Public transport numbers grow 16m in 2017

devnull

Just saw this on Twitter:
https://www.nationaltransport.ie/news/7-growth-passenger-numbers-publicly-funded-public-transport-services/

Also appears to confirm an increase of Public Service Obligation subsidy to the state companies and also announcing figures in relation to capital investment.

Click the link above for a full breakdown.

The National Transport Authority today (5th January 2018) published full-year figures (preliminary) for each of the state-supported public transport operators for 2017.

251,000,000 passenger journeys were provided by Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann, Iarnród Éireann and Luas on their Public Service Obligation services in 2017. That’s an increase of over 16m, or 7% compared to 2016.

The performance by Dublin Bus has been very strong and the company provided the largest number of passenger journeys in 2017 at over 136m. This represents an increase of more than 9% over 2016 and represents four straight years of passenger growth.

Iarnród Éireann saw passenger journeys increase from 42.8m to 45.5m, an increase of over 6%. The company is benefitting from continued economic growth and has seen demand increasing across the network. The introduction of new services, such as those through the Phoenix Park Tunnel have helped passenger numbers continue to expand.

Numbers on Luas increased by 10.26% to 37.6m, in 2017. With the Green Line now extended to Broombridge, and providing interchange with the Red Line and greater connectivity to rail services, those numbers are likely to grow substantially again in 2018.

Bus Éireann figures for 2017 are 31.2m – down on last year’s 32.1m – but that’s mainly as a result of the industrial action which lasted three full weeks. On a like-for-like basis the annual number of passenger journeys is up 2.6% in 2017.

Anne Graham, CEO of the National Transport Authority said: “2017 was another year of strong growth in public transport, and the role of the operators and their staff should be acknowledged in that regard.

“Today’s figures are a further indication of a clear demand for safe, efficient and reliable public transport services. Particularly so when the public transport alternative is environmentally friendly and offers value for money.

“But we cannot rest on our laurels, and 2018 will be another busy year for the public transport sector. In order to meet this increased demand, seven new 55-meter trams will be introduced on the Green Luas line between January and March adding over 2,500 person capacity to the line.

“Iarnród Éireann will be introducing a 10-minute frequency on DART services, additional off-peak services on the Maynooth line, an additional service in each direction on the Sligo line and new off-peak services on the Kildare line operating through the Phoenix Park tunnel.

“In terms of bus services in the capital, Dublin Bus will increase capacity for peak and off-peak services throughout. Plans are underway to increase the capacity on Bus Éireann contracted services throughout the country.

“NTA will be introducing a new service between Naas and Blanchardstown and a new Kilkenny city bus service in 2018. All this additional capacity is funded by additional government funding for public service obligation services secured by the Minister for Transport Tourism & Sport, Shane Ross T.D.

The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross TD, has today welcomed the publication by the NTA of passenger numbers for 2017. Minister Ross said the figures demonstrate consistent growth across public transport in Ireland. It is expected that this trend will be sustained in coming years as Ireland’s economy grows.

The Minister added: “The launch of Luas Cross City will add an estimated 10m journeys per year on the Luas network. Continuing to invest in the public transport network is a key priority. €2.7billon will be provided for public transport capital investment over 2018 to 2021. The growth in public transport services has been supported by higher levels of subvention in 2016 and 2017 and will further increase this year. Over the 3 years Public Service Obligation (PSO) subvention will have risen by some 35% in total.

LuckyLloyd

Dublin Bus remaining the strong backbone of the city's Public Transport network.

strandroad

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Dublin Bus remaining the strong backbone of the city's Public Transport network.

It's not like you have a choice, with such an anaemic rail network.

JCX BXC

Increase of the PSO, pity we still have to pay €14 for a one way ticket between Ennis and Kilrush!

Shn99

"A total of 910,000 passenger journeys were recorded on the Dublin/Limerick rail line in 2017, the highest figures ever recorded on the route. This represents a 7% increase on 2016."

"The Limerick Galway route also saw a significant increase with passenger journeys jumping from 100,000 in 2016 to 134,000 in 2017."


https://www.limerickpost.ie/2018/01/27/limericks-rail-line-see-increase-in-passenger-journeys/

XPS_Zero

Is it me or do Irish ministers spend more time "welcoming" or "launching" (what happened to the word 'publishing?'???) reports about major ongoing problems like bed capacity in hospitals or public transport capacity than they actually spend DOING something about it?

