Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 March 2024
92. Deputy Paul Donnelly asked the Minister for Transport his views on the frequent issue of ghost buses and no shows across the fleets; the steps that have been taken to date to counteract this; and to give an update on any measures already implemented. [13048/24]
View answerAs Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport; however, I am not involved in the day-to-day operations of public transport. The National Transport Authority (NTA) has statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally and for the scheduling and timetabling of these services in conjunction with the relevant transport operators.
I understand that the data displayed in the TFI Live app is provided directly by the bus operators and that it is the responsibility of the operators to provide accurate vehicle location data relating to all their services. This data is provided by the on-bus AVL (Automatic Vehicle Location) system which records the position of the bus as it proceeds on its route and generates predicted arrival times for each bus stop.
The NTA TFI Live app receives this data from the bus operator and publishes it in the app. The issue of a bus service being displayed in the app but not showing up at the stop is typically caused by the operator not cancelling that service in their AVL system if that service is not being operated (for example, due to a shortage of drivers). TFI Live cannot display a service as cancelled if it has not received the appropriate cancellation message from the operator and as a result it reverts to showing the timetabled time that the bus is due to arrive at a stop.
In light of the NTA's responsibility in this area, I have referred the Deputy's question to the NTA for direct reply. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a reply within ten working days.
