Limerick’s city bus service, operated by Bus Éireann, is set to become Ireland’s first fully electric regional city bus service, as part of a 54-million-euro investment by the National Transport Authority (NTA).
The new service is to be officially launched April 12 by Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan at Limerick’s Colbert Station.
As part of the investment, 55 new state-of-the-art double-deck battery electric buses, operated by Ireland’s national bus company Bus Éireann, will service more than 2.1 million emission-free kilometers across Limerick annually. Currently, 34 all-electric buses are in Limerick ahead of their introduction into complete service, with another 21 of these buses expected to enter service in early 2025.
This all-electric service will be enabled by a network of 35 Hitachi Energy charging stations (providing a total of 70 charging guns), with 15 of these charging stations already in place. The remaining 20 charging stations are expected to be operational in early 2025.
The NTA’s investment builds on recent double-digit year-on-year passenger growth across Bus Éireann’s Limerick city services. In 2023, Bus Éireann provided over 44 million passenger trips nationally. Of those, 4.6 million were in Limerick, representing a 15% increase (600,000 more journeys) compared with 2022.
The electric buses will be charged using newly installed charging infrastructure at Limerick’s Roxboro depot. Construction and installation work was carried out by Hitachi Energy.
Bus Éireann employs more than 300 people in Limerick and continues to invest in growing the team across all its operations.
In preparation for the new electric service, Bus Éireann drivers and mechanics have undergone a comprehensive training program — more than 500 hours — on the driving, maintenance and operation of the state-of-the-art new fleet.
“It is great to see the launch of electrified bus services in Limerick city today,” says Ryan. “This follows on from the successful rollout of a fully electrified town bus service in Athlone last year and the ongoing decarbonization of the Dublin bus fleet. Government is committed to the greening of our public transport services, and today represents an important step toward meeting our climate targets, while also providing a quieter, cleaner bus service for the people of Limerick. In other city and town locations people have responded to the transformation of our public transport services in their droves, and I fully expect it will be the very same here in Limerick.”
