90-minute Leap Card cited as reason public transport use has hit a record high
Public transport use in Dublin was the highest on record for 2025.
This figure comes from a presentation delivered to Dublin City Council’s Mobility and Public Realm SPC on the soon to be published Canal Cordon Report. This report collects several data points on those entering Dublin’s Canal Cordon, which is an imaginary boundary formed by the Grand Canal and the Royal Canal that encircles the city centre.
Executive Manager Brendan O'Brien said one likely reason for the increase is the 90 minute Leap Card fare which has “revolutionised” how people use public transport in the city. However, the report shows that walking is down year-on-year from 9.6% to 8.8%, with Mr O’Brien joking “we’ve made public transport too attractive”.
“If you’re a student there’s €1 fare, which means €10 they can get in and out all week,” he said. “It’s a good news story and no two ways about it, the 90 minute Leap Card made a huge difference to how people use public transport.”
Collecting Dublin City Council surveys on pedestrian, cyclist, cars, taxis, buses, goods vehicles and motorbikes, as well as info from Dublin Bus, Irish Rail, and Transport Infrastructure Ireland, the report was first carried out in 1980 and has been overseen by the National Transport Authority since 2009.
Focused on the peak rush hour period of 7am to 10am, it’s intended to offer a snapshot of commuter habits over time and the 2025 report shows that 75% of journeys entering central Dublin on a sustainable mode of transport, whether that’s cycling, public transport, or walking.
Total trips into the city centre are also at a record high with 198,000 people travelling into Dublin city every day. Eoin Farrell from the NTA revealed that public transport accounts for 60% of commuters and is made up of approximately 68,000 bus users (34%), 15,000 on the Luas (7.7%), and 35,000 via Irish Rail (17.5%).
“We’re now seeing a continual uplift in the number of passengers using public transport across all modes,” he said.
Mr O’Brien explained that Dublin is unique when it comes to public transport use, as most major cities saw a significant decline in use during Covid that they were never able to recover from. “Numbers jumping is accounted for by public transport, which is a really great sign from a sustainable point of view,” he said.
However, councillors questioned if more people are opting to use public transport, why the city is still so congested and what measures are being put in place to streamline bus journeys, which travel at an average speed of just 8 kilometres per hour in the city.
Green Party Councillor Feljin Jose criticised the “glacial” pace of buses and said although BusConnects aims to upgrade the city’s public transport system in the coming years, there should be more measures in the immediate future. Fellow Green Cllr Donna Cooney agreed and said they should expand the urban cycle network faster, which will encourage more people to cycle while providing extra capacity on buses.
Cllr Cooney also called for more secure bike parking , stating people don’t want to invest large amounts of money in e-bikes if they have to risk parking them on the street. “We need to move quicker and fast and we need funding to do that,” she said.
From a percentage point of view of the overall figures, cycling has actually gone down from 5.5% to 4.9% year-on-year from 2024 to 2025, yet there is a shift toward sustainable modes of transport. However, this data does not include trips starting and ending within canals, where pedestrians and cyclists account for a much higher share.
Mr O’Brien said work funded by the NTA is being undertaken to reduce public transport and identify the areas that are slowing buses down. “If people are making the choice to use public transport, it behoves us to remove as many obstacles as we can,” he said, stating they present their findings to the Mobility SPC within the next six to 12 months.
The full findings of the Canal Cordon Report 2025 have yet to be published but will be made available online at an undetermined date in the near future.
This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme