Written answers
Tuesday, 4 March 2025
Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport
Bus Services
James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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108. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide an update on the issue of ghost buses and inaccurate live communication of bus arrival times in Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9172/25]
Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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113. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the steps he will take to address the problem of ghost buses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9403/25]
Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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129. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the steps he is taking to address the phenomenon of ghost buses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9420/25]
Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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156. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide an update on his engagement with the National Transport Authority in relation to ghost buses on Dublin Bus and those provided by a company (details supplied). [9525/25]
Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 108, 113, 129 and 156 together.
I am acutely aware of the service issues and the issues with the accuracy of the real time information currently being experienced across parts of the public transport network and the negative impact that it is having on the travelling public.
I fully recognise the importance of ensuring public transport services are reliable and I want to reassure the Deputy that a number of measures are being taken to improve service reliability. I want to reassure the House that both I and my officials have met with senior management from the National Transport Authority (NTA) in relation to service issues, and we are keeping the situation under close review.
In relation to inaccurate live communication of bus arrival times, I understand that the data displayed in the TFI Live app is provided directly by the bus operators and that it is the responsibility of the operators to provide accurate vehicle location data relating to all their services. The TFI Live app receives this data from the bus operator and publishes it in the app.
The issue of a bus service being displayed in the app but not showing up at the stop is typically caused by the operator not cancelling that service in their Automated Vehicle Location system, if that service is not being operated.
The NTA is working closely with operators to try resolve these issues. Further, in instances where operators have failed to meet the performance standards agreed in the PSO contracts, the NTA have applied financial penalties to those operators.
My Department is also funding the NTA to introduce a new and improved vehicle location system for the fleet which will improve the reliability of the real time passenger information system. Finally I would note that the reliability of our bus services require the type of bus priority measures we will introduce under BusConnects. This year will see construction start on the first of the BusConnects Dublin Core Bus Corridors and I look forward to the support of the House as we implement this transformative programme.
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