South East commuters feel the sting of loss of Expressway service
As the crow flies: an Expressway bus sits idle in Waterford Bus Station, May 2026.
In May 2026, Bus Éireann cancelled a number of major routes on its Expressway premium service, citing 'significant' financial losses.
The announcement was met with an outpouring of criticism with many people concerned about their everyday commute to school/ work/ family, especially in Waterford.
There is now only one bus service going from Dublin/ Dublin Airport straight to Waterford. A fleet of buses with 53-seat capacity and operated by a private company, the service is more popular than ever.
What could go wrong...
Last Saturday evening, I stepped aboard the 8.30pm service going from Zone 16 carpark at Dublin Airport bound for Waterford. I had booked the seat two hours earlier right before my flight took off on time (which is not always a given). I was lucky but many other people were not.
There was an elderly man, with his Free Travel card in his shaking hand, turned away because the bus was fully booked. There was a mother with her two teenage daughters who had booked the 7pm service but their flight had been delayed. A single ticket for the bus costs €28.04. This mother paid almost €100 for public transport, only to be denied it. The driver told her that the next service would be in three hours time, but that it would likely be full booked.
One of the teenage girls started crying. I would too.
Yet the worst was yet to come. A father of two infant children tried to get on with his ticket, only to be told that he couldn't place his children on his lap and there were no extra seats for the children. The man refused to take his double stroller out of the luggage hold in protest and airport police had to be called. The bus left 20 minutes later, leaving behind a number of sobbing teens and scared children.
Going through Dublin City was no picnic either, with one woman refusing to take her foot off the door outside Heuston Station.
Everyone on that bus felt that queasy sense of guilt mixed with relief seeing all these people, weary travellers like themselves, be denied public transport.
The driver was simply doing the best he could under the circumstances. It was an awful situation where no one is in the wrong; the conditions wrong.
It was an experience that reveals the misnomer of 'public transport' in Ireland. How 'public' can it be when people, including the elderly and infant children, are left to whither on a barren street corner for hours on end?
But I've written about this before. Now, I want to hear from you; how has the loss of public transport services impacted you? Have you ever tried to get to Dungarvan from Kilmeadan and ended up losing two and a half hours of your one wild and precious life? Have you ever stood at Waterford Bus Station, wondering where the 40 or 55 bus had gone, alongside a dozen other anxious travellers?
I want to hear about it. Trust and believe, you are not alone.
Your voice matters. If you have insights, experiences, or details that could shed more light on the subject of this article you can get in touch at caroline.spencer@waterford-news.com. All insights and tips will be treated with the utmost confidentiality.
