Almost 780 bus trips lost over five day period in Cork city 

Some 778 Cork city bus trips were cancelled during a five-day period in October, it has been revealed.

The figures relate to a period following service reductions by Bus Éireann that month.

Data from the National Transport Authority shows that 543 of these were due to what was described as “abnormal traffic congestion”; 101 due to a blocked road or roadworks, and 96 due to staff absence, lateness, or sickness.

A further 14 were due to a bus breaking down; 11 were down to shortage of drivers, five were as a result of an accident or medical emergency on the bus; five because of a service interruption or exclusion request, and three were due to there being no serviceable bus.

The cancellations included 149 journeys on the 203 route; 116 on the 208; 101 on the 214, and 93 on the 220.

Breakdown

A Freedom of Information request by Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould had requested a breakdown of cancellations dating back six months from mid-February. While the record of cancellations from October 24-28 was provided, he remaining 25 weeks was not available — with the FOI decision-maker saying that the authority “does not hold records of this nature”.

Further data detailed lost kilometres for the bus breakdown and no serviceable bus categories from the time period August 13 to December 1, 2024.

It revealed 16,108 planned kilometres, or 0.7% of the total, were not travelled as a result of mechanical issues during the three-and-a-half-month period, with the most kilometres lost on the 220X, 201, 225L, and 216 routes.

The bus breakdown and no serviceable bus categories accounted for 17 of the 778 cancelled trips over the five-day period, or 2.2%, suggesting more kilometres were lost as a result of traffic, staffing, or other issues.

Bus Éireann in Cork had been suffering from a shortage of mechanics concurrently with its driver shortage, though the company has since said that recruitment has improved to a full cohort of drivers.

Reductions

The period for which data was available coincides with the beginning of bus service reductions implemented on October 20 due to the driver shortage, which saw 872 fewer bus journeys in measures the company said would “improve reliability and punctuality”.

The Echo previously revealed that before the timetable reductions, Cork city buses were punctual 65.21% of the time, but during the reductions this dropped to 54.97%.

Combining the 778 cancellations and 872 fewer bus journeys due to the reductions, there were a total of 1,650 fewer bus trips in Cork than normally timetabled during the week relating to the supplied figures.

Speaking to The Echo, Mr Gould said the figures were “extremely worrying”, querying why the cancellations data was only available for the five days following the timetable reduction.

“We were given a commitment at the time that the effectiveness of the service reductions in reducing the number of cancelled buses would be watched closely,” said Mr Gould.

“It seems the NTA gave up on this after five days.”

Huge problem

In terms of the cancellation of planned kilometres due to mechanical issues, he said: “Drivers are contacting me because of the conditions of the buses. They are telling me that this is a huge problem”, calling for updated buses and timetables.

A Bus Éireann spokesperson told The Echo that while the service reductions “did improve reliability for customers, the reduced timetables were still impacted negatively by pre-existing traffic congestion issues, which are compounded by the lack of bus prioritisation in Cork city."

The spokesperson highlighted that the data provided shows that 1.8% of lost trips were due to vehicle breakdowns, saying: “This in no way indicates an issue with the maintenance of our Cork fleet.

“Over the last 12-week period, 2% of planned kilometres have been lost due to mechanical issues or vehicle non-availability.

“This includes unforeseen breakdowns or mechanical issues that occurred as a vehicle operated along its route.

“Our contractual requirements as set by the NTA are to deliver a minimum of 98% of all scheduled kilometres, which we have achieved.”