Having an independent as a minister hasn't been done since the 50s for the simple reason that they are always a disaster, they by nature only care about their own constituency. I'd love to bring in a Transport minister from outside politics, a professional, with no Dail seat to worry about, no worry about a re-election, and let him/her come up with and implement a proper reform plan for CIE and transport plan for the country.

The numbers are from an improving global economy which is naturally dragging a small open economy like Ireland up with it, which means lower unemployment, which means more at work (all be it way way more PT/flexi and zero hours type jobs than Tiger era), and more people moving around.
Hopefully before the next banking crash (inevitable given that already the US is, incredibly, even though still drowning in debt from the last bailouts, on a deregulation binge once again, and key reforms in Europe never happened) we can spend some actual money investing in MAJOR infrastructure projects not tinkering around the edges like PPT. It's time we got metro built, both lines and it's time DU was done - we know it's needed , we have the money now, we can borrow safely now that we don't have a huge budget deficit or unstable economy, so lets get the money together and just do it - we've been doing this with health for years, we knew for years the best system was an NHS type single payer model, we knew for years we needed thousands of extra beds, we knew we needed reforms in consultant contracts, we knew there was too much admin and not enough front line staff, we knew there were outdated work practices (just like CIE)...and just kept ordering more reports.
Same with Metro/DU, they were announced 7/8 times, report, report, report - it's time to start digging.

CarlosHarpic

Iarnród Éireann saw passenger journeys increase from 42.8m to 45.5m, an increase of over 6%. The company is benefitting from continued economic growth and has seen demand increasing across the network. The introduction of new services, such as those through the Phoenix Park Tunnel have helped passenger numbers continue to expand.

Remind me again how many years did Irish Rail managment say that the tunnel could not be used for passenger services?

XPS_Zero

CarlosHarpic wrote: »

Remind me again how many years did Irish Rail managment say that the tunnel could not be used for passenger services?

Irish state agencies will always say "can't can't can't" to any major change, in any policy area, they are allergic to any change or reform it's a cultural thing. The only reason we got free secondary and then free college tuition was the ministers in question didn't tell the dept of finance what they wanted to do, and they basically snuck it up on them and by the time they had a chance to shoot it down most of the work was already done anticipating and countering most of their likley objections.

I hear it on here all the time that CIE "won't allow" xyz and I always laugh thinking: what do you mean can't? You say were the govt were your boss, f---g do what you are told. They have the power, there is no question of that, but many of them just don't have the bottle to stand up to them a lot of these ministers just want the perks and the car and sadly, in my political experience the majority don't care that much about policy or changing things to the point where it's a pleasant surprise when they do.

Ministers are meant to not get involved in the day to day management of things, which is the civil service/public services job, they are meant to zoom out and keep an eye on the big picture, strategic plans, and the argument they often use is that things like PPT are more a technical day to day management issue but it's not, it's a strategic plan, and they try to throw out technical reasons why it can't be done and you get these (sorry...) not very bright often bumbling ministers who don't have any real executive experience in any other job before this running anything big, or the capacity to do it now, and they get intimidated and back down. All you'd need to do with a PPT style project to scare most of them off is "well now minister my main worry there would be passenger safety", this will get him imagining a DE-railing train and a mass casualty incident and the words "the minister is known to have forced through this project against the concerns of IE managers" and the end of his career and he'll back right off. It takes some bottle to stand up to them, you also have to be "on top of your brief" which is lovely political code for "know what the f---k you are doing" (ie know a lot about the area you are meant to be in charge of - more than is in your briefing books if you REALLY wanna do the job well)

I'm told years ago they said we could not do DU or any underground in Dublin because "derz a rivar in Dublin" - really, something to do with wet soil, they are unreal.

CarlosHarpic

Yes the Liffey excuse was used a lot.

When a suggestion was made to tunnel the luas for a short length under the city centre a CIE light rail office manager said that Irish people won't travel underground for historical and cultural reasons.

Ireland trains

Irish rail need more commuter trains to Gorey/Wicklow. 1 train per day to Wexford can hardly be considered a service. They also need to speed up the journey time to rosslare. The first one leaves Connolly at 09:40 and there's not an other train till 13:36.
They don't all need to stop at Tara Street and dun Laioghre

Ireland trains

an additional service in each direction on the Sligo line

The line already has 7 trains per day. The enterprise could do with more services rather than the Sligo line.

L1011

Ireland trains wrote: »

The line already has 7 trains per day. The enterprise could do with more services rather than the Sligo line.

