Most popular bus route in Limerick revealed

LIMERICK'S 304 bus route, which links Raheen, the city centre, the university and Castletroy, welcomed over one million passengers last year.

That's according to Bus Éireann which runs this, and several other services throughout the city area, with more than 2.5 million passengers boarding, despite much of 2021 being impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Brian Connolly, Bus Éireann's senior operations manager for this region said: "Although the Covid-19 pandemic has remained a challenge for all of us, we were proud to continue to operate and indeed increase the essential services we provide to people living in Limerick. It was also an important year in terms of the future of public transport in Limerick, with almost a quarter of a million kilometres added to Limerick city bus services in 2021, funded by the National Transport Authority. We would like to wish our passengers a very happy and safe new year and look forward to connecting them with who and what matters to them throughout 2022.’’

Despite the popularity of route 304, the Limerick Leader has in the past highlighted problems with the punctuality of this service.

Survey: ‘Buses on Limerick’s 304 only run on time if zero passengers show up’

Through 2021, Bus Éireann said its services in Limerick were enhanced significantly, with 249,000 kilometres added to its route timetables as a result of additional funding from the National Transport Authority.

This saw increases in frequency on some city services and the introduction of a new Sunday service of two roundtrips on the Route 345 service from Limerick to Scariff.

A multi-million euro upgrade to the Roxboro Road depot was also put on the road last year, while the State bus provider operated a shuttle to the vaccination centre at Patrickswell on behalf of the National Transport Authority and in co-operation with the HSE.