Two large car parks, both full. Glendalough’s natural beauty attracts up to a million visitors a year. On a Tuesday in June, at least half the cars were from Dublin, but for a day trip from the city, there was a single St Kevin’s bus at 11.30am, arriving at 1.00pm and returning at 4.30pm. Barely enough time for lunch, the monastic ruins and lakeside strolls, and definitely not for a hillwalk.
I arrived on the new 183 Local Link bus from Sallins in Co Kildare, reached by train from Heuston station. The bus route is long, winding and scenic, taking in Blessington, the Wicklow Gap, Glendalough, Roundwood, Wicklow town, Rathdrum, Avoca and Arklow. But I could find no signs for it at Sallins station and only a few passengers joined me when I finally found the bus and its very helpful driver.
A fortnight later in west Cork I enjoyed several journeys on the new 232 Local Link that goes from Allihies and the famous Dursey cable car at the tip of the Beara peninsula, via Castletownbere, Glengarriff and Bantry, all the way to Kilcrohane on neighbouring Sheep’s Head.
Free from driving, I gazed at fantastic views of mountain, sea and woodland. The full trip is 96km each way at €14.50 adult return; it’s €4 return for short stretches, cheaper with a Leap card or booked on TFI Go’s app, and half-price for children and young adults.
I set out this summer to make holiday and day trips by public transport instead of car, reporting my experiences on Tús Áite, Raidió na Gaeltachta’s teatime programme.
As the climate crisis wreaks destruction across the world, Ireland is investing €1.9 billion this year in public transport, cycling and walking infrastructure. The CSO’s National Travel Survey 2019 showed that 74 per cent of total journeys were by car; half the population never took a bus or train; and only 6.3 per cent took a bus at least five times a week.
To help reduce ballooning emissions as well as air pollution and traffic jams, a central aim is that 70 per cent of people in rural Ireland will have a bus service to their nearest town at least three times a day. Nearly 70 new or improved rural routes are being introduced in 2023; town bus services are also improving, and Ennis, Portlaoise and Letterkenny among others will get new services by 2025.
Since June I have stayed in Carlow, Wexford, west Cork and Co Clare; I have made day trips to Glendalough and the midlands; and I am off to Donegal soon. In spite of record rainfall in July, I have been lucky to need an umbrella only twice. Most buses have been punctual, comfortable and their drivers friendly; indeed, one went beyond the call of duty to bring me to my B&B door.
It’s fairly easy to find routes and timetables on the TFI Live app by entering departure and destination points. There are highly scenic choices all around the country, including the 350 Bus Éireann that I took from Clarinbridge to Ennis via Kinvara, Ballyvaughan, Doolin, Lahinch and Ennistimon, with panoramas of the Burren, Galway Bay and the Aran Islands.
Frequency of service and luggage storage at visitor centres are both essential for tourists, and enabled me to stop off at the Cliffs of Moher for walks and a cuppa, as I will at Glenveagh National Park in Donegal. But some routes are not available every day, and many areas are not served yet.
More request stops are needed too. Staying at a holiday development 4km from Castletownbere, I could avail of the bus only because drivers agreed informally that they could pull in safely. In Co Clare, there is no stop for Abbey Hill’s hiking trail, for the atmospheric ruins of Corcomroe Abbey or for Fanore’s magnificent beach.
As for the thousands who go hiking or strolling in Co Wicklow, there are no buses to popular spots such as Powerscourt Waterfall, Glencree, the Sally Gap and Glenmalure. For Avondale’s new treetop walkway, the 183 bus departs from Rathdrum more than two hours after the train’s arrival from Dublin. The Department of Transport has told me the Sallins-to-Arklow route is being examined for frequency and reliability.
Another gaping absence is in the capital itself. Phoenix Park gets 10 million visits a year and has 2,200 parking spaces – but we still await the promised pilot bus into the park. It’s a long walk for children from Heuston Station to the zoo; the visitor centre, cafe and walled garden are a few kilometres further on; and Farmleigh and some of the best walks farther still.
I believe that as well as our towns and villages, all-important visitor attractions in Ireland should be accessible without a car, at least from Easter to October. I found excellent buses, for example, from Wexford town to the National Heritage Park at Ferrycarrig, to Johnstown Castle and to lovely beaches; but in the midlands I could not visit Clonmacnoise or Lough Boora’s peatland park. And to cycle from nearby towns, we need more than a meagre few bike spaces on trains as well as bike storage on big bus routes.
The Department of Transport assures me that every new service launch has been well-publicised through local radio, social media, in shops and so on, and that Local Link passenger numbers have multiplied in the past year. That is heartening, but in every area I visited, I spoke to people who had only a vague idea of local buses, some of which travel half-empty. A new national campaign, Your Journey Counts, aims to shift our ingrained driving-only mindset. But maybe we need gimmicks too, such as a free bus voucher for every 100th supermarket customer.
Yes, public transport can take more planning and effort than heading off in the car. But I also find buses as well as trains surprisingly relaxing. So I recommend trying them for holiday trips, with the added benefit of contributing just a bit less to the world’s floods and raging wildfires.