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FROM LAST MINUTE shopping to travelling home for Christmas, thousands of people will take trains, trams and buses over the festive season.
Public transport services nationwide will be operating on revised schedules, with pre-booked tickets needed in some cases.
Here’s what you need to know before you embark on your journey.
Bus Éireann services will operate on normal schedules until Saturday, 23 December.
On Christmas Eve, services will operate to a Sunday timetable with earlier final departures of around 9pm.
No Bus Éireann routes will run on Christmas Day.
Services will run based on Bank Holiday/Sunday timetables for St Stephen’s Day, 26 December, from around 9am. Passengers planning to travel are encouraged to check the timetable for their specific routes.
Let Bus Éireann connect you to Christmas and the people you love.
— Bus Éireann (@Buseireann) December 13, 2023
To plan your Christmas connections, see https://t.co/Iih3I72hgJ
Proudly part of the Transport for Ireland Network. @tfiupdates pic.twitter.com/cfdYr7nQkt
Services will have normal timetables from Wednesday, 27 December, until New Year’s Eve, when there will be Saturday timetables.
New Year’s Day buses will operate on a Sunday schedule.
A full normal timetable across Bus Éireann services will resume from 2 January.
“With anticipated high demand, passengers are encouraged to plan their journeys in advance and check the updated timetables on the Bus Éireann website,” a spokesperson said.
Dublin Bus services will run as normal until Christmas Eve, when there will be a Sunday schedule, with last buses at 9pm.
No buses will run on Christmas Day.
On St Stephen’s Day all routes will have a Sunday timetable, beginning at around 9am.
From 27 December to 30 December, buses will run on a Saturday schedule.
New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day will have Sunday schedules and services will return to normal on 2 January.
Both Luas lines will run into the early hours of the morning on Friday, 15 December, Saturday 16 December, Friday 22 December, and Saturday 23 December.
Trams will finish at 8pm on Christmas Eve and there will be no services on Christmas Day.
The night Luas will also run on New Year’s Eve. New Year’s Day will have Sunday operating hours and normal schedules will resume on 2 January.
For more information, visit the TFI website, or see live updates on the TFI app.
Irish Rail will have revised timetables in place from Christmas Eve until New Year’s Day.
Late night DART and commuter trains to Dundalk, Maynooth and Kildare will run from Thursdays to Saturdays in the lead up to Christmas, and after midnight on New Year’s Eve.
On 24 December, DART and commuter trains will have a normal schedule up to around 9pm.
Intercity trains will also run as normal, with the exception of four late evening services.
Customers traveling on Intercity services at busy times are advised to book in advance at www.irishrail.ie or on the Iarnród Éireann app.
No trains will operate on Christmas Day or St Stephen’s Day.
On Wednesday, 27 December, there will be a Sunday schedule for DART and commuter trains and a revised timetable for intercity routes.
Thursday, 28 December will have a Saturday timetable.
On New Year’s Eve, DART and commuter services will have a normal Sunday schedule up to 10pm on all routes, as well as some late night trains.
Intercity trains will also run on Sunday schedules, with the exception of four late evening services.
A Sunday service will operate on 1 January and normal timetables will resume on all routes on 2 January.
Enterprise
In Northern Ireland, Translink will be undertaking works in the Belfast area, so from 27 December to 1 January inclusive, Dublin to Belfast Enterprise services will operate between Dublin and Portadown, with bus transfers from/to Newry for customers travelling to/from Belfast.
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Another cover up incoming, either that or it’ll be dragged on so long there will never be a conclusion. Remember all the investigations into Fine gael donor Denis o Brien and Actavo/siteserv and the dealings and debt write offs he received from certain banks? Still ongoing about 5 years later!!
Evidence based? The poor girl was let down by incompetent staff. End of.
@Brian O’Connor:
I don’t think that it was the nursing staff who were to blame to be fair, didn’t one nurse repeatedly try to get her seen by a doctor?
@Costigan Family: i was myself waiting on several occasions in ED 16+ hours…. I am yet to see one busy nurse….try retail or hospitality…. Its the management thats fails miserably… Poor girl…. May she rest in heaven…
@Costigan Family: it is not the overworked doctors’ fault that the HSE is chronically underfunded. There are one thousand vacant consultant posts because of the crap conditions offered by the HSE.
We seem very likely to have a general election this year
I will vote for the party that pledges to fight the monster that is our state bureaucracy
From the department of “social protection” to the HSE these unfeeling blobs make life a misery for huge numbers of people most of whom are on low/modest incomes and in difficult circumstances
If the word “republic” is to have any meaning then the state should be on the side of citizens. Instead it seems to be constantly stonewalling or fighting its citizens in long expensive court cases.
Time for real meaningful change
@Gerry Kelly: We accept that the state is not competent enough to provide food for example (collectized farms never worked) or consumer good etc why oh why then do we think that public sector beauacrats can run a health care system. Long lines, scarcity, misallocation of resources, no accountability, service users being seen as a burden, or a nuisances-all of these things are a result of state beauacracy. The state can fund healthcare, ideally through social insurance, but I shouldn’t actually run the system. Healthcare can be delivered to a high quality without long waits e.g germany, Switzerland etc.
The people in the Midwest were promised a centre of excellence by the HSE when the a&e was closed in Ennis and Nenagh. Brendan Drumm, Mary Harney and every Minister and HSE CEO since have let the people down. Hang your heads in shame.
.. they just don’t care, not the first time or last time.. will happen again..
Do you want the truth or an enquiry?
Civil Servants do not appoint people to find truth.
I’m afraid to think what I would do if this was one of my family members.
@Paul Kavanagh: Could not agree more Paul. I cannot as a parent imagine begging, pleading for help for my child as she lay dying before my eyes.
If the ministry for health, the ceo of the hse and the ceo of the hospital involved had the slightest most minute shred of dignity they should have resigned the minute this appalling tragedy happened.
Like you said I would seriously consider taking matters into my own hands if this happened to my child.
The stardust case had a tribunal of inquiry in 1981 that was a cover up. In 2009 the government published a redacted re-edited report from Mr Paul Coffey however in 2017 after the retired Judge McCartan review he stated looking at the evidence both the Keane review and Coffey review were wrong.
I not surprised about the terms of reference because government refuses to own their fatal failures and deny natural truths and justice. Her family should walk away.
@Liam Foy: It was found in the enquiry that the two top doctors on the ward that night were more interested in broken bones and minor injuries than treating the most seriously ill, I do think that says it all! They should be demoted or struck off.
“There are insufficient doctors to care for the numbers and acuity of patients presenting in the timescale expected by the triage system, the hospital and the community”, the report stated. Blame management and the Minister for Health, not the overworked, burnt out, doctors.
I must say from my inter action with Medical Staff in a major Dublin hospital, the care has been fantastic.
have your say