Bus Éireann says enhanced 220 service is operating ahead of expectations

Bus Éireann has said new enhanced 24-hour bus service running between Ballincollig and Carrigaline is operating ahead of their expectations.

A month ago the 220 service was upgraded significantly with buses operating every 15 minutes at peak periods and services continued through the night to provide a 24-hour service.

It followed a long campaign for improvements to bus services in the city.  

A spokesperson for Bus Eireann said it was too early to comment on usage trends for the 220 but said: "The enhanced Route 220 has been in place for nearly four weeks and customer uptake has been ahead of expectations."

The National Transport Authority, which has overall responsibility for bus routes, is set to publish the Cork Area Metropolitan Strategy shortly. It is expected to confirm a Bus Connects plan for Cork that will radically overhaul service in Cork with new bus lanes, priority zones and services for Cork.

The decision to expand the 220 service for 24-hours led to criticisms from one Dublin TD who had argued that the capital should have been prioritised for such a service before Cork.

Separately the NTA said Bus Éireann city services including in Cork saw major growth in passenger numbers in 2018.

The company provided 35.1m passenger journeys in 2018 compared to 31.1m in 2017 and 32.1m in 2016.

Numbers on Bus Éireann’s city services in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford did particularly well, increasing by 13.2% overall.

Nineteen million more passengers used public transport in 2018 and 269 two hundred and sixty-nine million passenger journeys were provided by Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann, Iarnród Éireann, Luas and Go-Ahead Ireland on ‘Transport For Ireland’ Public Service Obligation (PSO) services in 2018, an increase of almost 19 million, or 7.5% compared to 2017.