GAC Ireland

During the 1970s, CIÉ's long-standing relationship with Leyland became strained, and in 1977 the company decided upon a standard "family" for its next generation of buses and coaches. It thus contacted FFG (Fahrzeugwerkstätten Falkenried GmbH) of Hamburg, Germany, which built six prototype vehicles: a 45-seat coach, a 72-seat double-deck bus, a 35-seat citybus, two 47-seat rural/school buses and a wheelchair-accessible midibus. Furthermore, the Dublin-based Van Hool McArdle bus manufacturing joint venture ceased operations in 1978 (it had taken over the bus manufacturing operations of CIÉ several years earlier), leaving the Irish Government keen to re-establish bus manufacturing in Ireland.

Aside from the midibus, all of these vehicles shared common body components, the most notable being large, inward-curving two-piece windscreens. The coach, double-decker and citybus were all fitted with General Motors Detroit Diesel engines, while the rural/school buses were fitted with DAF and Daimler-Benz engines respectively.

The midibus, built in 1981 as a token response to the International Year of Disabled Persons, also carried a Daimler-Benz engine, and featured a sliding door at the front, immediately to the driver's left. Unlike the other models, it did not go into production, and saw very little use.

CIÉ looked for partners to build these buses in Ireland, eventually finding two: the Canadian conglomerate Bombardier, and the United States-based General Automotive Corporation (GAC) from Ann Arbor, Michigan. The two companies formed a new company Bombardier Ireland Limited, 51% owned by Bombardier and 49% owned by GAC. In August 1983, Bombardier sold its shares to GAC, with the company renamed GAC Ireland Limited.

The former Rippon piano factory in the new town of Shannon, County Clare was leased, and production commenced in 1980, with 51 of the KE type InterCity/tour buses, with some KD double deck production taking place around the same time.

The idea behind the Bombardier/GAC project was inspired by a number of factors:

CIÉ's requirement for new buses as a matter of urgency, and their preference not to purchase any more Leyland products

To address a serious unemployment issue in the local area caused as a result of the Rippon piano factory's closure. There is no doubt that local and national political influences had their part to play in this project as Ireland was in a deep recession at the time, although the Shannon project was doomed to failure in later years.

Production

Bombardier began production of 'KD-class' double deckers for CIÉ under the build code 'DD' to their standard specification in 1981. These buses featured the Detroit/Allison/Rockwell driveline and were built as 72 seaters (45 upper saloon / 27 lower saloon) with dual door bodies. Bombardier built 364 double deckers to CIÉ's own specifications between 1980 and 1983, 363 of which were powered by Detroit Diesels and one solitary Cummins L10 powered (CIÉ KD 146) bus. Bombardier built two prototypes with the Rolls-Royce Eagle engine, one in 1981 (reg. no. 20 JZL) as a prototype for the UITP conference which was hosted in Dublin that year and another in 1982 as a hope for securing export orders for the Baghdad Transport Authority. 20 JZL became KD191 (191 JZL) in the CIÉ fleet in 1982 and no further export orders were made.

In service

CIÉ took the prototype bus built by FFG into its fleet as well as 365 of the 366 double decker buses built by Bombardier. The first production bus entered service in late May 1981. KD 2 entered service the day before the prototype FFG built KD 1 from Donnybrook Garage on route 8 (Dublin City Centre – Dalkey). Production began to flow during the summer of 1981 and by August the KDs were entering service in force across the city.

All of the CIÉ KD fleet was in service by September 1983. Most were to be found operating in Dublin but the cities of Cork, Limerick and Galway saw regular KD operation. During the summer months for a number of years Waterford borrowed a KD from Limerick for the Tramore service. When CIÉ was broken up into operating companies in February 1987, of the 364 KDs still in operation (KD 317 was destroyed by fire in Donabate in late 1983), 338 went to Dublin Bus, the remainder to Bus Éireann.

The first withdrawals of the KDs came in 1995 when KD35 was withdrawn from Ringsend garage. Between 1995 and December 2000 the entire Dublin Bus KD fleet was withdrawn, with KD 284 the last withdrawn on 15 December 2000. The training school vehicles ran a little longer with KD 70 being the last to be withdrawn in early February 2001. The bulk of the Bus Éireann KD fleet was withdrawn during 1997 with one KD (KD 184) soldiering on in Cork until May 1999 when a gearbox failure saw its demise.