Public made thousands of complaints over 'ghost' buses

Oireachtas transport committee hears of widespread anger at unreliable public transport  

The National Transport Authority logged  more than 6,000 complaints about delayed, cancelled, or so-called ghost buses in the first five months of this year. Stock picture

Almost 6,000 complaints were submitted to the National Transport Authority (NTA) about delayed, cancelled, or so-called “ghost” buses in just the first five months of the year.

“Ghost” buses are those which disappear from the live timetable.

The data from the NTA says there were 5,984 complaints about bus services made up until May 19.

While the number of complaints sent to the NTA is significantly higher than in 2024, when there were 1,565, the NTA clarified the majority of those complaints would have been made directly to operators. Complaints recorded so far this year are being sent to a new Transport For Ireland-run complaints centre.

Ciarán Ahern, the Labour Party’s transport spokesman, said it is very concerning to see such a “massive” number of complaints to the NTA in only five months. He said: 

If you want people to switch to public transport, you need to be able to rely on the bus services.

He said issues with delays and cancellations could force people to move away from public transport and back into their cars. He cited NTA research from 2024, which found the percentage of people opting to use their car had actually risen.

In 2012, 70.1% of people were using a car for transport. This figure rose slightly to 71.3% in 2024.

This compares to 4.2% of people using either a bus or coach for their transport in 2012, with it falling slightly to 3.9% in 2024.

Meanwhile, interim chief executive of the NTA Hugh Creegan told the Oireachtas transport committee on Wednesday that congestion is a major issue impacting on the delivery of transport services around the country.

Issues with frequent cancellations were raised by TDs and senators, with Mr Creegan citing congestion, traffic incidents, and staff unavailability as contributing to this.

GoAhead managing director Dervla McKay singled out congestion as the “largest ongoing challenge” facing urban bus services.

“Improper use of bus lanes, overcrowded streets due to cars, road works, and other associated issues can all combine to impact punctuality,” she said.

Bus Éireann CEO Stephen Kent highlighted difficulties with road infrastructure in towns and regional cities. He said: 

In Cork, which is Bus Éireann’s largest urban service, only 2% of the kilometres our services operate are in bus lanes. 

Bus Éireann would welcome further focus and development at local level, to parallel the significant investment which has been made in providing additional bus services and resources across the country.”

Fianna Fáil TD Shane Moynihan put it to the NTA that its app could mirror how the London Tube services display whether or not a particular route has a “good service”, “minor delays”, or “major delays”.

Mr Creegan said apps can display when a service has been cancelled.

Jeremy Ryan, the director of public transport services at the NTA, said it believes “it’s more useful to let them know there’s a [specific] cancellation” rather than provide indicative measures of how a service is performing.