Christmas and New Year buses and trains in Galway, 2016/17

The information below is for 2016/17 only.

See Christmas bus announcements for this year's information.

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A summary of bus and train services in Galway city and county for the 2016 Christmas and New Year period.

Galway Christmas Park'n'Ride service, 2016

The information below is correct for Christmas 2016 / New Year 2017 only. 

 See Galway Park-and-ride information for more recent information.

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A park-and-ride service will be in place for the Christmas 2016 shopping period.

It will operate from Saturday 3 December until Saturday 24 December inclusive, and is being operated by Bus Éireann on behalf of Galway City Council.

Bus and train fare increases from 1 December 2016

Details of December 2016 public-transport fare increases for Galway have been released by the National Transport Authority.

These fares apply from 1 December 2016, for the 2017 calendar year.

Monthly and annual ticket prices will be applied during November for tickets that will be used from December.

The Galway City Bus Fares page will be updated with this information shortly.

GoBus - Galway changing to Winter timetable

GoBus have announced some timetable changes, effective from Monday 10 October 2016.  

• There is a new 2:45am service from Galway Coach Station to Dublin Airport:  this is a direct service with a journey time of 2.5 hours.

• The 3:45am coach from Galway Coach Station to Dublin Airport is cancelled

Full timetables are available here (Dublin airport) and here (Dublin City).

Timetable changes for Bus Éireann route 20 / x20 (Galway / Dublin)

Bus Eireann have announced timetable changes on Route 20/X20, Dublin to Galway, via Athlone and Ballinasloe, effective from Sunday 11 September 2016.

Changes to Dublin airport bus stops for CityLink and EagleAir.com

CityLink have announced that from 1 September 2016, their coaches from Dublin Airport to Galway will leave from new bus stops at Dublin Airport.

• Express and Eagleair.com coaches will leave from Zone 14

• Multi-stop / commuter services will leave from Zone 13.

CityDirect Galway re-introduces Knocknacarra via Salthill service from Eyre Square

City Direct have started operating a new service, Route 410 - Salthill, from late August 2016.

This bus leaves from bus stop 3 in Eyre Square, and goes via Francis St, the Cathedral, UHG front entrance, NUIG, Shantalla, Salthill, Knocknacarra Road, Joyces 365, Clybaun Rd, Western Distributor Rd and Cappagh Rd.

A map of the bus-route is available here.

This is totally separate from route 410 - Oranmore which was cancelled in May 2016.

Bus and train services for the Galway Races, July 2016

The information below is for 2016.

Click here to find information about public transport for this year's Galway Races.

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The Galway Races Summer Meeting is from Monday 25 July - Sunday 31 July 2016.

This is a summary of the public transport and traffic-management plans.

• Bus Éireann special races shuttle buses will run from Eyre Square.  

• Regional companies are running special services from Athenry, Oranmore and Roscommon (via the N63) to Ballybrit,

• The Athenry Night-link service runs Wednesday-Sunday nights.

• Hotels are co-ordinating shuttle services from Loughrea and Claregalway. 
  

• The route 409 - Parkmore  and route 403 - Ballybrit city buses go to the racecourse (Avenue entrance).  But there are restrictions during peak racing traffic hours Mon - Fri.

• There are some changes to regular regional buses during race week and the next week.

GoBus fare increases, July 2016

GoBus have announced fare price rises from Monday 4 July 2016.

They have also introduced a Senior fare type, which gives a small discount for pre-purchased return tickets on Galway / Dublin / Dublin Airport services.

June 2016 bank holiday buses and trains in Galway

Monday 6 June 2016 is a Public / Bank Holiday in Ireland.

A number of public transport services have timetable changes because of this.

Express Galway / Shannon Airport bus service

Bus Éireann have announced changes to the express x51 service between Galway and Limerick, from Sunday 29 May 2016:

• Five services each way will stop at Shannon Airport - this will happen year round,not just in summer as it did in 2015.

• There are new early-morning services (from Galway at 5am and 8am, and from Limerick at 6:45am) - this makes it possible to travel from Galway City to Shannon for morning flights.

• The service from Galway is now hourly between 8am and 7pm (previously was between 9am and 6pm).

• There is a new late evening bus to Galway (9:35pm ex Limerick).

The new timetable for the the X51 service is available here.

See Galway Regional buses for details off all services to/from Galway.

See Galway airport connections for information about all services to/from airports.

Change to the terminus for bus route 405 - Ballybane

Bus Éireann have announced that from Sunday 16 May 2016 the Route 405 - Ballybane bus will go right into Ballybrit Business Park / Ballybrit Industrial estate, instead of ending at the entrance to the estate.

The new bus terminal will be outside the Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE - previously  HP, Compaq, Digital) building in Ballybrit, where a bus-shelter is available.

