On an odyssey along the entire route of a bus that’s a cross-section of Dublin city and suburbs this week, many passengers don’t know the 46A’s days are numbered. And not everyone knows the 1980 Bagatelle song that made the route famous, but a surprising number do, of all age groups.
“I remember that summer in Dublin ... / I was singing a song I heard somewhere, called Rock‘n’Roll Never Forgets / 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 ...”
The bus route may be legendary, it may be handy and cover a large area, but it is not rapid: the 46A bus goes around the world for sport. A Google Maps search on Monday is telling: from Dún Laoghaire to Infirmary Road, the 46A route takes 55 minutes via Dart plus bus, while the 46A itself is the last option on the route search, taking a whopping one hour and 37 minutes. Transport for Ireland’s app does not even suggest the 46A to me for that journey.
So I jump on a bus in Dún Laoghaire, to travel the full long and winding route this week, a farewell voyage. It’s 10.30am and wet, a far cry from summer in Dublin. Several people get on at the stop near the Dart station, the bus pulls off and goes through the town, left on to York Road trundling through southside suburbs towards Deansgrange, heading for the Stillorgan Road/N11. There’s a busy throughput with people of all ages hopping on and off along the way; mostly solitary, a couple of friends, a bunch of teenage lads go upstairs.
Niamh Rush takes the 46A to college in Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology (IADT), 10 minutes away. She knows it’ll be renamed the E2, but “why don’t they keep this one, and just make it 24 hours?”
Loretto Connors says she gets the 46A “every day, twice a day”, from Leeson Street to pick up her methadone “fortunately” at the Dún Laoghaire clinic and back. She calls methadone “liquid handcuffs” saying it’s “a fancy name for being put under the thumb. But it keeps you stable.”
Luke is nostalgic. He’s always lived along the route so it’s “a staple of my life. It’s continuity”. His grandmother in Kilmacud even had photos of the 46A. He’s on his way to St Stephen’s Green. “It’s probably one of the best routes in the country. It’s regular and services a lot of areas.” He’s keen on it going 24 hours: “Bring them in, big-time. Who can afford €50 for a taxi to Dún Laoghaire?”
When the 46A becomes the new BusConnects E2, it’ll run 24 hours, a huge plus for thousands of residents in a European capital in 2024 still without 24-hour public transport. Many of the passengers are delighted about 24-hour service at last, but are dismayed it’s been delayed again, and won’t run over the Christmas period.
Koketso Metlapeng from South Africa has been in Ireland four years. She knows the 46A is going. “There’s no day I don’t use the 46A.”
Student Shraifa Mohanan gets on at Deansgrange, heading to UCD: It’s supposed to run every six to eight minutes she says but “sometimes it comes late”. A young woman getting off says she gets the 46A “every day, for the job” as a home-carer.
It’s 10.48am and we’ll turn on to the N11 soon. The bus is moving swiftly as there isn’t much traffic. It stops very frequently, a steady stream getting on and off.
That’s shocking. It’s part of living in Dublin
— Jennifer Nelson learns of the demise of the route
Upstairs Sue Norton moves into the window seat to make space. She’s travelling from Kill Avenue and works at Technological University Dublin. She often gets the 46A all the way to Grangegorman campus; with drivers changing in Donnybrook, and various pauses along the way, it can take an hour and 45 minutes. “It’s a bus, not a magic carpet,” she says, laughing. She wanted information on the changes and emailed both Dublin Bus and BusConnects, but is still none the wiser. I tell her what I know (multiple times today I’m an unofficial information service) and she’s relieved the route changes are slight. “A rose by any other name. And that’s marvellous, 24 hours.”
There’s a bit of traffic. It’s 11.05am. We’re passing UCD. A few people are chatting, others wearing earphones. The bus is clean, but someone scattered the constituents of a salami sandwich on an upstairs seat.
Down the back on the upper deck, Jennifer Nelson didn’t know the 46A was going. “That’s shocking. It’s part of living in Dublin.” She got it for years, to school in Muckross in Donnybrook, then to Trinity. She’s delighted its replacement will run 24 hours. She laughs about how it stops for ages sometimes in Donnybrook to change drivers. “Could be two minutes or half an hour. It’s always been this way.” Today there’s no driver change.
Tim O’Hanrahan, a retired doctor from Sligo visiting his daughter near Mount Merrion, regularly gets the 46A. He’s going to the Mater hospital for monthly oncology treatment, which is going very well. “It’s convenient; a great service for me”, and only takes half an hour. He knows Summer in Dublin, laughing as he quotes “a drunk on the bus told me how to get rich. I was glad we weren’t goin’ too far”.
Another passenger has been worried about the 46A ending, as changing buses would be too much hassle going to work. News that it’s basically a name change “may delay my early retirement”, she says, laughing.
Downstairs, on Leeson Street, Mairéad O’Flaherty is getting ready to get off. She’s on her way home to Inis Mór after visiting her daughter. “Of all the buses in Dublin this is one I’m aware of, probably because of the song.”
