By Tom Austin-Morgan

With 3.2 million passengers in 2023, Ireland’s TFI network of scheduled and demand-responsive bus services now plays a vital role in addressing rural isolation, improving access to services, and supporting local economies.

Established under the National Transport Authority (NTA) and funded through Public Service Obligation (PSO) legislation and the Rural Transport Programme, TFI Local Link operates more than 1,000 routes – around 300 of which run to set timetables, while the rest are pre-booked demand responsive transport (DRT).

Speaking on behalf of TFI Local Link Kildare South Dublin, General Manager Alan Kerry explains: “Prioritising social inclusion is a key contributor to the success of Local Link services. People in rural areas have a distinctly high dependency on family and friends to undertake day-to-day journeys including social trips. Local Link’s key objective is to minimise social exclusion and to provide independence to people who have been dependent on neighbours, family, and friends.”

What makes TFI Local Link distinct is its blend of scheduled services and DRT, which can be represented in anything from 16-seater minibuses to community cars. While the Regular Rural Services (RRS) – 35-seater, low-floor accessible coaches – operate to timetables and serve established routes, the DRT offerings are flexible, and tailored to individuals who pre-book their journeys, particularly those in isolated rural locations.

“Simply put, transport provides connectivity to everyday life,” says Kerry. “We used to name our services ‘Post Office Connector’, ‘Pension Connecting Service’, or ‘Shopping Services’, but the specificity of those titles excluded people who wanted to use the service but weren’t going shopping or to the post office, they simply wanted to visit the next village or town. Now they’re simply called ‘Public Transport in Rural Areas’ and people can use it for whatever reason they want.”

Recent growth has been driven by the Connecting Ireland Rural Mobility Plan, which aims to improve frequency, coverage, and interconnectivity with other public transport. 

A growth in passengers

“In 2007, working in the regions Offaly and Kildare, 35,000 passenger trips were recorded,” Kerry explains. “In 2024 we had 238,000 passengers using the service in Kildare South Dublin. The number of services has increased in that period, but not by the same factor as passenger numbers.”

For Kildare South Dublin, the next phase, according to Kerry, is to identify the level of services needed for those with use of a private vehicle to contemplate modal shift to using Local Link instead.

“I’m not advocating for the removal of car ownership,” Kerry points out. “I’m advocating for the lessening of car dependency by providing people with a tangible alternative to using their car for every trip they want or need to make.

“There’s a mountain of challenges to overcome in relation to political sensitivity that pertains to things like road space reallocation, removal of parking spaces, and creating bus priority in rural towns. But I believe that the current system is not working for anybody. We just do not have enough space to facilitate the current level of car usage.”

However, transitioning to electric vehicles poses a challenge. The diversity of the fleet and the dispersed nature of services mean range, charging infrastructure and capital costs must all be considered.

“We need to improve, as a state and a country, to hasten the recognition and take the emphasis off the vehicle and onto the infrastructure, which just isn’t there yet,” says Kerry. “There are parts of the state working hard under the alternative fuel infrastructure regulations from the EU. 

“However, I would say at this moment in time that the key focus for TFI Local Link Kildare South Dublin is to get people onto a bus, regardless of the fuel source of that vehicle. Having 30 people on even a diesel-powered bus is still much more emission friendly than 30 individual cars.”

Looking ahead, further expansion of routes and integration with the broader TFI network in Kildare South Dublin are on the cards. Plans include more frequent services, additional evening and weekend coverage, and the continued blending of fixed and demand-responsive models.

TFI Local Link offers a compelling case study in decentralised service delivery, resilient scheduling under constrained resources, and the evolving role of transport infrastructure in climate transition planning.

It also underscores a core insight often overlooked in urban-centred transport debates: rural areas require tailored, adaptable solutions, and with the right mix of policy support, community engagement, and engineering knowledge, those solutions can be transformative. 

Read more from CIHT: CIHT responds to Transport Committee Inquiry on ‘Buses connecting communities’.

Image: sign pointing the way to the local link public transport. Credit: Shutterstock.