UCD Belfield Buses | August 2025

A video showing buses at University College Dublin (south Dublin), recorded in August 2025.

The campus for University College Dublin (UCD) is located at Belfield, on the southside of Dublin city. It is surrounded by Donnybrook [   • Donnybrook Buses | September 2024  ] to the north, Booterstown to the east, Mount Merrion to the south, and Clonskeagh to the west. Being the largest university in Ireland, it is the focal point for many bus routes, both of the city and regional variety.

Since the last visit in June 2024 [   • UCD Belfield Buses | June 2023  ], Bus Connects has swept through the campus. Orbital routes 17 and 175 were replaced in November 2024 with new orbital routes S4 and S6. The S6 follows the traditional routing of the 17 through Belfield, using the Stillorgan Road and Owenstown Park to enter and exit the campus. The S4 brought a new routing through the campus for a bus service. It starts at the bus park, and uses the road that goes through the campus (going behind the Arts Block and coming out by the Sports Centre) to come out on the Clonskeagh Road. The route also serves a number of bus stops along this routing through the campus. These two routes are operated by Go-Ahead Ireland, and are two of the regular bus services to serve the campus. The third is route 39A, which is operated by Dublin Bus, and provides a connection to the city centre (and Blanchardstown).

Apart from these regular bus services, this video was recorded on a Friday evening, so it also captures a number of the peak-only routes. UCD serves as the terminus for a number of limited-stop routes around the city, as well as more long distance, regional routes. The city routes include those introduced during Phase 2 of Bus Connects in November 2021, serving parts of West Dublin like Lucan and Adamstown, as well as Celbridge and Maynooth. There are also more older routes, such as those to Swords and Portmarnock. Interestingly, route 142 which serves the latter, starts from near the UCD Village complex and not the bus park like the rest of the routes. The more long-distance peak-hour routes that start in Belfield are operated by Bus Eireann, Go-Ahead Ireland. McConnon's and Matthews.

On the day of recording, three ALX400s from different operators make an appearance. One is from Dublin Bus, and the other two are ex-Dublin Bus. Go-Ahead Ireland unusually had one of theirs out on the S4. They usually use them on school routes during term-time. Another ALX400 was operating a shuttle to the Horse Show at the RDS. There was also a relatively large contingent of VG Class buses from Dublin Bus on the peak-hour routes.

All in all, there was quite a bit of variety on show during the two hours in Belfield.

Dublin Bus Routes and Buses Featured:
Route 39A: UCD Belfield - Ongar
Route 41X: UCD Belfield - Knocksedan
Route 41X: UCD Belfield - Swords Manor
Route 142: UCD Belfield - Portmarnock (Strand Road)

Route X25: UCD Belfield - Maynooth
Route X27: UCD Belfield - Salesian College (Celbridge)
Route X28: UCD Belfield - Salesian College (Celbridge)
Route X30: UCD Belfield - Adamstown Station
Route X31: UCD Belfield - River Forest
Route X32: UCD Belfield - Kildare Innovation Campus (Leixlip)

ALX 400 / AX Class: AX 589
Enviro 400 / EV Class: EV 65
Wrights Electroliner / EW Class: EW 57, EW 74, EW 75
Wrights Gemini / GT Class: GT 69, GT 141
Enviro 400ER / PA Class: PA 157, PA 159
Wrights Gemini 3 / SG Class: SG 92, SG 137, SG 174, SG 293, SG 334
Wrights Gemini / VG Class: VG 4, VG 5, VG 7, VG 13, VG 18, VG 21, VG 24
Enviro 500 / VT Class: VT 36, VT 42

Go-Ahead Ireland Routes and Buses Featured:
Route S4: UCD Belfield - Liffey Valley Shopping Centre
Route S6: Blackrock - The Square (Tallaght)

Route 125: UCD Belfield - Naas

Wrights Gemini 3 / 11500 Class: 11513, 11538, 11541, 11546, 11553, 11563, 11575, 11583, 11589
Wrights Gemini 3 / 11600 Class: 11601, 11609, 11614, 11617, 11622, 11629
ALX 400 / 11700 Class: 11705
Wrights Gemini / 11900 Class: 11901, 11910
Volvo Sunsudegui / 32400 Class: 32423

Other Operator Routes and Buses Featured:
Route 103X: UCD Belfield - Duleek / Bus Eireann / LF 324
Route 103X: UCD Belfield - Navan / Bus Eireann / SC 303
Route 115: UCD Belfield - Mullingar / Corduff Travel / 191 KY 995 (Bus Eireann Hire-in)
Route 180: UCD Belfield - Clones / McConnon’s Buses / 161 KE 4339
Route 901: UCD Belfield - Dundalk / Matthews / 131 MN 1906
Route 910: UCD Belfield - Grange Rath / Matthews / 181 MN 662

Dublin Horse Show Shuttle / Murray & Son Coaches / 06 D 30580 (AX 580)

#DublinBus #GoAheadIreland #ALX400