Licensed public bus passenger services are often called “commercial” bus services because they are operated without any public subsidy from the Authority.
This has changed
- firstly, temporary funding was made available to regular commercial bus service operators from mid-2020 to 2022 and
- secondly, in 2022 the Authority launched the Young Adult and Student Card (“YASC”) Fares Scheme and 42 commercial bus operators opted into the Fares Scheme.
Commercial bus operators receive compensation for the fare forgone for offering the 50% discount to 19-25 year olds, 19-23 year olds between 2022 and 2023, and to full-time third-level students. As the the Yasc Fares Scheme is voluntary and as commercial bus services are individually licensed by the Authority, a single commercial bus operator may have some regular licences in the the Yasc Fares Scheme and others that are not. - Some commercial bus services also receive payments from the Department of Social Protection’s Free Travel Scheme, in compensation for the revenue foregone from carrying those passengers entitled to free travel.
The commercial bus services covered by this bulletin are any licensed regular bus service with an origin, intermediate point, or a destination within the Republic of Ireland.
Bus services which were subject to an international authorisation under international law and were travelling to, from, or through Northern Ireland and this State are also included in the bulletin.
Commercial bus services include services within the State and cross-border services
References to commercial bus services therefore include services operating wholly within the State and commercial bus services which cross the border into Northern Ireland.
The NTA Commercial Bus Statistics Bulletin for 2023 records a continued trend of strong growth in passenger journeys on regular public bus passenger services. The overall passenger journeys increased by over 3.7 million when compared to 2022, which represents a 20% increase, going to 22.4 million passenger journeys. This represented the second highest increase since data was first collected in 2013. The highest increase was between 2021 and 2022 with an 83% increase passenger journeys. Total passenger journeys in 2023 had grown by 13 million from the 9.4 million low of 2020.
