Dublin buses

Areas served and route maps

  • Buses serve all areas of Central Dublin, and many suburbs in the Greater Dublin Area too. The main provider of services is Dublin Bus, but some private operators, including Go-Ahead Ireland also run bus routes in the city.

Operators of Dublin bus services

  • Dublin Bus is the main provider of short to medium distance bus journeys within the capital.

  • Bus Eireann provides bus services catering for longer journeys within the Dublin area. You can view Bus Eireann’s Dublin area services here.

  • Some short-distance routes (previously operated by Dublin Bus) have been recently privatised and are provided by a company called Go-Ahead. A few other private operators provide bus services too (many of these serve Dublin Airport — see our Dublin Airport bus page for details).

Hours of operation

Hours of operation vary by route, but depending on your stop, you can usually catch buses in Dublin as early as 5am and as late as 12am. Check timetables to see first and last bus times for your stop.

Frequency

  • Frequency of buses varies by route and time of day — however, on core routes you can usually expect buses every 5-15 minutes during rush hour (7am to 9am and 5pm-7pm).

  • Dublin Bus also provides 24-hour services on 10 bus routes across the city. You can find out more about these here.

  • There can be gaps in bus schedules however, so we always recommend consulting a route planner or timetables before travelling on Dublin bus services.

Timetables and travel alerts

  • You can view timetables for particular routes on the Dublin Bus website. However, these do not always provide precise information for every stop, so many passengers will find it more useful to use a journey planner instead. Please see our Dublin route planner section for more information on how to do this.

  • Real-time travel information is provided on screens at many bus stops in Central Dublin. It is also provided online - please see our travel alerts section for more information.

Wheelchair access on Dublin buses

Dublin buses are low-floor and wheelchair accessible.

Additionally, Dublin Bus runs a travel assistance scheme to help those with a mobility impairment to travel around Dublin using either bus, train or trams.

Find out more about travelling in Dublin as a wheelchair user here.

Tickets and fares for Dublin bus services

  • You can pay for tickets on Dublin buses using either cash, or a smartcard called a ‘Leap Card.’

  • Paying via ‘Leap Card’ is cheapest. You can buy one online from the Leap Card website or from a variety of outlets in Dublin. You can top up a Leap Card with credit as necessary, and benefit from up to 31% savings on public transport in Dublin.

  • If you want to pay by cash on Dublin buses, you should ideally provide the exact fare — no change is provided.

  • If you are visiting Dublin for a few days you might wish to consider using a Visitor Leap Card, which allows you to travel for 1, 3 or 7 days for set prices. More information about this option is available in our ‘Buying tickets’ section.

  • On normal buses, fares range from €1.50 (for three stops, paid via a Leap Card) up to €2.60 (for travelling over 13 stops, paid via cash).

  • Fares for ‘Xpresso’ buses (express buses) are higher, with a flat fare of €2.40 (Leap Card) or €3.10 (cash).

The ‘Buying tickets’ section of our website contains more information about travel costs on public transport in Dublin, along with an overview of how the various travel zones work.

See also