Reliability and punctuality on bus services in Cork 'has been very poor in the last six months,' NTA chief says

THE chief executive of the National Transport Authority (NTA) said the authority is exploring short-term measures to improve the reliability of the bus service in Cork city, but described the proposed Sustainable Transport Corridors (STCs) as “the solution” to achieving a more punctual service.

Anne Graham made the comments yesterday at Cork Chamber’s latest Business Breakfast event.

Ms Graham said that patronage on Bus Éireann’s city buses has recovered “very strongly” from the covid downturn and now exceeds the 2019 pre-pandemic level.

However, she acknowledged that the reliability and punctuality on services “has been very poor in the last six months”.

“Key reasons for this have been the shortage of drivers, the shortage of skilled staff, growing road congestion, and bus priority not being in place,” she said. “Of the kilometres operated by Bus Éireann, only 2% of them have bus priority in place.”

Speaking on solutions identified to improve reliability, Ms Graham said that driver recruitment activity has increased and that a “full complement” of drivers should be in place shortly.

The NTA, she said, is also engaging with the local authorities in Cork on parking enforcement.

Additionally, she said the NTA is “looking at key traffic pinch points to see if short-term traffic management can improve the journey times”, but said that the proposed 11 STCs are “the solution” to improved bus journeys.

“The design team is currently refining the designs of the 11 proposed corridors following the feedback received as part of the third round of consultation.

“We’ve very much welcomed the input by a number of different stakeholders into the design of these, because this will help provide a much better scheme for the city,” she said.

“And then statutory consent applications to An Bord Pleanála will be prepared.

“It’s anticipated that these applications will be submitted at the beginning of 2025 and then a formal statutory consultation process will be undertaken as part of that process.

“Depending on the outcome of the planning process, construction could commence by the end of 2026.”

Traffic congestion, she said, has worsened in Cork city, which is impacting on general traffic journey times and bus journeys.

“On a typical journey from Blackpool to Douglas, the average car journey time has increased by about 25%-30% from 2019-2023 — that’s a very significant increase,” she said, giving one example.

“The journey time on route 208 has increased by 10 minutes in the peaks, particularly in the morning peak, a very significant change, and the morning peak has spread and starts at 7am,” she added.