Massive problems with overcrowding on some Irish bus services

[Ballyheigue]

The Irish local, regional and national bus network as many of you know is poor to say the least, and not fit for purpose in some cases. Communities are crying out for public transport investment whilst they suffer excessive traffic fumes, ironic given Ireland is supposed to be so green. What communities are now seeing is the National Transport Agency saying a flat no to many requests for route enhancements, leading to many people actually being left behind at stops.

This is currently a major issue on the 272 route between Ballybunion and Tralee via Listowel, students along the route are unable to access colleges and the Munster Technical University in Tralee, workers are being left behind and have to use a taxi or somehow find an alternative and this happens daily, it's been an on going issue that's ended up in the media for some time now yet nothing get's done. For some communities such as Balybunion, there is the alternative 274 however that uses a smaller bus, goes the long way round and you have to get up earlier to use it, not only that but if people from Ballybunion used the 274 then that route get's over crowded meaning communities only served by the 274 get left behind with no alternative til mid to late morning. For Listowel, there is the 13 what comes down from Limerick, however that's only 2 hourly, runs late and is busy enough itself with communities further up towards Limerick using it. What's needed is a lot of investment, far more than Ireland has ever seen, but for some strange reason the National Transport Agency would rather be stuck in the past and see the likes of Tralee fill up with cars during rush hour. The biggest irony is that the Greens have been in government up until recently lol.

 

[berneyarms]

The Irish local, regional and national bus network as many of you know is poor to say the least, and not fit for purpose in some cases. Communities are crying out for public transport investment whilst they suffer excessive traffic fumes, ironic given Ireland is supposed to be so green. What communities are now seeing is the National Transport Agency saying a flat no to many requests for route enhancements, leading to many people actually being left behind at stops.

This is currently a major issue on the 272 route between Ballybunion and Tralee via Listowel, students along the route are unable to access colleges and the Munster Technical University in Tralee, workers are being left behind and have to use a taxi or somehow find an alternative and this happens daily, it's been an on going issue that's ended up in the media for some time now yet nothing get's done. For some communities such as Balybunion, there is the alternative 274 however that uses a smaller bus, goes the long way round and you have to get up earlier to use it, not only that but if people from Ballybunion used the 274 then that route get's over crowded meaning communities only served by the 274 get left behind with no alternative til mid to late morning. For Listowel, there is the 13 what comes down from Limerick, however that's only 2 hourly, runs late and is busy enough itself with communities further up towards Limerick using it. What's needed is a lot of investment, far more than Ireland has ever seen, but for some strange reason the National Transport Agency would rather be stuck in the past and see the likes of Tralee fill up with cars during rush hour. The biggest irony is that the Greens have been in government up until recently lol.

I would take issue with your assessment of the service as poor.

There actually has been a massive investment in rural and regional transport across Ireland over the the last three years, with the rollout of numerous new or expanded services across the entire country for both Bus Éireann and Local Link under the Connecting Ireland programme, including across Kerry.

In addition fares for PSO services were reduced by 20% in 2021 and haven’t increased since, and the young adult (under 26) fare discounted to 50% of the adult fares. This has seen usage increase significantly, and the high cost of renting for students means that far more students are staying at home and commuting rather than staying close to college. That is what is causing the overcrowding in the case of the 272.

There are a few issues with expanding the service even further, one being the Department of Public Expenditure reigning in funding which has for example prevented the Bus Éireann 132 being expanded.

The other issues are the availability of drivers and buses - recruitment is still very challenging for the bus companies, and there is a shortage of new vehicles.

However, in the case of the 272 the overcrowding issue arose since the colleges returned recently and Bus Éireann have now committed to adding a second bus to cover the morning departure into Tralee from Ballybunion.

Bus Éireann have also added a high capacity double deck to the 279 service between Killarney and Tralee.

That says to me that they are dealing with the problem.

Also every year the same issues happen with the colleges across the country - with all students in for 09:00 for the first week, the early services get hammered - the issue tends to ease off after a few weeks as student start times stagger out over the day.

