Northern bus hits Cork City streets

A bus registered in the North has been given special permission for street trials in Cork.

Bus Éireann confirmed last night that the single-deck Streetlite model, designed and built by Wrightbus in Ballymena, is on temporary loan to the company and is being used on selected Cork City routes to gain feedback from drivers, passengers, and the company’s maintenance engineers.

“The vehicle has been granted an exemption by the Revenue Commissioners allowing it to operate with the existing registration,” a spokeswoman said.

Thanks to @David_OSullivan for the pic. Anyone know why there's a UK-reg @buseireanndeals bus around town? pic.twitter.com/l0CiLBbnH1

— PJ Coogan (@pjcoogan) August 7, 2014

Questions about the Northern Ireland-registered bus were first raised by Cork bus users via social media yesterday. There was some speculation that Bus Éireann had bought a second-hand vehicle from the north, or that bus had been imported from England.

However, the spokes-woman moved quickly to clarify the situation.

The 11m-long vehicle has capacity for 70 passengers — 41 seated and 29 standing. It is the only one of its kind currently operating in the Bus Éireann fleet.

It is currently operating on one of the city’s busiest bus routes — the 214 which serves Cork University Hospital, St Patrick’s St, Wilton Shopping Centre, and Togher.

The spokeswoman said it was too early to say whether the company will buy this kind of bus for its fleet.

“This depends on whether Bus Éireann have a future requirement for single deck midi/citybuses and whether Wrights elect to submit the Streetlite in any such vehicle procurement tenders in the future, and if they are successful or not.”

However, she said any buses acquired by Bus Éireann do lead to route and service enhancements.