One in every three buses was late over the past three years, new National Transport Authority statistics for Galway city have revealed
The data, spanning three years, and covering six core city routes, was obtained via a Freedom of Information request. It provides hard statistics for analysis by commuters and planners who require dependable, on-time services year after year.
The statistics have been gleaned from analysis of NTA coded journey records, set out in spreadsheets covering the city’s 401 (Dr Mannix Road, Parkmore Industrial Estate ), 402 (Seacrest, Merlin Park ), 404 (Newcastle, Oranmore ), 405 (Rahoon, Ballybane ), 407 (Eyre Square, Bóthar an Chóiste ) and 409 (Eyre Square, Parkmore Industrial Estate ) bus routes.
For routes where punctuality was recorded, performance was patchy throughout the period. From 2023 to 2025, on-time departures hover at around two-thirds of services, meaning one in every three buses arrived late over three years.
Some of Galway’s busiest routes perform worse. Route 404 records on-time performance of just over 63 per cent, while Route 401, serving major residential areas and employment centres, averages around 65 per cent.
Even the strongest performer, Route 402, struggles to exceed 74 per cent punctuality; well below what many commuters expect from a reliable, urban bus system in a city which provides no alternative mass transport choices.
For commuters, these percentages are not abstract. They translate into missed connections, unpredictable arrival times, longer commutes and daily uncertainty, particularly for workers, students, and those without access to a car.
The FOI figures also show that reliability regularly breaks down into outright service loss.
Across the three-year period, some reporting periods show routes delivering as little as 80 per cent of their planned service, meaning one-in-five scheduled buses never appeared. These failures occur most often on Routes 401 and 409, the routes relied upon by the highest number of daily commuters.
When measured cumulatively, the scale of this failure becomes stark.
From 2023 to 2025, Route 409 alone failed to operate more than 74,000 kilometres of scheduled service, while Route 401 lost some 51,000 kilometres. Combined, those two routes account for well over 125,000 kilometres of bus services that were planned, but never delivered. Smaller, though still significant, shortfalls are recorded across the remaining routes, confirming that this is not a once-off issue, or a singularly bad year.
Taken together, the FOI data confirms a simple truth: what people see on the ground is real. The problem is not perception, social media complaints or isolated disruption, it is a pattern that has persisted for years.
Despite repeated commitments to encourage people out of their cars, and onto public transport, these figures show that Galway’s bus system continues to struggle with the most basic requirement of any service: reliability.
As the city grows, and congestion worsens, the data raises a stark question for the NTA and the Galway City Council: how can commuters be asked to trust the public transport system when the numbers show it has not been dependable for years?
Sai Gujulla is a community activist, and former Student Union president at University of Galway