They're usually full to standing, which the Enterprise rarely is

LeinsterDub

Ireland trains wrote: »

Irish rail need more commuter trains to Gorey/Wicklow. 1 train per day to Wexford can hardly be considered a service. They also need to speed up the journey time to rosslare. The first one leaves Connolly at 09:40 and there's not an other train till 13:36.
They don't all need to stop at Tara Street and dun Laioghre

They don't need to run past Greystones.

Ireland trains

Irish rail need to switch the commuter train they use on the service to Rosslare or Wexford and then back to Dundalk.
They need ICR ICE sets on all of the Intercity services because the 05:35 service to Dundalk is standing room from before Greystones. Irish rail use commuter trains in intercity services and intercity trains on commuter services.

CarlosHarpic

More late night trains are needed.

Train station Docklands right beside the 02 arena. Huge market there for a late night train from there to Cork and all stops in between for concert goers. A nightly midnight departure arriving Cork at 3AM would be a very popular service.

Look at the massive business the venue does for Luas.

end of the road

Ireland trains wrote: »

Irish rail need more commuter trains to Gorey/Wicklow. 1 train per day to Wexford can hardly be considered a service. They also need to speed up the journey time to rosslare. The first one leaves Connolly at 09:40 and there's not an other train till 13:36.
They don't all need to stop at Tara Street and dun Laioghre

5 down trains and 4 up trains between wexford and dublin per day. used to be 3 each way. agree with your post but just had to correct that (mind you if IE and others had their way it probably would be 1 train per day or none at all)

Ireland trains wrote: »

Irish rail need to switch the commuter train they use on the service to Rosslare or Wexford and then back to Dundalk.
They need ICR ICE sets on all of the Intercity services because the 05:35 service to Dundalk is standing room from before Greystones. Irish rail use commuter trains in intercity services and intercity trains on commuter services.

agreed, you couldn't make it up. but IE aren't going to deviate from it by the looks of things unless all passengers on the connolly side staged a strike in some form, and that is unlikely to happen.

derekbro

CarlosHarpic wrote: »

More late night trains are needed.

Train station Docklands right beside the 02 arena. Huge market there for a late night train from there to Cork and all stops in between for concert goers. A nightly midnight departure arriving Cork at 3AM would be a very popular service.

Look at the massive business the venue does for Luas.

I'm pretty sure that a train from Docklands can't directly connect to the PPT line. Would be a great idea if it did though.

Infini

derekbro wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that a train from Docklands can't directly connect to the PPT line. Would be a great idea if it did though.

Atm its not possible but its CERTAINLY possible to do so to add an opposing crossover if they were able to do so with some work.

L1011

Glasnevin Junction formerly had the PPT-Newcomen links but *not* the Sligo to Drumcondra link which is now the main line - http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V2,714700,736507,12,9 , switch to 25" historic and try not to laugh at the name of the townland vaguely to the north....

Also note the line to the flour mills which involved an incline that I would imagine was extremely challenging for any loco.

Jamie2k9

CarlosHarpic wrote: »

More late night trains are needed.

Train station Docklands right beside the 02 arena. Huge market there for a late night train from there to Cork and all stops in between for concert goers. A nightly midnight departure arriving Cork at 3AM would be a very popular service.

Look at the massive business the venue does for Luas.

Popular dons't mean viable. I'm sure people could take the Luas to Heuston if extra services were to operate...

Jamie2k9

L1011 wrote: »

They're usually full to standing, which the Enterprise rarely is

The extra Sligo won't run at peak times, it will more less just fix the problem IE have now with an ICR sitting in Sligo until 11am does a run to Dublin and finished up by 6pm. It will just restore the old schedule cuts.

Ireland trains

In 2018 will there be any extra services to Drogheda and will the 10 min DART even happen if there is another dispute between irish rail and the drivers.
What year do irish rail expect to have the dublin to cork line in 2 hours. Is there ever a chance of it being electrified.

end of the road

Ireland trains wrote: »

In 2018 will there be any extra services to Drogheda and will the 10 min DART even happen if there is another dispute between irish rail and the drivers.
What year do irish rail expect to have the dublin to cork line in 2 hours. Is there ever a chance of it being electrified.

1. i think the plan is to introduce 10 minute darts this year. i don't know about extra droghida services all though the 10 minute dart could possibly prevent it?
2. they have been trying to get the cork line down to 2 hours long before i was even born and they still aren't there yet. the answer will probably be "year never" . it should be electrified but i can't see it happening any time soon.

Bray Head

XPS_Zero wrote: »

Having an independent as a minister hasn't been done since the 50s 

Mary Harney was an independent minister from 2008 to 2011.