Figures released to Cork TD show Bus Éireann paid €5.7m in fines due to service failures

BUS ÉIREANN has paid €5.7m in fines to the National Transport Authority since 2018 for failure to meet service quality, punctuality, and reliability standards.

Figures released to Sinn Féin Cork North Central TD Thomas Gould, through a parliamentary question, show that, over the last two years in particular, the amount paid out in fines has skyrocketed, with €2m paid out in 2022 and €1.5m in Q1 and Q2 2023.

In 2023, the most common reason for fines was “failure to meet punctuality standards”, which resulted in €1m being paid out.

Creeping up

Mr Gould said: “These fines have been creeping up year on year, to a point where they are clearly not sustainable.

“I would be extremely worried that the increased fines in Q1 and Q2 led to the catastrophe we saw with buses in Cork city in the last few months of 2023 and into 2024.

“One of my key concerns with this fines system is that it incentivises buses to miss the final stops on their routes.

“When a bus is running late, and knows it will be late for its next route, the fines snowball. Instead, it would appear they are skipping the peripheral stops to make up for lost time,” he said.

Figures released by Bus Éireann in response to a Freedom of Information request by Sinn Féin local election candidate for Cork city North East, Mandy O’Leary Hegarty, showed the service issues on the 214 bus.

Between December 9, 2023, and February 6, 2024, the 214 service left a stop early 7,552 times, left a stop late 75,416 times, and did not turn up at a stop 29,327 times.

Investment

Mr Gould called for investment in Bus Éireann to “ensure there are drivers in the station in Cork city able to take up a route that is experiencing difficulty and respond proactively to traffic in the city”. 

He added that traffic reduction would help the bus services, and that the only way to do this was to reduce the number of people using cars, but that bus services needed to improve before people would trust them.

“People will not leave their car at home if they cannot guarantee that they’ll get to work or school on time,” said Mr Gould. “People will not give up their car to stand in the cold and rain at a bus stop for a bus that doesn’t show,” he said, adding that he is speaking to people who are purchasing their first car “because they can no longer rely on the bus”.