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BusConnects
BusConnects will overhaul the current bus system with nine types of improvement and investment. These include: 1. Completely redesigning the bus network. 2. Building a network of new bus and cycle corridors. 3. New state-of-the-art ticketing system. 4. Implementing cashless payment system. 5. Revamping the fare system. 6. New bus livery. 7. New bus stops and shelters with better signage and information. 8. New park and ride sites in key locations. 9.Transitioning to a new zero emissions bus fleet.
Existing Limerick Bus Network
Purpose
BusConnects Limerick will help realise these local and national policies in Limerick City and its suburbs:
- The National Development Plan
- The Climate Action Plan
- The Limerick Development Plan
- The Clare County Development Plan
- The Limerick Shannon Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy (LSMATS)
Why are we doing this?
Limerick has grown to a city of nearly 100,000 people, and this growth is expected to continue. To manage this growth while meeting economic, livability and climate goals, strategies include:
- Making sustainable public transport more useful and attractive.
- Reducing dependency on the private car.
- Supporting employment, education and population growth in accessible locations.
- Revitalizing City Centre and regeneration areas.
The network redesign will help deliver on these strategies.
Bus network redesign
This project is an opportunity to design Limerick’s bus network around today’s needs rather than continue with the network inherited from the past.
All publicly-funded bus routes in Limerick City and its suburbs (including Mungret, Annacotty, Parteen and Ardnacrusha) are under study and may be revised.
This is a “blank slate” redesign, meaning that proposed revisions in the Draft New Network include the roads buses run on, times and days of service, frequencies, and where people interchange. The final New Network may also include changes to bus stop locations beyond interchange points.
Some proposed routes may resemble those in today’s network. If so, this is because they would support present and future conditions – not because of history or tradition.
The purpose of this online consultation is to invite members of the public to provide their opinion on choices about the future bus network.
Since every detail of the existing network is something somebody relies on, NTA expects a broad range of positive and negative comments. The key question is whether the extent of the proposed improvements outweigh any inconveniences caused by the change itself.
Limerick public transport network today. (Click images to enlarge.)
Read more
- Get more detail on the topics covered here by reading the Draft New Network report.
- Visit the BusConnects website at www.busconnects.ie.
- Read the Limerick Shannon Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy (LSMATS).
Review the pages below and learn about key principles in designing an improved bus network in Limerick.
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Access
Access is the number of destinations in an area that can be reached in a certain amount of time.
Access
Access is the number of destinations in an area that can be reached in a certain amount of time.
Access
A transport network can increase patronage by increasing access. Access describes how many jobs, people, schools, shops, and other opportunities people can reach by public transport, in a reasonable amount of time.
Video: What does "access" mean?
Increasing the average access provided by a network tends to increase patronage because more of people’s trips become possible on public transport without requiring a lot of time.
Factors that affect access:
- How many destinations are near public transport routes.
- How long someone walks to and from service.
- How long someone waits for the service.
- How far someone travels on the service.
- The speed of the service.
- How long someone waits to interchange between services.
Public transport authorities have control over some of these factors: waiting time, interchange, route directness, where service is provided.
They have less control or no control over other factors: bus speed, travel distances, where jobs and housing are located. These factors are generally controlled by City and County Councils as they manage land use, development and local roads.
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Density
Walkability
Linearity
Proximity
Mix of uses
Frequency and Patronage Potential
One of the most powerful ways to increase access across a public transport network is to shorten waits by improving frequency. More frequent service:
- Reduces waiting time (and thus overall travel time).
- Lets you travel whenever you want.
- Improves reliability, because if you miss your bus another one is coming soon.
- Makes interchange (between two frequent services) fast and reliable.
Video: How does frequency affect patronage?
In the future the LImerick bus network will offer real-time arrival information. But even with this technology, routes that are infrequent will still require people to wait. Someone who isn’t pressed for time, or can time their trip to the bus schedule, may not mind using an infrequent route. But most people don’t have that flexibility when going to work, school or an appointment, and a worse frequency often means arriving someplace earlier than they’d like to.
When frequency is improved in places with large numbers of people, jobs and other opportunities, that improves the population’s average access.
Better frequency increases potential for high patronage…but it isn’t enough to cause high patronage. Development patterns, land use and street design have a huge impact on how many people public transport can reach efficiently, and therefore on where frequent service can be provided.
