Passenger numbers on commercial bus routes up 84% on last year

Seán McCárthaigh

The number of passengers using commercial bus services in Ireland rose by 84 per cent last year but remains significantly below pre-Covid levels, according to new figures.

The report by the National Transport Authority shows there were over 18.6 million passenger journeys on licensed public bus services in 2022.

While it represents a strong increase on passenger numbers during the first two years of the pandemic, the figure is still 39 per cent below the record number of 30.5 million passenger journeys in 2019.

Passenger numbers had fallen as low as 9.4 million in 2020 when bus services experienced a major reduction in capacity and demand due to travel restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

Excluding 2020 and 2021 which were severely impacted by the pandemic, last year’s figure is the lowest recorded annual total of passenger journeys on commercial bus services since they were first compiled in 2013.

Revenue from bus passengers including income from the Free Travel scheme and the Young Adult and Student Card scheme was up 73 per cent to €172.2 million.

However, it remained 22 per cent below pre-pandemic levels of 2019 which was a record year for commercial bus passenger revenue.

The NTA said the growth in passenger numbers last year was largely driven by an increase in people using services that operate either wholly or partially within the greater Dublin area, which covers Dublin, Meath, Wicklow and Kildare.

Passengers on such services more than doubled in 2022 to 12.3 million – twice the growth rate of numbers using commercial bus routes operating fully outside the greater Dublin area which were up 50 per cent to 6.3 million last year.

While the NTA had provided funding for commercial bus services due to the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on public transport services, such financial support was withdrawn in June 2022.

The services include commercial bus operators who participate in the Free Travel scheme and Young Adult and Student Card scheme which offers a 50 per cent discount to 19-23 year olds and full-time, third-level students

They cover routes operated by Bus Éireann’s Expressway services, Dublin Bus commercial services and around 40 other private companies.

While there were no capacity issues last year due to Covid-19 restrictions, the NTA said the fall in demand from passengers rendered many services “commercially unviable to operate.”

For that reason, it said some routes were allowed to be suspended in part or whole until last November.

The NTA report shows numbers using the Free Travel scheme, which is available to all individuals over 66 years as well as some carers and people with a disability, more than doubled to 4.9 million last year, representing 26 per cent of all bus passengers in 2022.

NTA figures show the number of commercial bus vehicles operating in the Republic last year is down 7 per cent on pre-pandemic levels.

The average age of all commercial buses operating last year was 6.7 years.