The National Transport Authority has revealed that there were almost 19 million more passenger journeys on public transport last year.
Their figures show that 269,000,000 passenger journeys were provided by Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann, Iarnród Éireann, Luas and Go-Ahead Ireland - an increase of almost 7.5% compared to 2017.
Bus Éireann has posted the single biggest percentage increase of any of the operators with a jump of 12.9% to 35.1m passenger journeys in 2018 compared to 31.1m in 2017 and 32.1m in 2016.
Numbers on Bus Éireann’s city services in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford did particularly well, increasing by 13.2% overall.
Dublin Bus provided the largest number of passenger journeys in 2018 at more than 143m, which represents an increase of almost 7m over 2017.
Iarnród Éireann had a very good year with numbers on both Dart and commuter services increasing by between 4% and 5%.
The expansion of services through the Phoenix Park Tunnel and the introduction of the 10-minute Dart schedule have helped passenger numbers continue to expand.
Intercity services increased passenger journeys from 11.4m in 2017 to 12.4m - a jump of 8.4%.
Numbers on Luas increased by 11% to almost 42m, in 2018. The NTA said that the Green Line extension to Broombridge which opened in December 2017 along with the seven longer trams that were brought into operation last year, were among the factors contributing to the growth.
Go-Ahead Ireland became a PSO transport operator in Autumn 2018 and provided 1.3m passenger journeys in Dublin on routes such as the 175 which connects CityWest to UCD and newly-extended routes such as 33A linking Skerries, Swords and Dublin Airport.
Anne Graham, CEO of the National Transport Authority said: “It is clear that when there is a reliable, high quality, value-for-money public transport offering that customers will respond positively to it.
“But none of us can rest on our laurels, and the priority now must be to deliver on those improvements in our public transport infrastructure that are provided for under the National Development Plan announced last year.
“We are also looking to increase capacity on our rail service by acquiring additional fleet that could enter service sometime in early 2021.
“Meanwhile, work on extending current Luas trams to 55 metres will continue this year.”
