THERE WERE 35.242 MILLION Bus Éireann passenger journeys last year – working out at 97,052 per day.
Across its services, the company carried over one million extra passengers in 2014, compared to the previous 12 months, and passenger journey numbers jumped by almost 7% in regional cities.
There were 35.424 million total road passenger journeys - up from 34.274 million in 2013..
Dublin commuter journeys were up 2%, passenger journeys in Galway city grew by 12%, while in Limerick the numbers were up by 4%. In Cork city, passenger journey figures grew by 6%, while in Waterford journeys were down by 1%.
Bus Éireann recently signed a new five year Public Service Obligation (PSO) contract with the National Transport Authority (NTA), which will see the development of further customer service standards and increased reliability and punctuality targets.
In 2015 the company will take delivery of 57 new PSO vehicles. These includes 20 single deck coaches, 25 double deck buses and 12 double deck coaches. The new vehicles will be deployed to the routes which require them most.
Last year the company re-launched its Expressway service with a new campaign and new buses, and the first 20 new luxury coaches will be introduced to the commercial fleet in early 2015.
While new fleet will help address some of the capacity issues, congestion remains a growing problem which can be aided by improved bus priority measures on key routes.
Commenting on the growth in 2014, and on the general outlook for 2015, Bus Éireann Chief Executive Martin Nolan said the company has achieved “significant turnaround”.
Further growth is predicted next year in line with the improving economy, which augurs well for the standards of public transport that can be delivered, and the critical role it can play in helping the economy recover even faster.
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