The Dart shuttle bus — which is providing a link between Grand Canal Dock and Connolly stations while the Loopline is closed for track renewal work until Monday — actually exists. But the service is infrequent and there’s an information vacuum about it, users and campaign groups have complained.
The bus leaves from Amiens St at bus stops beside the Luas stop and travels to Grand Canal Street where it then departs in the northbound direction from outside the Grand Canal Hotel. Along the way Pearse Street (exact locations are unknown).
Users have complained that they have waited nearly 50 minutes or missed trains waiting for the bus.
The closure is required by the works which is the first full renewal in 20 years of the country’s busiest section of the rail line, the elevated Loopline between Connolly Station and Pearse Station. The works started on St Stephen’s Day and is planned to go on up to 4am this Monday morning.
Rail Users Ireland, a commuter group, said: “After a fair amount of searching we did find the mystery shuttle bus between Grand Canal Dock and Connolly.”
They said: “No signage to direct passengers, not using a bus stop, not shown in timetables.”
“All setup to later claim it’s not needed as it wasn’t used,” the group claimed.
Another public transport user group, the Dublin Commuter Coalition, said: “We are completely unsurprised at this… We pushed the NTA multiple times to provide information to Commuters and they consistently refused to.”
When a member of the public, Jack Keegan, asked on X (formally Twitter) for the location of the shuttle bus, the Irish Rail account — which is now controlled by the NTA and outsourced to a private company — said: “Hi Jack, I suggest speaking to a staff member when you arrive in Connolly. Full details of the arrangements are available at the link below.”
But the webpage linked to has still, a week on, few details of the shuttle bus.
“Bus transfers will be in operation between Connolly Station and Grand Canal Dock Station with pick ups at Tara Street and Pearse Stations,” the webpage states.
It also outlines: “A limited shuttle bus will operate between Connolly and Grand Canal Dock Stations. Additionally, Dublin Bus will accept rail tickets for southside customers travelling to/from city centre.”
Today at 1.44pm, Dublin Commuter Coalition’s account tweeted: “Can you please give @JackKeegan197 an actual answer… What are commuters supposed to do at the un-staffed Grand Canal Dock station?”
At 3.12pm, the Irish Rail branded account tweeted: “The bus will depart from Amiens St at the Luas stop to Tara St and Pearse. From 18:00hrs the bus will depart from outside the Grand Canal Hotel on Grand Canal Street.”
Other examples can be found of people asking for information about the shuttle bus and receiving vague answers.
Including to one person asking for a timetable and the Irish Rail account replying: “There is no timetable for bus transfers. Bus transfers will operate as close to schedule as possible.”
Another member of the public tweeted: “Shuttle bus supposed to run every 20 mins? I’ve been waiting at Connolly for 40 mins this morning. What’s going on?”
The Irish Rail account simply replied: “Hi Steve, We are operating a limited bus transfer between Connolly and Grand Canal Dock.”
The same person said to two other X users that the shuttle bus eventually arrived after a 48 minute wait and after a few people took taxis only for the bus to “come around the corner of Sheriff Street about 3 minutes later.”
He also said that there was no signage at Connelly making it clear that northbound Dart trains were departing from a platform they normally wouldn’t use.
Another member of the public complained: “Yes my daughter gave up waiting at Grand Canal Dock to get to Connolly. Missed her Northern suburban train. When Irish Rail mention limited they meant extremely limited. Long walk though but only real choice. Or else proper signage for Dublin Bus alternatives like they have in other European capital cities.”
This article was published on Friday night — the National Transport Authority is being contacted for comment but only after the article is published. The article departs from the normal procedure of trying to wait for a reply to a request for comment because of the timeline involved and providing information to anybody trying to use the shuttle bus over the weekend.
MAIN IMAGE: Grom Rail Users Ireland on X.
Clarification: Reference to the bus serving Tara St was removed.
What do we expect from the nta since they took over the irish rail customer service they are no longer railway people manning the page. The same is due to happen to dublin bus shortly sooner the nta is disbanded and the dublin transport office reinstated the better for dublin commuters