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

What communities are now seeing is the National Transport Agency saying a flat no to many requests for route enhancements, leading to many people actually being left behind at stops.

That might be because the National Transport Authority also has a rolling programme to redesign bus networks and would probably want to avoid interim changes to routes in areas where services will be completely replanned.

Waterford, Ireland: A Plan to Double Public Transport Service — Human Transit

One of the highlights of my career, and of our firm‘s recent history, has been a series of contracts for the National Transport Authority in the Republic of Ireland to redesign the bus networks of all the main cities, part of a larger national strategy called BusConnects. We started in Dublin in...

humantransit.org

One of the highlights of my career, and of our firm‘s recent history, has been a series of contracts for the National Transport Authority in the Republic of Ireland to redesign the bus networks of all the main cities, part of a larger national strategy called BusConnects. We started in Dublin in 2017, and have been progressing through the other four Irish cities: first Cork, then Galway and Limerick, and now finally Waterford, which has a metro area population of about 83,000. Dublin is now half-implemented, while the rest will be implemented over the next several years.

 

[berneyarms]

That might be because the National Transport Authority also has a rolling programme to redesign bus networks and would probably want to avoid interim changes to routes in areas where services will be completely replanned.

Waterford, Ireland: A Plan to Double Public Transport Service — Human Transit

One of the highlights of my career, and of our firm‘s recent history, has been a series of contracts for the National Transport Authority in the Republic of Ireland to redesign the bus networks of all the main cities, part of a larger national strategy called BusConnects. We started in Dublin in...

humantransit.org

BusConnects is a completely separate programme that is very slowly being rolled out in the cities.

Connecting Ireland is the programme for the regions.

https://www.nationaltransport.ie/connecting-ireland/

 

[Ballyheigue]

Regarding the 272, it happens year after year for much of the academic year and doesn't really get dealt with, Bus Eireann put on a bigger bus one month, then take it away the next. It's not just the morning bus to Tralee what has overcrowding problems, it's the evening bus back too. What's really needed is an additional short working on part of the 272 route, one thing I didn't notice was there is no number 13 in the morning peak towards Tralee so in reality, the 272 is the only possible bus for the town of Listowel to access Tralee, hence the near scrum conditions when it comes into the town square.

Regarding public transport investment, it's really nowhere near enough and in reality is playing a much overdue game of catch up with many miles to go. Tralee is heavily populated nowadays and has expanded dramatically, yet it still sees just 2 buses running a couple of hourly circular services. Major facilities and employers such as The hospital and retail park next door, Munster Technical University, the Industrial Estates way out the top end of the town etc are all quite a walk from a number of locations throughout the town so no wonder so many drive. Public transport as a whole from surrounding towns and villages into Tralee are very inadequate to say the least, Killarney for example should really be seeing a half hourly bus service to Tralee, to improve the train service would require dramatic investment given the single track line but improving the frequency of the bus should be easy to do. The Irish government are on about trying to deal with traffic issues in Killarney and Tralee, if car users don't have a good alternative then what are they supposed to do? I doubt walking or cycling from say Manor West to Garvey's with all your shopping is appealing even in good weather and I doubt many working in Clash would want a 35 to 40 minute walk from there to say the Ballonagh area.

 

[berneyarms]

Regarding the 272, it happens year after year for much of the academic year and doesn't really get dealt with, Bus Eireann put on a bigger bus one month, then take it away the next. It's not just the morning bus to Tralee what has overcrowding problems, it's the evening bus back too. What's really needed is an additional short working on part of the 272 route, one thing I didn't notice was there is no number 13 in the morning peak towards Tralee so in reality, the 272 is the only possible bus for the town of Listowel to access Tralee, hence the near scrum conditions when it comes into the town square.

