
— At least 94 DublinBikes stations up and running
— 102 station target not fulfilled before the end of July
Rail commuters rushing off trains to grab the last DublinBikes bicycle may become a common sight at Heuston Station — five on-street bike share stations opened yesterday around the Dublin railway station.
According to live data on JCDecaux’s AllBikesNow app, Heuston Station and the sounding streets now has a capacity of 183 bicycles.
This includes 25 spaces at one bike station located outside the front of the train station; two stations with a joint total of 80 stands are location to the rear of Heuston, near the car park; and 78 stands are split between two stations at Parkgate Street.
The live data from the new stations only seems to be currently be shown on JCDecaux’s AllBikesNow app and the recently launched Coca Cola Zero branded DublinBikes app. The map and live data on the official website, DublinBikes.ie, currently lacks the data for the new station, as does popular third-party app, DublinBikes2Go.
UPDATE: Before 8.30am the stations at the front of Heuston and on Parkgate Street are nearly all empty:
Other recently opened stations include the most western station to-date at the Kilmaham end of Emmet Road and the most northerly station at the Mater Hospital’s North Circular Road entrance.
While the opening of the DublinBikes stations around Heuston has been long-awaited, the event passed yesterday with little apparent fanfare or little of any mention expect the following two Tweets:
Dublin bikes near Heuston nip officially open for business! #Dublincommute
— Shannon Coco (@ShannonDCoco) July 31, 2014
Dublin Bikes stations at Heuston finally opened today. Hallelujah.
— Lauren Murphy (@laurenmurphy_) July 31, 2014
A number of stations including a station on James’s Street has yet to go live:
Newest d8 Dublinbikes station now open at Grand Canal Place (Storehouse).James Street station now under construction. pic.twitter.com/4hV4LAmIBW
— The Liberties Dublin (@libertiesdublin) July 25, 2014
Other stations which are still due to be opened include: Collins Barracks Museum, Dame Court, Kilmainham Jail, Royal Hospital Kilmainham (Irish Museum of Modern Art), Hatch Street, George’s Dock, and Guild Street.
Work on the expansion, which is now nearing completion, was started back in November 2013. After the first of the new stations opened, Dublin City Council said: “Today’s opening was the first part of a €35m expansion which will see the existing dublinbikes network increase to 102 stations and 1,500 bikes by July 2014.”
In June it was announced that the bicycles would be branded Coca-Cola Zero dublinbikes after the soft drinks brand. The city council entered into a three-year commercial partnership deal with Coca-Cola, which was described to be “worth almost €2m”.
Extra advertising, besides the sponsorship logo on the bicycles, was not part of the new deal. However, advert giant JCDecaux will continue to run the system.
MORE: DublinBikes facts and figures
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Don’t forget City Bikes Ireland for Android! New stations online this morning! Download from Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.closebracket.bikedroid
Great post. Thanks.