If you’re planning to be out and about over the Halloween Bank Holiday weekend, you can expect changes to public transport schedules. Irish Rail (including DART) users will be most affected due to engineering works on some lines. We’ve also compiled the major alterations for Dublin Bus, Luas and Bus Éireann.

As always on a bank holiday, services are expected to be busy – so it’s best to book in advance if possible and leave plenty of extra time for your journey.

IRISH RAIL

DART

Engineering works will take place between Killester and Skerries on Saturday and Sunday. As a result, the following changes will take place on those days:

• No service between Dublin Connolly and Malahide/Howth. Dublin Bus will accept valid rail tickets.
• Drogheda/Dundalk services will operate between Dundalk/Drogheda and Skerries, with bus transfers between Skerries/Donabate and Connolly.
• Rush & Lusk station will be closed. Dublin Bus will accept valid rail tickets for travel between Rush & Lusk and Connolly.

CORK, LIMERICK AND TRALEE

FRIDAY

• Bus transfers will operate between Cork and Mallow on Dublin/Cork services after the 4pm Heuston/Cork and 6:20pm Cork/Heuston departures.
• Bus transfers will operate between Mallow and Banteer on the Tralee line after the 5:05pm Heuston/Tralee and 5:05pm Tralee/Cork departures.

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY

• Bus transfers will operate between Cork and Mallow on all Cork services.
• Bus transfers will operate between Banteer and Mallow on all Tralee services.
• There will be an altered timetable on services between Limerick and Limerick Junction. They will connect with Cork services at Limerick Junction.
• All other Limerick services to Galway, Ballybrophy and Waterford will operate with revised times.
• The 6:20am Cork/Tralee service will be a bus transfer throughout.

MONDAY

• Bus transfers will operate between Cork and Mallow on the following services:
  • 7am Heuston/Cork
  • 7am Cork/Heuston
  • 9:20am Cork/Heuston
  • 1:35pm Cork/Heuston (deferred)
• Bus transfers will operate between Cork and Charleville on the following services:
  • 9am Heuston/Cork
  • 10am Heuston/Cork
  • 10:20am Cork/Heuston
  • 11:20am Cork/Heuston
  • 12:20pm Cork/Heuston
• Bus transfers will operate between Banteer and Mallow on the 7:05am, 9:05am and 11:05am Tralee/Heuston services.
• Bus transfers will operate between Cork and Banteer on the 8:55am Cork/Tralee service.
• Bus transfers will operate between Charleville and Tralee on the 11:20am Mallow/Tralee service.

BELFAST AND NORTHERN COMMUTER 

• All Dublin/Belfast services will run as bus transfers on Saturday and Sunday. Buses will serve Drogheda, Dundalk, Newry, Portadown, Lurgan and Lisburn. Exceptions:
  • The 6:45am Belfast/Dublin service on Saturday will not call at Lisburn or Lurgan.
  • The 4:50pm Dublin/Belfast service on Saturday will not call at Drogheda.
• Drogheda and Dundalk commuter services will operate between Dundalk/Drogheda and Skerries only, with a bus transfer between Skerries and Connolly also stopping at Donabate.

NORMAL SERVICE WILL APPLY ON THE FOLLOWING LINES:

• Galway and Westport
• Waterford
• Portlaoise and Kildare
• Rosslare
• Sligo

DUBLIN BUS

A Sunday service will be in operation on Monday. Otherwise, services over the weekend will operate as normal.

NITELINK

A full Nitelink service will operate on Friday and Saturday, but there will be no Nitelink on Sunday. Note that departure times on Saturday are not affected by the clocks going back one hour; i.e. times are as they would be otherwise.

DUBLIN MARATHON

Diversions will be in place to a number of bus services between 7pm on Friday and 6pm on Monday due to Dublin Marathon. Full details are on the Dublin Bus website.

FINGAL FESTIVAL OF FIRE

Diversions will be in place in Swords on Tuesday 31^st between 8pm, due to the Fingal Festival of Fire. Full details are on the Dublin Bus website.

BUS ÉIREANN

SUNDAY

Normal service with the following cancellations:

• 8pm/10:30pm Dublin/Waterford
• 6pm/7:30pm Waterford/Busáras/DCU
• 3pm Donegal/Pettigo/Dublin
• 9pm Dublin/Donegal/Glenties
• 3:30pm Dundalk/Galway
• 6pm Galway/Dundalk
• 10pm Carlow/Athlone
• 3:45pm Lismore/Waterford

MONDAY

Sunday service with the following cancellations:

• 7pm Monaghan/Portrush
• 2:45pm Portrush/Monaghan
• 3:30pm Dundalk/Galway
• 6pm Galway/Dundalk
• 10pm Carlow/Athlone
• 12:50pm Galway/Clifden
• 4:15pm Clifden/Galway

The following additional services will operate:

• 8:40am Westport/Claremorris (will connect with the 8:35am service from Ballina at Claremorris)
• 6pm Monaghan/Belfast
• 1:30pm Clifden/Galway, followed by the normal weekday timetable
• 6:15pm Galway/Clifden, followed by the normal weekday timetable
• 8:05am Galway/Ballinrobe/Westport/Ballina , followed by the normal weekday timetable
• 4:30pm Ballina/Westport/Ballinrobe/Galway
• 7:30am Ballybofey/Derry
• 6:10pm Derry/Ballybofey

Cork City

Normal Sunday timetable with the following additional services:

• Route 202: 6:35am from Merchant’s Quay / 7am from Apple Hollyhill
• Route 215: 6:30am, 7:30am and 8:15am from Grand Parade to Mahon Point
• Route 226: 7:30am and 8:30am from Parnell Place to Airport / 3pm and 4pm from Airport to Parnell Place

LUAS

Sunday service on Monday; otherwise all services will run as normal.

Main image by Flickr user calflier001, used under CC-BY-SA-2.0 licence