Bus Átha Cliath have informed me that the number of passengers carried in 1989 was 161.8 million. The company have explained that on the basis of availing of spare capacity on existing services, an additional 30 million adult passengers per annum would have needed to be carried so as to achieve a break-even situation. The company consider that it would have also been necessary to substantially improve traffic conditions in the city to allow faster turnround times so as to achieve the increased utilisation of their fleet which would have been necessary.
The above conclusion is based on the assumption of no Exchequer subvention.