Buses from the city will stop at the bus-stop at the entrance to the industrial estate on request.

Cancellation of route 410 and extension of route 404 (Newcastle - Oranmore)

Image credit: Oranmore Castle.

Bus Éireann have announced that from Sunday 16 May 2016:

• Route 410 - Galway city to Oranmore is cancelled.

• Route 404 is extended to travel between Westside Shopping Centre / Newcastle and Galway Clinic, and on to Oranmore.

Extended route 350 timetable for summer 2016

Bus Éireann have announced enhancements to route 350 (Galway - Kinvara - Ballyvaughan - Lisdoonvarna - Doolin - Cliffs of Moher - Ennistymon- Ennis)

These will apply between Sunday 15 May - Saturday 29 October 2016.

• The same timetable will operate 7 days a week (ie no reduced services on Sundays).  
• The summer timetable is now extended by one month until the end of October (it ended in September in 2015).

The full timetable for summer 2016 can be found here.

See Regional buses - South for details of other bus services in this area.

For reference, the previous timeable (applies until 14 May 2016) can be see here.

No Killarney / Galway express service in summer 2016

Citylink's have advised that they will not be running a service between Galway and  Killarny in summer 2016.

See travelling between Galway and Killarney for other options for making this journey.

More buses on route 409 - Parkmore

Bus Éireann have announced improvements to the bus-service frequency on route 409 - Parkmore, effective from Sunday 3 April 2016.

• On Monday - Friday, between 7am and 7pm, there will be a bus every 12 minutes (on the hour an and at 12, 24, 36 and 48 minutes past. This is an increase from once every 15 minutes.

• On Saturdays, between 7am and 9am there will be a bus every 20 minutes (on the hour, 20 past and 20 to). This is a increase from once every 30 minutes.

• On Monday-Saturday in the evening, between 7pm and 11pm there will be a bus every 20 minutes (on the hour, 20 past and 20 to) This is a increase from once every 30 minutes. The last bus from Eyre Square will still be at 11:30pm.

• On Sundays, between 12-noon and 7pm there will be a bus every 20 minutes (on the hour, 20 past and 20 to) This is a increase from once every 30 minutes.

• On Sundays, between 7pm and 11:30pm there will be a bus every 30 minutes (on the hour and 30 minutes past) This is a increase from once every hour.

There are no changes to the existing timetable during times not listed, ie Saturday 9am-7-pm and Sunday 9am - 12-noon.

The Mon-Fri 6:30am service from Eyre Square to Parkmore via Ballybrit Industrial Estate (Boston Scientific) is unchanged.

Bus and train services in Galway during Easter 2016

Easter 2016 is from Friday 25 -  Monday 28 March.

Good Friday (the 25th) is a bank holiday but not a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland:  most public-transport run normal services, with a few exceptions.  However all pubs, hotel bars and off-licenses are closed, all banks and many publc services (eg post-office) are closed, and some other companies treat the day as a "bank holiday".

Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday are not public holidays:  usual Sat / Sun timetables generally apply.

Easter Monday is a public holiday, and in most cases Sunday services will be run.

Information from specific bus and train companies is summarised below.  Always confirm details with the company.

Buses and trains on St Patrick's Day 2016

Thursday 17th March 2016


St Patrick's Day - Lá Féile Pádraic

is a

public holiday in Ireland.

Most public transport services will run a Sunday timetable.

Most towns and cities will have a parade around lunchtime or in the early afternoon: morning public transport services are likely to be busy due to this.

Galway City Bus services

Bus Éireann will run according to the

Changes to Bus Éireann services between Galway and Mayo

Bus Éireann have announced changes to their services in County Mayo, effective from 13
March 2016.    These include a number of changes to north-Galway regional services:

Route 432: Galway – Cong

No changes to services, but all buses on this route will be renumbered as Route 456.

Route 440: Galway – Cong

• The 12:15pm service from Westport to IWAK will leave 10 minutes earlier, arriving at
• Knock Airport (IWAK) at 1:15pm
• The 2:45pm service from Knock Airport (IWAK) to Westport will leave 15 minutes later.

Route 456: Galway – Ballinrobe – Westport – Castlebar – Ballina

There will be time changes to some services to provide to better coordinated services:

• The Route 66 8:50am Westport to Ballina service will become a Route 456 journey.
• The 8:05 Galway to Ballina service will travel via Westport every day
• The 1:45pm service from Galway will now leave at 1pm
• Journey times on some buses have been revised to reflect actual travel times more accurately.

BusLink no longer stopping at Derrydonnell

Buslink have advised that from Monday 4 January 2016, the DayLink services will no longer stop at Derrydonnell.

Instead, all services will travel directly between Athenry and Galway city (with morning / evening services stopping at Mervue,  Ballybane and Parkmore industrial estates as usual).

The adjusted timetable is available here.