Amárach Research report commissioned by Iarnród Éireann
Iarnród Éireann commissioned Amárach Research to carry out the annual National Rail Census (or “the Census”), a census of rail patronage (as measured by the total number of people boarding), on behalf of the National Transport Authority on November 6th, 2025. The 2025 annual National Rail Census (or “the 2025 Census”) is the eleventh national Census. Prior to 2012, the Census was limited to the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) comprising of counties Dublin, Meath, Kildare, and
Wicklow.
The number of individuals boarding and alighting at each station in the country on a single day
The Census captures the number of individuals boarding and alighting at each station in the country on a single day of the year. It provides a snapshot of patronage across the country at all stations and on all services on this date. It is not intended to represent an accurate picture of overall rail service usage, which instead is recorded in Iarnród Éireann’s annual patronage data.
While the Census can help to illustrate trends over time, each individual year the Census data is subject to variation based on factors such as operating conditions, weather, service delays, and so on. It is nonetheless a useful barometer of usage of the rail network.
215,962 passenger journeys across the network, in one day
Overall, on Census Day, there were 215,962 passenger journeys across the network. This is a slight increase compared to the 215,333 journeys in 2024. Iarnród Éireann reported 55 million passenger journeys in the year 2025, which is an increase of 10% compared to 2024 when 50.7 million journeys were recorded.
Overview of the 2025 Census and discusses the changes in rail journeys
This report provides an overview of the 2025 Census and discusses the changes in rail journeys throughout the country. It also describes the changes in rail usage in the GDA in 2025 and over the previous years. Please note that no survey took place in 2020 on account of the Covid-19 pandemic, and thus this year is missing from the annual datasets throughout this report.
Previous years:
