Flickr: William Murphy
Ireland’s transport authority says that service improvements and new technology are responsible for a rise in passenger numbers on public transport.
New data from the National Transport Authority (NTA) shows that the number of trips taken on state-subsided public transport increased by eight million in 2015 to 224 million.
According to preliminary figures, services on Iarnród Éireann, Bus Éireann, Dublin Bus and Luas – the city’s light-rail tram system – showed an increase of 3.6 per cent compared to 2014.
The growth was despite bus and rail strikes, fare increases and travel disruption in the capital, Dublin, as a result of ongoing works to Luas. Anne Graham, the NTA chief executive, said: ‘We have developed whole-sector products, such as [integrated travel smart-card] the Leap Card, real-time passenger information, integrated transport-mapping and journey-planning tools which have helped boost passenger numbers right across the sector, by making transport easier for people to use.’
