Has the roll out of Busconnects contributed to the rising issue of ghost buses across Ireland?

The term ghost buses describes buses which appear on digital display boards and then disappear without showing up.

Go Ahead Ireland, one of the bus operators in Dublin, has said that a mechanic shortage and the roll out of the new Busconnects routes have contributed to their problem.

However, Dublin Bus has said that on their side, reliability has improved dramatically.

February 13, 2019: Double decker Irish bus that parks in front of Heuston train station in the city center on a winter day

On The Pat Kenny Show, Dublin Bus CEO Billy Hann said the reality is that “every bus operator” will have issues with ghost buses.

“I'm not going to sit here and pretend to be whiter than white when it comes to ghost buses,” he said.

“Every bus operator will have in the past had issues with ghost buses, or in the future may have issues with it.

“But the reality is that, certainly, the issues that we've experienced over the last two to three weeks are not on routes that are operated by Dublin Bus.

“They're on routes which are operated by private operators.”

"Best in the world"

Mr Hann said Dublin Bus have “put a lot of work” and “a lot of effort” into addressing the ghost bus issue.

“The reliability of our bus service is over 98% at the moment, which is excellent and is up there with the best in Europe,” he said.

“The accuracy of our real-time passenger information, which can be a contributor to the issues around ghost buses is close to 99% - on benchmarks we’re the best in the world at the moment.

“So we put a lot of time, a lot of effort, recruited a lot resources, done a lot of technical enhancements to the systems to improve the reliability.”

Mr Hann said figures at the moment for Dublin Bus are from 2023 – so they are expecting to see a great improvement when the 2024 figures are out.

“The 2024 figures haven't been agreed with the NTA at this moment in time - we expect our figures to be more positive,” he said.

“With regards to the figures in 2023 and since November of this year, the trajectory of the improvement in our reliability and penalties is exceptional and will compete with the best of them out there.”

Buses in Dublin city, 20-1-21. Image: NurPhoto SRL / Alamy

The main issue for Dublin bus is a lack of staff, Mr Hann said.

“The two main [issues] for me were pretty much lack of staff or not having enough staff to provide the service,” he said.

“In the last two years we've recruited close to 1,000 drivers and we've also recruited just over 50 mechanics.

“It's very, very hard to get trades people, particularly mechanics, in this country - we've had to go to the Philippines and bring in over 40 mechanics from the Philippines.”

Mr Hann said the company always expects some negative feedback when changing routes or bringing in a new spine – but in the end there are greater results.

“When we're changing routes or bringing in a new spine or a new local area and network, you'll always get some complaints, because some people are not getting the service that they feel that they once had,” he said.

“But by and large, it's still producing 25% extra connectivity to the greater Dublin area.

Mr Hann claims you have to “look at the whole picture”, rather than “the small micro level in every single community”.

A man waiting for a bus in Dublin city, Ireland. Alamy.com