Ten-times more Mayo people are now using local buses

New figures from the National Transport Authority show that the number of people using a local bus in Mayo is ten times more than it was two years ago.

Journey numbers in the week of October 13, 2024 were 1,397, in comparison, the journey numbers for the week of January 16, 2022 were just 117, giving a whopping percentage change of 1094 percent.

Nationally, the number of weekly journeys hit 100,000 across rural Ireland.

Micheál Boxty O’Conaill, the Mayo Green Party candidate for the General Election said that there’s ‘no way this would have happened without the Greens in Government’.

Since the launch of Connecting Ireland in 2022, at least one new or enhanced bus service has been rolled out across the country.

Passenger journey numbers have been increasing consistently in Mayo for over three years now.

The weekly national average was 59 in 2021, 242 in 2022, and 691 in 2023. Now, it has risen to 1,188, a new high.

Countrywide, journey numbers have also reached a record high, with people now using Local Link bus services more than 100,000 times a week across rural Ireland, including the nearly 1,400 passengers recorded in Mayo during the sample week of October 13.

“The transformation in our rural bus services has been fantastic,” said Mr O’Conaill. 

“We now have more regular bus services criss-crossing the county, from Achill to Westport to Ballinrobe. We also have inter-county services that we never had before. For the first time in my memory, we have people queuing up at bus-stops, knowing that they can rely on their service,” he continued.

“None of this would have happened without the Greens in Government. Other parties just don’t see public transport as important. But we do. And the results are packed buses with people heading to or from college or just heading into town for the shopping or a drink. While we’ve made enormous changes, there’s much more to do.”

He added: “Now people have a choice to make – do they vote for the greens who will prioritise not just buses, but also quality trains for the West of Ireland or do they choose those that couldn’t be bothered about public transport?”

He concluded by saying the 105,986 passenger journeys on TFI Local Link services during the sample week represents a ‘more-than five-fold increase’ compared to January 2022.