Alot of stories doing the rounds at the minute.  I had lunch in the Cliffs of Moher last week with 2 CIE Tours Drivers (with many years service there) who told me that Tours were getting no new buses next year due to the effects of the McCarthy & Mazars reports.  They said that a lot of the work next year was going to private coaches with the CIE drivers taking on the role of guides.  They said a lot of private operators were being asked at the minute to tender for extra Tours work for 2012 - I know one guy I do a lot of work for has, indeed, submitted such a tender.

Also one of my best mates is a regular driver on the 32/33 routes and he is adamant he has been told a large proportion of the new coaches are for those routes.  This fits in with the rumours we have heard to date.

To be honest CIE tours has a need for new coaches but they certainly don't need triaxles.  Whether a state company should get subsidised coaches to compete with private companies in the international tours market is a whole other thread!  Patronage is down on CIE tours at present running with average loadings of 25-35 so neither weight nor capacity poses them an issue.  It would be a huge travesty if high capacity tri axle coaches were allocated to this work instead of being deployed on the expressway network.

I suppose it would be as simple as this - we'll know when they arrive!  There's so many rumours, truths and untruths going around at the minute that we can only look at facts.  The only fact we knwo at presnet is that coaches are on order.  Until we see the coaches in the flesh or something official regarding their allocation it's anyones guess!!