The number of people using public transport hit record levels last year, with passenger journeys up nearly 11% to almost 344 million, writes Seán McCárthaigh.

Passenger took almost 33 million more trips on State-subsidised Public Service Obligation (PSO) services last year compared to 2023.

New figures published by the National Transport Authority (NTA) show public transport use last year exceeded pre2019 levels.

Associated revenue increased by €28.4m to €552.1m – up more than 5% in a year.

The NTA called it "a significant milestone for public transport usage" in Ireland.

Last October, daily journeys surpassed a million trips a day – another record.

Other figures show that the proportion of passengers taking public transport to work and places of study increased from 38% in 2023 to 40% last year.

The NTA’s latest annual report shows journeys on Dublin Bus jumped 9% in a year to 159 million.

The number of journeys on the Bus Éireann network increased from 43.1 million in 2023 to 46 million last year, while GoAhead Ireland, which operates bus services in the Greater Dublin Area, grew 20% from 18.7 million in 2023 to 22.5 million last year.

The numbers of passengers using the Luas also broke records with journeys up 12% to 54 million last year from 48.2 million in 2023.

Iarnród Éireann services, including the Dart, grew by almost 10% to 50.6 million – 4.5 million journeys more than in 2023.

Transport for Ireland’s Local Link services in rural areas saw passenger journeys rise by almost 47% to 4.7 million against a background of 45 new and enhanced services.

NTA interim chief Hugh Creegan welcomed the figures but admitted there were still some problems with the reliability and punctuality of PSO bus services.

He said the NTA and transport operators were working to resolve them.