Regarding public transport investment, it's really nowhere near enough and in reality is playing a much overdue game of catch up with many miles to go. Tralee is heavily populated nowadays and has expanded dramatically, yet it still sees just 2 buses running a couple of hourly circular services. Major facilities and employers such as The hospital and retail park next door, Munster Technical University, the Industrial Estates way out the top end of the town etc are all quite a walk from a number of locations throughout the town so no wonder so many drive. Public transport as a whole from surrounding towns and villages into Tralee are very inadequate to say the least, Killarney for example should really be seeing a half hourly bus service to Tralee, to improve the train service would require dramatic investment given the single track line but improving the frequency of the bus should be easy to do. The Irish government are on about trying to deal with traffic issues in Killarney and Tralee, if car users don't have a good alternative then what are they supposed to do? I doubt walking or cycling from say Manor West to Garvey's with all your shopping is appealing even in good weather and I doubt many working in Clash would want a 35 to 40 minute walk from there to say the Ballonagh area.

I don’t think you really understand that there are limited resources available - be that funding, drivers and buses. There are significant problems with all three - it’s not that the NTA don’t want to increase services as you seem to think, but rather everything is dependent upon all three of the resources being available.

Over the past the past three years there has been substantial investment in the bus service in Kerry. The 270, 272, 275 and 279 operated by Bus Éireann have seen increases in service and there has been a significant expansion of the Local Link network as well.

But there are limits to what can be delivered given the issues with drivers and buses - you cannot just magic them out of thin air.

There is a programme of investment over six years that is being rolled out across the country, of which we are now in year four and that even is slowed down as there simply aren’t the funds, drivers or buses available to deliver it any sooner.

You’re just going to have to be patient.

There are town services being rolled out across the country, but again they are funding, drivers and bus resource dependent.

Mullingar is next, followed by Ennis and Letterkenny, and they should all be in place by the end of 2026, but again there is only so much that can be done with the resources available.

 

[daodao]

I have a CIE provincial bus timetable from winter 1970-1, acquired on a holiday in Killaloe in late May 1971. Overall, the network of routes and frequencies in rural Eire is significantly poorer than what is now being provided. However, there will always be places with gaps in service provision.

By contrast, services now provided in rural Cheshire, predominantly by D&G Buses, are much poorer than those provided by the erstwhile North Western Road Car Company in 1970/1; evening/Sunday services in particular are now very limited.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Pity the North Kerry railway is long gone - one of Todd Andrews's 1963 victims, although freight lingered on for another decade or so. Much of it is now (or will be) a greenway, although happily Limerick to Foynes is being reopened for freight.

I stayed in Tralee last autumn for a few days and hired a bike - I was amazed at how heavy the traffic was around town and noted how well loaded the busses were. The plan to redesign town networks around the country sound promising - one nugget from the Waterford study was that too many of the current routes meander around and take too long to reach the centre to be attractive. There are lots of routes like that in the UK too.

 

[berneyarms]

I have a CIE provincial bus timetable from winter 1970-1, acquired on a holiday in Killaloe in late May 1971. Overall, the network of routes and frequencies in rural Eire is significantly poorer than what is now being provided. However, there will always be places with gaps in service provision.

By contrast, services now provided in rural Cheshire, predominantly by D&G Buses, are much poorer than those provided by the erstwhile North Western Road Car Company in 1970/1; evening/Sunday services in particular are now very limited.

This is the map of rural and regional bus services now across Ireland - it is light years ahead of anything we have had before.

https://www.transportforireland.ie/...250801_Regional_Transport_Map_August_2025.pdf

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Sep 2025 ==

Pity the North Kerry railway is long gone - one of Todd Andrews's 1963 victims, although freight lingered on for another decade or so. Much of it is now (or will be) a greenway, although happily Limerick to Foynes is being reopened for freight.

I stayed in Tralee last autumn for a few days and hired a bike - I was amazed at how heavy the traffic was around town and noted how well loaded the busses were. The plan to redesign town networks around the country sound promising - one nugget from the Waterford study was that too many of the current routes meander around and take too long to reach the centre to be attractive. There are lots of routes like that in the UK too.

So far in the past five years new or expanded town services have been launched in each of Drogheda, Dundalk, Navan, Carlow, Clonmel, Portlaoise, Kilkenny, Sligo and Balbriggan.