Christmas 2021 / New Year 2022 bus and train services in Galway

A summary of  bus and train services in Galway city and county 

for the

2021 Christmas and 2022 New Year period.

This is based on information published by the bus companies, and may change.
  Always check the services you want to use with the bus company.

Christmas Park and Ride - Galway city 2021

A park-and-ride service will run in Galway City for the Christmas 2021 shopping period.

It will run daily between Saturday 11 - Friday 24 December, and is being operated by Callanan Coaches, on behalf of Galway City Council.

City Direct fare increases

City Direct Galway have announced that from Wednesday 1 December 2021:

• Adult single cash fare is going up from €2.50 to €2.70
• Adult single Leap fare is going up from €2.00 to €2.20
• Student single Leap fare is going up from €1.70 to €1.90

See Galway City bus fares for full information about Galway city bus prices.

More Citylink buses between Galway and Dublin each day

Citylink have announced that they will be running 10 extra services between Galway and Dublin Airport each day, from Monday 25 October 2021.

The new timetables aren't loaded on their website yet, but comparing the journey planner shows that the extra services are at:

Galway to Dublin / Dublin Airport

• 6:15am
• 10:30 am  (EagleAir - express service)
• 2:30 pm  (EagleAir - express service)
• 4:15pm
• 6:15pm

Dublin / Dublin Airport to Galway

• 12:30am - ie just after midnight  (EagleAir - express service)
• 8:15 am  
• 6:15 pm  (EagleAir - express service)
• 10:15pm
• 11:30pm - this is a time-change for the previous 11:15pm service, which is no longer running.

This brings CityLink back to having an at-least-hourly service between Dublin and Galway between 6am and midnight, and between Galway and Dublin between 5am and 7pm.

See Galway - East regional buses for information about other services on this route.

New daily bus between Loughrea and Limerick, via Athenry and Gort

Update

Despite extensive interest being indicated, this service did not get enough custom.   It was cancelled a week after being launched.

Original announcement

Farrells of Athenry have announced that they will run a daily bus between Loughrea and Limerick, via Athenry and Gort, from Monday 4 October.

This is a Monday - Friday service:

• Leaving Loughrea at 7am and arriving at UL at 8:45am
• Leaving UL at 6pm and arriving at Loughrea at 7:45pm
• With an extra UL to Loughrea service at 12-noon on Friday

Bus stops are at Loughrea shopping centre, Swan Gate - Kenny Park carpark in Athenry, Town square Gort (AIB bank), Mary Immaculate - South Circular Road, Limerick IT and University of Limerick.

Tickets are purchased on the coach.   Return and weekly tickets are available.   There are no separate student / adult tickets:   This service is planned for students who cannot find accommodation in Limerick, but is open to anyone. 

Bus Eireann route 20 / x20 Galway to Dublin and Dublin airport - cancelled

Bus Éireann Expressway coach parked at Galway bus station.

Bus Eireann have announced that all buses on Route 20 and x20, Galway / Dublin City / Dublin airport will be cancelled, effective from Thursday 29 July 2021.   

This change was first announced during 2020, with the new announcement adding the exact date it takes effect.

Alternative services

Some aspect of this service will be replaced by the new Aircoach route 706x Galway / Dublin City+airport service which is starting the same day.

Other towns previously served by the route 20 are Craughwell, Loughrea, Aughrim, Moate, Kilbeggan, and Kinnegad.  They are still served by the CityLink multi-stop / commuter route 763 service.  However there will be fewer services overall  each day:  the CityLink service currently has 8 buses each way per day and Bus Éireann has 4.  Effectively, each day there will be 8 fewer buses each day stopping in these towns (4 going west, 4 going east).  CityLink does accept the Free Travel Pass, although they charge a free of €3 per journey for Free Travel passengers who want to book in advance.

GoBus and CityLink also operate regular express services between Galway and Dublin.

See eastern Galway regional bus services for more details of the options.

New Galway/Dublin coach service

Aircoach has announced a new coach / bus service, the 706x between Galway and Dublin airport, which will start from on Thursday 29 July 2021.

Aircoach will offer ten services per day, Monday to Sunday, between Galway City and Dublin City and Dublin Airport.   Of these:

• 2 coaches each day will stop at Galway Coach Station, GMIT, Athlone and Athlone-IT and Dublin Airport only
• 2 coaches each day will stop at the same places, plus Dublin city-centre
• 4 coaches will also stop at Portincula Hospital (Ballinasloe), Maynooth and Dublin city.

The full timetable is now available on their website.   Tickets can be 

Customers can pre-book tickets up to two hours before a journey.    Tickets can be purchased from drivers on a walk-up basis, but this is not recommended as yet, due to Covid-19 loading restrictions.

Effectively this service replaces the Bus Éireann Expressway route x20 service, which has been serving this route, but is cancelled from the same day.   

Galway City arrivals and departures will all be from the private Coach Station.

Fares start from adult single Galway to Dublin city - buy online for $15.

 

Galway - Limerick evening service re-instatement

Bus Éireann's Expressway have announced that from Friday, 25 June 2021, the last bus on Route 51 will be a Galway to Limerick service, leaving Galway at 7.05pm.

This re-instates an early-evening bus serving south Galway and north Clare, which was cancelled in May this year, to great local dismay.

An announcement shared by a local radio station, but not on Expressway's own website, says that

guaranteed seat booking for the restored service will be available online at expressway.ie within a week of the resumption.

