Heavy Rail Census 2018 - Results

The 2018 Heavy Rail Census has now been published by the National Transport Authority.

The 2018 census took place on 15th November 2018. Operating conditions on the day were normal with no service cancellations, delays or disruptions on the network.

Busiest Trains
The busiest train in the country on Census day was the 08:10 DART service from Malahide to Bray, with a total of 1,703 passengers using this service. The peak passenger load on this service occurred between Clontarf Road and Connolly when 1,153 passengers were on board the train.

The busiest Commuter service was the 08:02 Maynooth to Bray train which carried 1,070 passengers. 917 passengers were on board the train between Ashtown and Broombridge stations.

Some other highlights

• As in 2017, 12 stations handled in excess of 5,000 passengers. Connolly, Pearse, Heuston and Tara continued to be the busiest stations handling one third of all passengers on census day.
  
• Outside of Dublin, Kent Station in Cork City and Bray in Wicklow feature in the top ten busiest stations in terms of passenger traffic.
  
• Malahide is now the 6th busiest station in terms of boardings, having been ranked 10th in 2017 and 12th in 2016.
  
• Daily throughput at Broombridge increased by 90% since the introduction of LUAS Cross City Services in December 2018.
  
• The 10 busiest stations on the network accounted for just under half (46%) of all passengers movements on the network.
  
• 21 stations in the Country experienced less than 100journeys per day. This number has fallen by 34% since 2012. Of the quietest stations, 8 experienced less than 30 journeys.
  
• Birdhill was the least used station on the network with only 3 boardings during the entire day.
  
• 25% of stations experienced less than 200 daily journeys.

Full Details
https://www.nationaltransport.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/National_Heavy_Rail_2019_FA_ONLINE.pdf