Mayor of Drogheda, Councillor Michelle Hall, has requested another increase in Bus Eireann services between Drogheda and Clogherhead to meet the demand for public transport along this route. She has also expressed her disappointment at the poor punctuality of the service.
Councillor Hall and her Labour Party colleague Deputy Ged Nash ran a successful campaign to get the service increased previously and in 2020, Route 168 went from four buses daily to ten buses.
The route was also extended along the coast to Dundalk which has seen many rural students able to access public transport to Dundalk Institute of Technology.
The National Transport Authority say they are planning to review the demand for travel within and adjacent to Drogheda during 2023 such was the success of measures to date and will keep Councillor Hall’s suggestions in mind when reviewing service on Route 168 as part of this exercise.
Councillor Hall had queried the overcrowding and punctuality of the service and, while overcrowding was disputed by the NTA, they did acknowledge that the route was only punctual 63% of the time.
“I am contacted regularly by users to let me know that the bus was severely delayed but I was quite shocked to see the statistics” Councillor Hal said.
“On investigation of Bus Eireann’s punctuality policy, I was further shocked that it was just under their performance standards for this route which I understand should be at least 65%. If we keep our standards so low, no wonder many people won’t consider using public buses,” Councillor Hall stated.
“This is actually a more compelling reason to increase the number of buses daily to at least one every hour. If there were more frequent services, people would be encouraged to leave the car at home, which would reduce congestion in Drogheda and Dundalk.
Councillor Hall called for a further reduction in fares and for card readers to be introduced on the buses.
She also asked passengers to log their complaints on Bus Eireann’s Customer Care page as this is reviewed by the NTA with a view to improving the customer experience.
