‘We all know issues of ghost buses’: Fears progress made on journey numbers appears to be stalled

A Cork city councillor has said he believes concerns over the punctuality of local Bus Éireann services could be impacting on passenger numbers, claiming that reliability is a “massive issue” when speaking to constituents.

Labour Party councillor for the South East ward Peter Horgan was commenting on figures obtained by the party through a parliamentary question referred to the National Transport Authority (NTA) for reply.

The response stated that, as of the end of May, 7,083,261 passenger journeys on Bus Éireann buses were recorded on routes in the city and county so far this year. The NTA stated the 2024 figures have not been finalised and may be subject to some changes or revisions.

Last year in Cork, 17,832,418 bus journeys were made, up from 13,962,021 journeys the year prior.

Speaking to

The Echo

, Mr Horgan said he believes reliability issues could be hindering passenger numbers. “[The figures are] showing that the progress that was made in the last number of years with high commuter numbers appears to be stalled,” he said.

“I would probably put that down to the concerns that the commuting public have with the reliability in Bus Éireann and what we’re hearing from Bus Éireann in terms of the lack of driver availability.

“We all know the issues of ghost buses — reliability is a massive issue that comes up when I talk to people about utilising public transport, and specifically the buses,” Mr Horgan said.

“I’m in favour of BusConnects in terms of front-loading elements to encourage more commuters because I do believe that to tackle the congestion in the city and suburbs we need more people on our buses, we need more services with our buses but to do that we need more drivers, clearly.

“We need Bus Éireann to make sure that they’re utilising every available resource for them to hire drivers and we need to hear from drivers directly about what is impacting them leaving the profession or attracting new drivers to the profession because we can’t countenance the congestion that engulfs the city daily when the schools are back,” he continued.

“I have a fear that if we don’t get these problems solved and quickly, you’re going to see more and more people opt for the private motor vehicle.”

A spokesperson for Bus Éireann said the company carries out over 295,000 passenger journeys per week in Cork city, under contract with the NTA, across 25 routes.

“We are pleased to report we saw significant levels of growth (over 20%) from 2022-2023. While we haven’t seen the same levels of growth from 2023–2024, we are still seeing positive (single figure) growth. Bus Éireann is committed to continued growth in Cork.

“We acknowledge that despite expansion in passenger journeys in recent years, we are facing occasional service delivery challenges in Cork. Like other operators in the industry, we are dealing with short-term challenges for the recruitment of both drivers and mechanics,” the spokesperson continued.

Bus Éireann have four more open days planned for August 22-25 at Rochestown Park Hotel in Douglas.

The spokesperson added that Bus Éireann has also established a training programme for B licence holders to convert to D licences in Cork, Dublin, Limerick, Galway, and Waterford.

“Recruitment in Cork will remain a key priority,” the spokesperson added.