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THE DUBLIN COMMUTER Coalition has raised alarm over reduced public transport services during the Christmas season, as they warn that delays to new bus services and a temporary suspension of cross-city trains will pose significant commuting challenges.
Dart and train services will be suspended between Grand Canal Dock and Connolly station from 27 December until 5 January for track renewal works, which the Dublin Commuter Coalition says will “effectively cut off” many people from visiting family or heading out over the tail-end of the festive period.
The Coalition, a community-led and run advocacy group aiming to improve the provision of sustainable mobility in the Greater Dublin Area, has called on the National Transport Authority (NTA) to address the shortfall by reallocating resources and increasing bus frequencies to meet commuter demand for one of the busiest travel periods of the year.
Thousands of commuters are set to be affected by the upgrade works and limited bus services. The Dart train service is also expected to be busy over the festive period.
Jason Cullen, chairperson of the Dublin City Commuter Coalition, said that rail works of this significance haven’t been done “in 20 years”.
“Irish Rail’s argument for conducting the upgrades now is that usage during that period is lower, and that is correct, because a lot of people are not commuting to work,” Cullen said.
Irish Rail has said that the track repair works between Grand Canal Docks and Connolly Station are an “unavoidable disruption” but they are working to “ensure that any such disruption is minimised, and that the number of customers affected is minimised too”.
“For Irish Rail, it’s the ideal time, but from the National Transport Authority’s perspective, they’re not taking into account that they’re cutting off an entire arm of public transportation and not giving the additional bus service or even a shuffle service during Christmas – one of the most important times of year for commuters to be able to get around Dublin,” Cullen said.
Compounding the problem of Dublin’s public transport supply over the festive period, Dublin Commuter Coalition chairperson Jason Cullen explained that Phase 6a of the BusConnects Network Redesign, originally scheduled to launch in December 2024, has been deferred until January.
This, Cullen says, leaves limited services in place for communities like Bray and Dún Laoghaire.
The planned rollout included 24-hour E1 and E2 spines and a range of local and express routes designed to improve connectivity across Dublin and beyond.
Cullen noted the burden placed on south side communities by the delay, saying that people in Bray and the wider area “are effectively forced into expensive taxis, meaning an unnecessary extra bit of spending close to Christmas”.
The Dublin Commuter Coalition has said that efforts to address the public transport gaps over the Christmas period with Dublin City Council and the National Transport Authority (NTA) were met with limited results.
“I tried to bring this up with Dublin City Council’s Mobility and Public Realm Strategic Policy Committee, as well as the NTA in separate meetings, but both organisations essentially said that they haven’t been able to provide nearly the amount of additional services they were hoping for,” Cullen said.
The Coalition has urged the NTA to redeploy resources from Phase 6a to bolster bus services during the Christmas period. Key routes such as the 46a, 145, and the C Spine (C1-C3) were identified as critical to accommodate displaced Dart commuters.
Dublin Bus is running weekend timetable services from the 26 December until 2 January, which Cullen said only adds to “a well-signposted lack of public transport for the Christmas period”.
We are calling on the NTA to boost bus provision over the Christmas period
— Dublin Commuters (@DublinCommuters) December 9, 2024
It is incredibly concerning that there will be little increase in bus capacity while there is no cross-city DART service over Christmas this yearhttps://t.co/zcosgfre0R
While the NTA and Dublin Bus have announced some additional Nitelink and 24-hour bus services, the Coalition believes these measures fall far short of addressing the lost rail capacity.
The full list of public transport services over the Christmas period can be found on the TFI website.
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Obviously these works are needed to maintain the safety and integrity of the line, now would be the best time to carry out these works, causing minimum disruption with schools and collages off for the Christmas break and most of the work force as well.
@Paul Nicholson: no one is debating that point , it is just that there is no increased bus service at all
@Basildon Joe: hope you are joking. You can’t do this kind of works in a few hours and start again the following night. It needs to be carried on for a couple of days in one go without interruption
@Jerry LeFrog: Without interruption – yesss!
@Basildon Joe: you have loved ones?
Sad fact… Public transportation in Ireland is a joke. Those who manage and organise our public transportation couldn’t find themselves out of a paper bag. How and why are these people still in employment? If I’d delivered such poor performance in my job, I would be without a job.
@Seriously Really: Seriously, really?
@Pól Pot: agree totally with him
@Seriously Really: spoken like someone who seriously hasn’t a clue
@John: while it’s harsh and maybe a tad OTT unfortunately there’s also a lot of truth in @seriously Reallys comment.
@Seriously Really: Agreed, really hard when the policy has been against any sort of construction or infrastructure for the last 20 years. It’s really pathetic and damning of our abilities to solve problems.
@Pól Pot: might be OTT but he’s right, the public transport in Ireland especially if ya live outside the big cities is borderline embarrassing. Without private operators many towns and villages have very poor transport for the money these people running the NTA get
@Tom Newell: Private operators are under the remitt of the NTA. As long as a service is being provided, what difference does it make if it’s public or private?
@Shaner Mac: Usually private companies don’t provide loss-making transport links. Public transport usually is expected to maintain loss-making links for the ‘public need’. This isn’t 100% true everywhere, but is the general rule of thumb.
@Seriously Really: He’s not wrong though. Out rail network is a joke, can’t believe that in 2024 we’re still using diesel locomotives, it’s quicker to drive than take the train, and several stretches of line between Dublin and our other cities are still single line.
@Pól Pot: Clearly, you’ve little experience with public transportation and their governing bodies like Dpain, UK, France, Italy, America…. It’s so had that we can’t even get rail lines from the airport into the city.
ah its OK.. sure there’s loads of cycle lanes…I can see everyone on their bikes heading home frm town to greystones at 2am.
Train tickets are too expensive. Cheaper to get in the car
we apologise for the delay due to technical issue. please do not forget to pay the fare as it is mandatory and an offense if you don’t.
@Dominic Leleu: Are you trying to make some point or did you just want to comment for the sake of it?
Time to take out the pony and trap
@noel donohue: plenty of ‘pony and trap’ here in the comments!
@Fergus O’Donnell: and a fair few Barry Whites too.
Such scare mongering one again by the green party offshoot.
Work needs to be done as Dart+ is coming
They are doing it now as there is a drop in passengers at this time of the year.
They have no clue about anything other the cyclists and e-scooters. Bus design clueless as well. They think shared space is safe
Typical
@Audrey Maguire: Typical of what?
We’d have Waymo RoboTaxis operating in Ireland right now, but unfortunately Eamon Ryan showed no interest and some in the media where quite toxic Geraldine Herbert and Neil briscoe which may of discouraged them from choosing Ireland as their first international expansion location, it will now probably be the end of 2026 before their is regulatory certainty to allow for deployments here.
The buses are running for the week on Saturday and Sunday schedules. Nothing to do with spines . Nta won’t allow extra buses .
have your say