Bus Éireann warns of capacity issues over bank holiday weekend

People intending to travel on public transport over the bank holiday weekend have been asked to remember the health advice is still to only travel for essential purposes.

The National Public Health Emergency Team has warned of the potential for the spread of Covid-19 over the bank holiday weekend and said elements of Phase 4 of the reopening due on August 10th, may depend on the spread of the virus over the bank holiday.

For those who are planning an outing this weekend Met Éireann has said it will be cloudy with some heavy showers of rain on Saturday and Sunday, with “sunny spells” on Monday.

Those planing to use public transport should remember it is mandatory to wear face masks and capacity on trains and buses is still restricted. Bus Éireann in particular has warned that peak travel time in now “sometime mid-afternoon”.

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It asked people to avoid travelling on Expressway services from noon to 7pm, particularly on routes between Dublin and Limerick, Galway and Cork.

Eleanor Farrell, chief commercial officer with Bus Éireann said capacity on buses was limited to 50 per cent which meant Expressway had just 8,000 seats available daily, compared with 16,000 before Covid-19 restrictions.

Most commercial operators have not yet returned to the road, meaning that total capacity available on many routes is much less than 50 per cent of pre-Covid19 levels, she said.

“While only seven per cent of our services overall have demand that exceeds capacity, the issue is more acute on certain routes,” she said.

“We recognise that the fact that it is a small minority of services that are oversubscribed is not much consolation for customers needing to access those routes.”

Ms Farrell said Bus Éireann staff are unable to assess the nature of customer journeys.

“We would like people to take into consideration that their journey may prevent an essential worker reaching their place of employment, or someone attending a healthcare appointment,”

She said Twitter was being used to provide live service updates for people wishing to travel from an intermediary stop along a route.

Irish Rail said it would expand services from Tuesday, as it continues to work towards a full restoration of pre-Covid service levels by the end of August.

The company reiterated much of the advice from Bus Éireann about essential travel, face masks and capacity.

The company published the following schedule:

* Saturday August 1st: current revised schedules will operate as normal.

* Sunday August 2nd: current revised schedules will operate, with some revisions to Intercity services

* Monday August 3rd: Dart, Northern and Maynooth Commuter will operate a Sunday service, with additional early morning services. Heuston Commuter and Phoenix Park Tunnel services are suspended and reduced and revised Kildare Commuter services will be in place.

For Heuston and Connolly Intercity routes and Cork Commuter revised schedules, customers should check times at irishrail.ie, a spokesman said.

Luas said services would run as normal on Saturday and Sunday, with Bank Holiday Monday services operating to a Sunday schedule.