Recognising areas with high patronage potential
Density
A place that is dense with residents, employees, shoppers, students, and visitors has more potential public transport users near each bus stop.
Walkability
To use a bus route, people need to be able to get to the stop, and the vast majority of passengers start their trip by walking.
The street network, footpaths and crossings around a bus stop affect how many people are willing and able to walk to it.
Linearity
Exactly where buildings are built determines how linear and efficient public transport routes can be.
When dense developments are far from main roads, or buildings are set at the ends of cul-de-sacs, bus routes must be meander to get close to people. This makes passengers’ journeys longer, and the route costs more to operate.
Proximity
Distance is a major contributor to the cost of providing bus routes. The greater the distance, the fewer people can be served within any particular operating budget.
Places that have continuous density and activities along a road are more efficient to serve and can be served with more frequent routes.
Mix of Uses
The mix of uses along a road affects how efficiently public transport can serve people. In areas with jobs, shops and housing, people are riding in all directions at all times of day and week. This means that vehicles can be full most of the time that they are out providing service.
Transport in purely residential or job areas tends to be used mostly in one direction – for example, in the mornings buses would be full traveling away from the residences, towards jobs, and mostly empty heading back the other direction. This means the cost of the service is divided over fewer passengers.
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Interchange, Frequency and Access
A public transport network should be greater than the sum of its parts. One bus route can take people to only certain places – but if it makes connections with many other routes and with trains, vastly more places become reachable.
A connected network is key to maximising transport access and thereby transport patronage. A connected network can be simpler, offering better frequencies and therefore shorter waits.
Video: How does network design affect access?
(Click images to enlarge.)
Direct Routes, Long Waits, Complexity
In this network, each route comes every 30 minutes. Using any route requires a long wait.
Interchange, Short Waits, Simplicity
In this network, the same number of buses can connect the same places with routes coming every 10 minutes. Some trips require interchange, but waits are much shorter.
But a connected network relies on interchange, and interchange can present a barrier if:
- An extra fare is charged to change buses.
- Waiting at the interchange point is uncomfortable.
- Bus arrival times are not reliable.
- Finding the correct bus stop or bus is difficult, or requires a long walk.
As part of BusConnects Limerick:
- There will soon be no additional fare to interchange, neither among buses nor between buses and trains.
- Bus stops and shelters where many people wait will be made more comfortable.
- Reliability of bus arrival times will be improved.
- Walks to interchange can be made shorter.
All of these changes make it possible to design the bus network for faster journeys, greater access and greater patronage, if more interchange is tolerable. How could it be that designing a network for interchange could get people where they're going sooner? Watch the video to learn how.
Benefits of the Draft New Network
- An increase of 70% in bus services in Limerick City and its suburbs.
- The average resident could access 29% more jobs in 30 minutes or less.
- Over 40% of residents and 50% of jobs would be located within a five minute walk of frequent service, seven days a week.
- 24-hour service connecting University Hospital Limerick, City Centre and the University of Limerick.
How would the network be different?
- Shorter waits and more direct routes, with fewer one-way segments.
- New all-day routes serving Ennis Road, Dock Road, Condell Road, Raheen Industrial Estate, Plassey Park, Mungret development lands, and others.
- Frequent service (every 15 minutes or better) extended to Dooradoyle Road, Hyde Road, TUS Moylish, Corbally Road, Bloodmill Road, Groody Road and University of Limerick, north campus.
- Sunday services would start earlier, and be more frequent. Four frequent routes would provide services every 15 minutes or better on Sundays from 9 AM to 8 PM.
Network Map
Instructions: You can use the map below to compare the locations and frequency of existing and proposed routes and see how access to jobs would change with the New Network. Search by address, click, drag, and zoom to find specific locations. After you click a location, click the buttons on the map toolbar to show and hide information about how the new network would serve that area.
Can't see the map? Try opening in a new window.
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Draft New Bus Network
Draft New Bus Network
Timeline
Public input in response to the Draft will inform the Final New Network. It will also inform parallel BusConnects programmes and local transport studies, such as the development bus corridors and cycle lanes and a Limerick City Centre Transport Study.
The Final New Network will be published later this year, with route changes beginning in 2025.
Stay involved
If you wish to be kept apprised of the progress of this study and opportunities for public comment, send an email to limericknetwork@busconnects.ie and you will be added to the announcement list.
For more information
Visit www.busconnects.ie
