Bus Éireann celebrates 30 years of Making Better Connections in Limerick

Significant passenger growth and new double decker fleet for Treaty City

Bus Éireann marked its 30th birthday in Limerick today with an announcement of 15% passenger growth in the city, and the delivery of seven new double deckers into the fleet.

The company celebrated on Bedford Row today with a balloon bedecked bus, free Leap Cards, and give-aways for customers.
There was an outside broadcast with Live 95FM and competitions for a hotel getaway, shopping vouchers and Leap Cards with €30 credit, to mark the occasion.
Bus Éireann staff and brand ambassadors were on the ground to meet with the public, and passengers, at some of the busy city centre bus stops.

Following on from the successful additional 100,000 passengers journeys in 2016 on the Bus Éireann city network – increasing by 3.7% from 2.8m to 2.9 million journeys – strong growth continues in 2017.
Year to date, passenger journeys are up an impressive 15% - over 40,000 extra journeys in September alone – mainly due to a network review, and service improvements on key routes.
This includes the new 304A service linking Raheen with Castletroy and Monaleen via Limerick bus and rail station – along with eight services an hour to/from Limerick Regional Hospital - has also boosted passenger numbers.

Seven new double deckers are shortly set to join the four already in service, to cater for this growing passenger demand.
The high capacity state-of-the-art vehicles can cater for up to 91 passengers and will be used on the busiest routes in the city.
Funding for the new vehicle came from the National Transport Authority (NTA) and Bus Éireann continue to work with them on ongoing network development.

Bus Éireann and the NTA are committed to improving public transport, but there is a requirement for better bus priority infrastructure.
This includes more bus lanes and bus priority at traffic junctions, and both organisations continue to work with Limerick City Council to improve this.
The LeapCard provides savings of 27% on single city trips – reducing a city journey from €2.10 to €1.60 – and ongoing promotion and take-up of this is also important here.
Continued investment in the Smarter Travel initiative is also key for incentivisation, along with educational programmes such as the Green Schools Project – both of which Bus Eireann are involved in.

Miriam Flynn, Bus Éireann Southwest Regional Manager, said that marking 30 years as a brand is an significant milestone:

"It’s great to celebrate 30 years of ‘making better connections’ with strong passenger growth and new fleet.
As the economy returns to growth, traffic congestion is having an impact, and public transport is a way to counter that.

“Our network review in Limerick brought higher frequency and longer operating hours to the areas where there is most passenger demand, including UL and Plassey business park.
We would like to see more bus lanes and other priority measures, to incentivise more uptake of public transport and we continue to work with all stakeholders to achieve this.”

Tuesday, 3rd October, 2017