a 46A and the scream of a low flying jet / So I jumped on a bus to Dún Laoghaire, stoppin’ off to pick up my guitar / And a drunk on the bus told me how to get rich / I was glad we weren’t goin’ too far.”
Not all the recollections were entirely affectionate.
In 1982, broadcaster Mike Murphy created a segment on his television show The Live Mike called : Rarely Seen, Hard To Catch, The 46A. Murphy was seen emerging from the bushes near Belfield dressed as an explorer, complete with binoculars, a butterfly net and short pants.
“We’ve waited several days in the icy cold of this island sanctuary hoping to catch a glimpse of the species many people believe is now extinct. The famous 46A,” he said. Later in the clip a 46A was shown gliding past a queue of people waiting at a bus stop.
As one of the most prominent routes on the network, the 46A got to ‘test’ all the new buses and it featured in the book Dublin’s Buses, written by Cyril Mac an tSaoir and the late Paddy Flanagan, published in 1968.
Nostalgia has also featured strongly among the 10,000-member My Dún Laoghaire Memories page on Facebook, which is the work of bus enthusiast David O’Connor and Dublin bus driver Tony Murray.
[ Goodbye to the 46A: End of legendary Dublin bus route made famous in song ]
Online commentary in recent days has ranged from humour – “Where will drunk on the bus go to tell people how to get rich?” – to the perplexing: “Cancel woke culture, it’s an iconic bus route and number, being changed for no reason”.
Another said “the 46A seems to have existed always more in people’s minds than reality”.
There may be something in that last comment.
The route which started in 1926 as a single decker service, from the city centre to Dún Laoghaire via Cabinteely, changed many times over the years. The terminus of the 46A was switched from Dún Laoghaire to the Goatstown Road in 1932, switched again to Mount Merrion in 1935, and returned to Dún Laoghaire in 1936.
Over the years, the Dún Laoghaire terminus changed from Marine Road to Crofton Road in 1966; Phibsboro became the city-centre terminus in 2010; and the current terminus is the Phoenix Park. The 46A served Ballsbridge for many years. It went down Grafton Street in 1946 and dropped Monkstown Farm and Stillorgan village from its route in 2010.
But it was always the 46A. Aficionados would say changes were simply the route knitting itself into the fabric of suburban Dublin.
Indeed, from Sunday the most significant operational change will be a move to 24-hour bus services, a feature welcomed by almost everybody.
The route will be served by the new E-spine as part of Phase 6a of the National Transport Authority’s Bus Connects redesign of the network.
The E spine consists of E1 which runs from Northwood, near Santry, via DCU and the city centre to Bray. The E2 will run from Harristown via DCU and the city centre to Dún Laoghaire.
There will be two express X routes as part of Phase 6a. X1 will run between Kilcoole and the city centre, while X2 will run between Newcastle and the city centre via Brides Glen.
A range of local, short routes called L1, L2, L3, L12, L14, L15, L26, L27 will be put in place, starting Sunday, around South Dublin and north Wicklow.
Criticism tends to relate to the low frequency of the E2 buses in the early hours of the morning, about one per hour between 1am and 5am. This will improve when the coastal route B spine is introduced in the middle of next year.
While some commentators have accepted the largest change to the Dún Laoghaire services is the dropping of the name 46A, some have put forward the names of E1 for the Bray route and 46A for the Dún Laoghaire route as a compromise.
[ When the 46A ends in two weeks I will say goodbye to those first feelings of freedom and adulthood ]
However, the NTA has ruled this out, saying: “In the interests of simplification, we think it’s important that the naming convention for the various types of services, in this case the spines, is consistent across the network”. The new network is made up of different types of bus routes, including spines, orbitals, locals and radials.
In any case, the NTA continued, “while the E2 is similar to the 46A, it’s not the same. For instance, the 46A does not serve Glasnevin, DCU, Ballymun or IKEA while the E2 will be doing that”.
Maybe, however, the many ghosts on the 46A got a little chuckle last week. Dublin Bus had hoped to get Ms Wood, Bagatelle, former staff and the media to a special farewell ceremony for the 46A in Dublin on Friday, one day before the formal end to the route. Two buses were to travel from O’Connell Street to UCD and back.
Faced with a severe weather warning for Friday, Dublin Bus said it had no choice but to cancel the events. It was not the first time the 46A was cancelled due to adverse weather.
