The best app for Dublin’s public transport

Transit is now live across Ireland, with support for Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, and beyond.

For the past few months we’ve been hacking away at Irish public transport data, adding buses and trams and trains and bikeshare systems like no tomorrow, while bickering fiercely about the shade of yellow used by Dublin Bus.

In the spring, when we heard the Dublin Bus app had been retired, we saw an opportunity to give Dubliners a public transport app that would make them proud. (And if it didn’t make them feel proud, at least it would make them feel fancy.)

On we went, integrating all the transport systems in the capital:

• Dublin Bus
• Luas
• Irish Rail
• DART
• GoAhead Ireland 
• Dublinbikes 🚲

But why stop there? We then added support for Ireland’s other cities: Cork, Limerick, Galway, Kilkenny, Navan, Drogheda, Swords ⚔️, Waterford, Wexford, and beyond, with the following transport systems:

• Bus Éireann
• TFI Local Link
• Citylink
• Aircoach ✈️
• Dublin Express ✈️
• Citylink
• Swords Express
• Wexford Bus
• Ashbourne Connect

Transit became the #1 navigation app in the country, and the #5 app in Ireland, overall. 😱📈

There are a couple of glaring omissions: we’re still chasing down City Direct in Galway, while a few other feeds have some loose threads in need of mending.

Otherwise, our roll-out across the Republic has been as smooth as Kerrygold butter. You lot in Ireland are a fun and friendly bunch, but what else would you expect from the inventors of good craic?

Moreover, we’re not just adding data feeds into Transit willy-nilly — we want to understand what’s going on in the field, how you’re using our app, and what changes we can make at Transit to improve your commuting experience in Dublin and elsewhere.

Which is why we’ve partnered up with the Dublin Commuter Coalition, who are helping us find our sea legs. They’re a terrific bunch — we’ll be helping them get the word out about their projects aimed at improving public transport and cycling infrastructure around Dublin.

To thank our friends at the commuter coalition, we’ve given them (and everyone else in Dublin!) a free subscription to Royale for the next six months, to unlock additional features in the app.

After that, Royale will remain free for folks who sign up to become a commuter coalition member. (Which we heartily suggest you do — they’re helping make Dublin a paradise for public transport riders, pedestrians, and cyclists.)

Getting started with Transit

When you download Transit, you’ll be able to see upcoming departure times across Ireland, check schedules, plan a-to-b trips (even ones that span multiple transport systems & modes), see what connecting lines are available at your stop, and more.

But what makes Transit especially suited for Dublin commuters, and those across the rest of Ireland?

We’ve designed Transit to give you the right information at the right time: when you open the app, you’ll see upcoming departure times for nearby transport lines across the capital. No more need to plan a trip from your “current location” just to get the nearby bus and train times.

Besides being fabulously practical, Transit is also able to deliver more reliable real-time data.

If you’ve ever had the displeasure of waiting outside Hodges Figgis with a bag of books in the rain wondering why the bus promised in “5 minutes” showed up 10 minutes late (or didn’t show up at all) — you’ll be relieved to know Transit is on the case.

We’re constantly monitoring operators’ feeds, watching for errors, cleaning them up, with a support team ready to pounce whenever a data feed starts waffling 🌀😵

Moreover, Transit improves the accuracy of bus location data thanks to GO. It’s a feature that lets Transit users send their current vehicle location to folks down the line who are still waiting for that bus or train. Those vehicle locations come with less latency and more precision than the locations we get from transport operators.

As more folks in Dublin (and the rest of Ireland) begin using Transit and GO, the data quality in your city will become all that much better.

With a glorious combination of rigorous data cleaning, GO, and other forthcoming tricks up our sleeve… we expect to make inroads in Dublin’s (and the rest of Ireland’s) data quality in the coming months.

It doesn’t mean our data will be perfect, but we’ll get closer than most mortals.

Did we miss your local system? Have a suggestion for how we can improve the app in Ireland? Get in touch!