See south-Galway regional buses for information about other services in this area

Cancellations on the GoBus Galway / Dublin service

Gobus have announced changes to their route 720 - Galway / Dublin city / Dublin airport service, effective from Monday 24 May 2021.

The following buses are cancelled:

• 8:45am and 11:45am from Galway to Dublin City then Airport
• Friday and Sunday 5:45pm from Galway to Dublin City then Airport
• Sunday only 7:45pm from Galway to Dublin City then Airport
• 1:45pm and 4:45pm from Dublin Airport then city to Galway
• Friday and Sunday 10:45pm Dublin Airport then city to Galway.

Despite these cancellations, Gobus are still offering eight departures a day between Galway and Dublin, with times spread throughout the day, including services to suit early-morning check-in times.

See Galway eastern regional buses for information about other services on this route.

 

Cancellations on Bus Éireann expressway routes - May 2021

Bus Éireann Expressway have announced cancellations to a number of services, effective from Saturday 15 May 2021. 

Galway services that are affected are listed below.

Route 51 (Galway / Shannon / Limerick / Cork)

• The 6:05pm, 7:05pm and 8:05pm buses from Galway are cancelled
• The 5:05pm bus from Galway only travels to Limerick
• The 6:25pm bus from Cork is cancelled
• The 3:25 and 5:25 buses from Cork only travel to Limerick

See south-Galway regional buses for information about other services in this area

Route 64 (Galway / Claremorris / Sligo / Letterkenny / Derry)

• The 12-noon bus from Galway to Sligo is cancelled
• The Friday-only 4pm and 6:10pm buses from Galway via Milltown to Sligo are cancelled
• The Friday-only 8:15pm bus from Galway to Sligo via Dunmore / Ballyhaunis / Knock is cancelled

See north-Galway regional buses for information about other services in this area

Easter 2021 bus and train services

Easter this year is from Friday 2 - Monday 5 April 2021.

Good Friday (the 2nd) is a bank holiday but not a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland:  All banks and many public services (eg post-office) are closed, but most public-transport will operate according to their normal Friday timetables.

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

Easter Monday is a public holiday and a bank holiday, and in most cases Sunday timetables apply.

Information from bus and train companies is summarised below.  Always confirm details with the company.  Bookings are recommended, because there are a number of events happening this weekend.

Covid-19 and public transport

All public transport services are running at 25% capacity, and are only available for essential travel.   Pre-booking is strongly recommended.

Bus Éireann separates Expressway and Non-Expressway tickets

Bus Éireann have announced changes to their ticketing, effective from Tuesday, 23 February 2021.  When you buy a ticket for a journey that is served by both Expressway and PSO (ie government subsidised) Bus Éireann buses:

• You must choose the type of bus (ie Expressway or non-Expressway) when you buy the ticket, and
• You can only use the ticket on the type of bus that it is for.

This means that tickets for Expressway services can only be used on Expressway services, and tickets for Bus Éireann PSO services (ie everything but Expressway services), can only be used on non-Expressway routes.

This is different from the past, when Expressway coaches accepted regular Bus Éireann tickets and vice versa.

Consequences for longer journeys

If you want to travel with Bus Éireann from a place that is not served by Expressway services, to somewhere far-away that is , eg from Oughterard to Dublin, then you will need to buy two separate tickets.   One will be for the  non-Expressway part of the journey eg Oughterard to Galway, and one for the Galway to Dublin (ie Expressway) part of the trip.

This change will be phased in over four weeks, from 23-February to 23 March 2021. 

However it is already (20-Feb-2021) impossible book through-journeys in one transaction on the Bus Éireann website;  If you try, you get a message that "There are no direct journeys for your search."   And it is very likely that you will not be able to buy tickets for through journeys on-board buses from 23-February.

If the Bus Éireann website or driver tells you that "there are no direct journeys for your trip" then you need to buy separate tickets (single or return) for each part of the trip.   And because the website doesn't have a shopping-cart, you need to do a separate transaction for each part of the trip: there is no way to group tickets together and buy them all in one transaction.

Questions can be emailed to CustomerCare@expressway.ie
All e-tickets will be issued from tickets@expressway.ie

A high-level map of Expressway services is available here.

Note:   There are some cases where an Expressway coach is used to provide a non-Expressway service, for example an Expressway coach is sometimes seen on route 424-Spiddal.   Presumably in these cases, the non-Expressway rules will apply because it is a non-Expressway route.

Other changes to Expressway ticketing

A number of other changes are being make to the Expressway ticketing system, from Tuesday 23-February-2021:   

• Advance Seat reservations will be available on all all Expressway routes, including an option for Free Travel Scheme passengers.
• There will be priority boarding for pre-booked customers:  walk-up passengers will only be accepted if there is a seat available for them.
• On-coach payments can be made using Contactless, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and TFI Leap Card.

Note that these features will not be available for non-Expressway services.

Reduction in Bus Éireann services to Dublin

Bus Éireann have announced that from Saturday 30 January 2021, Expressway route X20 (Galway/ Dublin/Dublin airport) will be reduced

• 
  The number of buses in each direction on weekdays (Monday - Friday) is reduced from 14 to 6:  the earliest bus is now at 7am (previously 5am) and the latest at 6pm (was 8pm)

• The number of buses in each direction on weekends (Saturday-Sunday) is reduced from to 12 to 6:  the earliest bus is now at 7am (previously 7am) and the latest at 6pm (was 8pm)  

See Galway Regional Buses for information about other services to Dublin city and airport.