The Connecting Ireland (CI) Rural Mobility Plan is the National Transport Authority’s (NTA) plan to improve rural and interurban public transport services across the country over five years 2022 – 2026 inclusive.
Connecting Ireland Quarterly and Annual Bulletins 2025
- The Connecting Ireland Annual Bulletin for the year 2025, is Issue 11
- Q1 to Q4
- The Connecting Ireland Rural Mobility Plan continued to grow in 2025, adding over 30 new or improved bus routes across the country. This brings the total number of routes introduced since the plan began to more than 180, making it easier for people in towns and rural areas to travel for work, school, and social activities.
- Public transport use is rising quickly. In 2024, 8 million journeys were made on Connecting Ireland services, with 4.7 million on new or upgraded routes—an increase of almost 47% compared to the previous year. These improvements are helping communities stay connected and reducing car use, which supports Ireland’s climate goals.
- New and enhanced routes launched this year include Carnew–Baltinglass, Blanchardstown–Drogheda via Ashbourne, and Galway–Ennis via the Cliffs of Moher, along with many Local Link services in counties Cork, Kerry, Mayo, and others. More routes are planned for the end of the year.
- The Connecting Ireland Quarterly Bulletin for Q1 2025, is Issue 10.
- Over 150 new/ enhanced bus services introduced to rural Ireland through the Connecting Ireland Rural Mobility Plan.
- Patronage figures in 2024 continued to show year on-year growth with 28% patronage growth on enhanced Connecting Ireland services in comparison to 2023 figures. 2024 saw the highest passenger journey figures of the Plan so far with over 1.1 million passenger journeys taking place on the 45 new or enhanced services introduced in
2024. 989,464 of these passenger journeys took place on the 28 enhanced services from the date they were enhanced, and 178,781 passenger journeys came from the 17 new routes.