Past Stephen’s Green, at 11.25am the bus turns on to Dawson Street. Outside it’s raining, the street a sea of umbrellas. The thud-thud of bus windscreen wipers punctures the quiet inside. Past Trinity, over O’Connell Bridge, passing the GPO, Henry Street, the Gresham Hotel. As they get off, many call out to the driver: “Thank you!” Later he tells me he can’t hear that well because of the protective side-screen, but through the mirror he sees when people say thanks getting off. “It’s nice.”
Thais Perez from Brazil gets on at O’Connell Street, heading to Dublin 7. In Ireland two-plus years, she works as a carer and lots of her clients got 46A all their lives, she says.
It’s 11.39am; traffic eases. Up Mountjoy Street, past the Mater, left on to the North Circular Road and through Phibsborough village. Upstairs there should be a great view of the gracious redbrick houses, but it’s impeded by ever-present bus condensation. Stopped outside Technological University Dublin at Grangegorman, drips from a tree above on to the roof make a loud echo.
This route is a cross-section of Dublin city, geographically and socially; a sort of public transport Ulysses, its mutating flavours signalled by the changing election posters of the electoral districts we pass through. The E2 bus replacing the 46A on essentially the same route is classed as a “spine”, along city corridors. Spine is a good analogy for the 46A, linking at least four third-level colleges and threading through affluent southside suburbs, Georgian Dublin, the N11 dual-carriageway, city centre, north inner city, the Victorian terraces to the Phoenix Park.
The doctor says I should be walking more anyway
— William the Northsider
Upstairs in the front seat, Lola Thew and Liam Kelly are heading to Phoenix Park for a walk in the rain. They’re a bit sad the 46A is going. He regularly gets it from Phibsborough to Heuston, going home to Kildare. For years she got the 46A from Phibsborough to UCD. “It’s a nice journey. Never too full.” Amazingly given their age, the youthful pair are familiar with the Bagatelle song. “I saw it on Insta,” says Lola.
The last few passengers get off. End of the line. It loops: along Parkgate Street and the new courts building, then back up Infirmary Road and on to the North Circular, to retrace its steps back to Dún Laoghaire.
[ Readers' letters: The mystery and romance of the 46AOpens in new window ]
The courteous young driver hasn’t heard of the song, but this route is fine, he says, when he’s stopped. He’s only four weeks on the job, and getting used to shift-work. He hadn’t driven a heavy vehicle before, nor driven in the city centre. The training was great and the tutors were very nice, he says. He notices the same passengers getting on and off the bus, sometimes the same day.
At the back, I speak to a man who says, “Call me William the Northsider”. He takes the 46A regularly to Phibsborough. My informal BusConnects info service tells him it may not do the North Circular Road in future. He shrugs. “The doctor says I should be walking more anyway.”
The new E spine: BusConnects phase to begin in 2025
The 46A route dates from the late 1920s, though there have been a few changes to the service over the years.
Currently, it begins at the Phoenix Park and ends at Dún Laoghaire, or vice versa depending on what way you’re travelling, with a promised frequency of about every 10 minutes during peak times.
Beginning on Infirmary Road, adjacent to the Phoenix Park, the 46a route travels down the North Circular Road, past St Peter’s Church in Phibsborough and the Mater hospital. It then travels down Blessington Street, past the Garden of Remembrance and the Spire on O’Connell Street, going across the river Liffey to D’Olier Street.
The route then goes down Nassau Street, Kildare Street, past St Stephen’s Green and on to Leeson Street Lower, Fitzwilliam Place and Leeson Street Upper.
It travels past the Royal Hospital in Donnybrook, through the village and past Donnybrook stadium and church, RTÉ's campus and up the Stillorgan Road, past the Radisson Hotel and St John of God Hospital. It also passes Foxrock Church, Deansgrange Cross and IADT Dún Laoghaire. The route ends on Crofton Road in Dún Laoghaire near the Dart station.
From January, the E2 will be in place. It will start at Ikea in Ballymun, travelling on to the Ballymun Road, past the DCU campus and on to Glasnevin before moving into Phibsborough and on to the city centre, through Donnybrook and up the Stillorgan Road, finishing at Dún Laoghaire.
The E1 will also travel a similar route but will begin in Northwood in Santry, move through the city centre and up the Stillorgan Road, but will then go on to Bray, finishing up at Ballywaltrim in Co Wicklow. Both the E1 and E2 will be 24-hour routes, but neither will serve the area directly surrounding the Phoenix Park or Infirmary Road.
Under the changes in the new year, the number 11 from Sandyford will be diverted at Parnell Square to run via Phibsborough and the North Circular Road to the Phoenix Park. The 4 route from Monkstown will be diverted at O’Connell Bridge to Heuston Station. The changes are part of the latest phase of the BusConnects project, a reorganisation of Dublin’s bus routes. The E routes are one of several key “spines” through city. The routes, which come under the 6a phase, were due to be rolled out in November but were postponed until after Christmas. – Sarah Burns
