Cork has 'significantly worse' shortage of bus drivers than rest of the country
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Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan has said the Cork region has been hit hardest by shortages in the number of bus drivers but added that congestion in the city is also impacting service reliability.
He also revealed a new app is to be created to replace the current one which often does not show accurate arrival/departure times.
Like the buses, the minister’s reply to the issues raised by Cork county councillors was also very late. They sent him a complaint about an increase in ‘frequent cancellation and delays’ on February 23 last and only recently received a reply.
His department apologised for the lateness claiming it was having to deal with "a large volume of correspondence". Mr Ryan admitted that the nationwide shortage of bus drivers “is significantly worse in the Cork area", and went on to claim that most issues were caused at peak times as they were exacerbated by a low priority for dedicated bus corridors.
He said that despite recruiting a significant number of new drivers in the past 18 months the Cork region is still short 35 and needs an extra four mechanics/maintenance staff.
Mr Ryan said further recruitment drives are ongoing and efforts are being made to beef up the bus driver training school to roll out more drivers after the completion of an intensive eight-week training course.
To mitigate the shortage of drivers in Cork he said Bus Éireann management are willing to provide more overtime to the ones employed and asking them to delay their holiday until the peak summer period has ended. As a result, management hope efficiency issues will reduce this month.
However, he said that upgrading works by the city council in Patrick Street and Grand Parade will not help bus efficiency. As a result, nine bus routes face "significant diversions" and other bus services will suffer from knock-on traffic delays due to the ongoing works.
Mr Ryan announced that the "much-maligned" online tracker app is to be finally replaced.
Many commuters in the region have consistently complained that the current one is so inaccurate they can’t plan their journeys with any degree of certainty, which is especially problematic for students attending exams and those with medical appointments at Cork University Hospital.
Ryan said that the government is working to create a new system, which will be open to all bus providers (appearing to both public and private operators) which will provide a "single feed and consistent format".
He added that this will ensure that any cancellation of services appears in a ‘Central Realtime System’.
County councillors have repeatedly complained and sought numerous meetings about services with Bus Éireann regional management on issues impacting many unreliable routes.
Their primary gripes have been mainly about the 220 route and the 214 route (which runs to and from Glanmire and Cork University Hospital).
There have also been consistent complaints by councillors in the East Cork area about the service there, especially from Youghal, Midleton and some of their satellite villages.
Complaints have also surfaced from northeast Cork about services from Mitchelstown and Fermoy and through adjoining villages on the way into Cork, although these seem to have been somewhat rectified by Bus Éireann with the addition of a double-decker service on that route.
Bus Éireann currently employs 591 staff in Cork city and county. Of those 491 are drivers, 60 employed maintain the fleet of vehicles and a further 40 are involved in administration.
There is a fleet of 195 buses based in the Cork region. They operate 42 different routes and on average the fleet clock up 246,000kms per week.
Despite the problems with cancellations and late arrivals, there has been a significant increase in passenger numbers. There were 17 million passenger journeys recorded in the region last year, which was up 26% on 2022.
Route 220 is the busiest in the network. It runs to and from Ovens/Ballincollig to the city centre and to Carrigaline, with a total of 68 stops either way. There are 21 buses operating this route, with 70 drivers allocated to it on a 24/7 basis.
It is supposed to have a 15-minute frequency, but rarely achieves that target. This route alone accounted for 3.2 million passenger journeys last year, which was a 23% increase on pre-covid figures for 2019.