Public transport over Christmas: Here’s all you need to know

A full run down of schedules including Irish Rail, Bus Éireann, Dublin Bus and Luas

Thousands of people will turn to public transport to travel over the festive and New Year’s party season.

Timetables have been changed from normal services and some late night services have been added in the run up to Christmas Day and New Year’s.

Iarnród Éireann

No Irish Rail services will run on Christmas Day and St Stephen's Day. A revised timetable from normal services will be in place from Christmas Eve, December 24th to January 2nd.

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On Christmas Eve, Intercity, Dart and Dublin commuter trains will run a normal Saturday service until 9pm.

Dublin Heuston routes will run until 8pm and Cork commuter services will operate as normal until about 7pm.

There will be no train services from then until Tuesday, December 27th. Dart and Dublin commuter services will operate on a Saturday timetable for that day.

An hourly service will run between Cork and Cobh, and between Cork and Midleton.

From Wednesday, December 28th to Friday, December 30th, Intercity and Heuston commuter trains will run a regular weekday service, and Dart and Cork commuter trains will operate on a Saturday timetable.

Northern, Maynooth and M3 commuter trains will also run on a Saturday timetable.

On New Year’s Eve, Saturday, December 31st, a normal Saturday timetable will run for the Dart, Dublin and Intercity commuter services until about 9pm, and Heuston routes will stop at about 8pm.

Cork commuter trains will run a regular Saturday service until about 7pm.

Late night services for the Dart and commuter trains will run as follows:

- 1.30am and 2.30am from Pearse serving all stations to Howth

- 1.30am and 2.30am from Connolly serving all stations to Greystones

- 1.40am and 2.40am from Pearse serving Tara Street, Connolly and all stations from Howth Junction to Dundalk

- 1.20am and 2.50am from Pearse serving all stations to Maynooth

On New Year’s Day, Sunday, January 1st, a Sunday timetable will be in place for the Dart, Dublin and Cork commuter trains. A Saturday timetable will be in place for Intercity services.

The majority of services, with some changes, will return on Monday, January 2nd and services will fully resume on Tuesday, January 3rd.

Full details are available here.

Bus Éireann

The bus operator will run extra Nightrider late night services from Dublin to Balbriggan, Drogheda, Ratoath, Dunshaughlin, Navan, Naas, Newbridge, Sallins and Clane over the Christmas season.

A 24-hour service will run on the 109A route, which runs from Kells via Dublin Airport to the city centre.

In Cork, late night services will run from the city to Carrigaline, Ballincollig, Midleton and Bandon on Tuesday, December 22nd and Wednesday, December 23rd.

Bus services in Cork, Galway and Limerick will run on a Sunday timetable on St Stephen's Day, Monday, December 26th, and a limited service will operate in Waterford city.

Expressway routes will have revised timetables on all routes and the services will run every day except for Christmas Day.

Full services will run in Cork, Galway and Waterford from December 27th to 31st. A normal weekday service will run in Limerick from December 28th to 31st.

New Year’s Eve services will run on a Saturday timetable with some revisions. New Year’s Day will operate on a Sunday timetable, also with a few revisions.

Dublin Bus

Extra late night services will run through the festive season. All Nitelink services will run on a weekend timetable on Wednesday, December 21st and Thursday, December 22nd.

On Friday, December 23rd, a weekday timetable will run for all routes, and the Nitelink will operate on a normal weekend service. On Christmas Eve, the last service will leave about 9pm. No other services will run after that. There will be no services on Christmas Day .

A Sunday timetable will run on all routes on St Stephen’s Day. A Saturday timetable with some extra services will run on December 27th, 28th, 29th and 30th.

Nitelink services will return on Friday, December 30th. The last service will leave at 10pm on New Year’s Eve and Nitelink routes will run as a normal weekend service.

On New Year’s Day, a Sunday timetable will run on all routes and no Nitelink service will operate.

Full details are available here.

Luas

On Christmas Eve, Luas services will stop at 8pm and there will be no services on Christmas Day.

On St Stephen’s Day, services will start at 9am and run on a Sunday schedule.

On the following day, Tuesday, December 27th, services will also run on a Sunday schedule.

From Wednesday, December 28th to Saturday, December 31st services will run on a Saturday schedule.

On New Year’s Day and Monday, 2nd January, services will run on a Sunday schedule. Regular timetables resume on Tuesday, January 3rd.

Night Luas

There will be night Luas services on both lines during the Christmas and New Year’s period, as an outbound service only.

The red line will run from The Point to Tallaght from Friday, December 23rd at 1am, 2am and 3am. On New Year's morning the last service will run at 3am.

From The Point to Saggart on the red line, the night Luas will run at 1.30am and 2.30am on December 23rd, and on New Year's morning the last service will leave at 2.20am.

The green line from St Stephen's Green to Brides Glen will run from 1am to 3.30am on December 23rd. On New Year's morning, the final service will leave at 3.30am.

Rachel Flaherty

Rachel Flaherty

Rachel Flaherty is an Irish Times journalist