From the Galway City Tribune – More people than ever are opting to take the bus in the city, with the latest figures showing demand is running at 14 per cent higher than pre-Covid figures in 2019.

There were 5.3 million Bus Éireann passenger journeys in the city in 2022. While the first two months of the year were depressed due to the pandemic, the year as a whole was more than 70 per cent higher than in 2021.

There has been a “significant growth” in passengers since the beginning of September, revealed a spokesperson for Bus Éireann.

“This is particularly focused in the morning and evening peak times, where possible we have deployed higher capacity vehicles onto routes to add additional capacity.”

Asked to account for local reports of significant delays to buses – and in some cases buses simply not showing up despite appearing on the Realtime application – the spokeswoman said the timetable was currently under review.

“Galway City services are experiencing increased general traffic congestion at various locations throughout Galway City, which is leading to longer than planned journey times,” she admitted.

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“Our local service delivery team in Galway continues to actively monitor and improve service performance along the corridor and our schedulers are currently in the process of reviewing Galway City services in order to realign timetable journey times with the latest post-Covid traffic levels we are experiencing.

“Bus Éireann is focused on the delivery of a punctual and reliable service as part of its overall service provision and continues to improve the reliability of the Passenger Real Time Information service, ensuring customers don’t have to wait at bus stops any longer than necessary.”

Responding to queries about whether driver shortages was contributing to buses not running, she replied: “There is recruitment campaign in Galway is ongoing and progressing well, resulting in improved service delivery for our customers. In 2022 Bus Éireann hired 215 new drivers to join its workforce.”

There were no figures available how many of these drivers were employed on the Galway fleet.