The issue of “disappearing” or “ghost” buses is to be raised by Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien when he meets officials from the National Transport Authority (NTA) on Thursday.
The terms refer to services listed by on-street screens and the Transport for Ireland phone app as being due to arrive at a set time, only for them to then vanish from the screen/app or suddenly appear as having been cancelled.
There has been a slew of complaints recently about the issue, particularly on routes operated by Go-Ahead Ireland.
A spokeswoman for Mr O’Brien confirmed he would be bringing up problems commuters have recently experienced in relation to “disappearing buses” and real-time information. It will be the first meeting between Mr O’Brien and the NTA since he moved to the role when the Cabinet was announced last month.
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The NTA said it would be “a general meeting” with a wide range of matters likely to be discussed. Bus operators will not be in attendance.
Go-Ahead Ireland said it had recently experienced “service frequency” issues which have impacted passengers and apologised to those affected.
It said this was due to a combination of factors including a shortage of mechanics, leading to buses taking longer to service and reducing the number of active vehicles on the road at certain times, as well as seasonal illness.
The transport provider said it is running a recruitment campaign seeking mechanics.
“Although we acknowledge we have experienced service disruption, we would like to reassure our passengers, as well as the people of the Greater Dublin Area, that we have begun to see service improvements and expect to see continuous improvements each day, leading to the resumption of a normal level of service on impacted routes within the next week,” it said on Wednesday.
Dublin Bus said its operational performance has improved consistently over the last 12 months. Since the beginning of this year, its real-time passenger information accuracy is “at a record high of 98 per cent”, a spokeswoman said.
The NTA said it was “monitoring the situation closely” and is receiving daily reports from the operators on service availability by route.
Billy Hann, chief executive of Dublin Bus, earlier this week said the NTA had signed a contract with a manufacturer to implement a national automatic vehicle solution for all public service buses in the State. He said Dublin Bus has put a lot of work in over the last two years to address issues around “ghost buses”.
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