Dublin City Guide

Public transport

Operator. Behind the abbreviation TFI is the state National Transport Authority, which sets the fare for all operators in the greater Dublin area. The city buses are shared between Dublin Bus and Go-Ahead Ireland, which makes no difference to passengers since both use the same prices and the same Leap Card. The two Luas lines are operated by Transdev on behalf of Transport Infrastructure Ireland. DART and Commuter Rail belong to Iarnród Éireann. What matters is that bus, Luas, DART and suburban rail within Zone 1 fall under a shared price cap. Anyone who uses all four in a single day still never pays more than the daily cap. Bus Éireann also operates in Dublin, but is not included in some offers, for instance the Leap Visitor Card.

Network. Two tram lines called Luas plus buses and the DART suburban line along the coast.

Modes of transport. Bus · Tram (Luas) · S-Bahn (DART) · Suburban train (Commuter Rail)

Operating hours. The Luas has fixed operating hours. Monday to Friday it runs from 5:30am to 12:30am, Saturdays from 6:30am to 12:30am, Sundays and public holidays from 7am to 11pm. On 25 December the Luas doesn't run at all. Peak time is defined as 7am to 10am and 4pm to 7pm on weekdays, and 11am to 8pm at weekends and on public holidays. During those times a tram comes every 3 to 4 minutes, otherwise every 10 to 15 minutes. The picture is different for buses, because Dublin runs fifteen lines around the clock, seven days a week. These include 15, 39a, 41, 80, C1, C2, C5, C6, E1, E2, F1, F2, G1, G2 and N4. Anyone arriving late or needing to leave early is often better served by these than by the tram.

Night service. Dublin has two separate night services. One is the fifteen 24-hour bus lines, which run through every night at the normal fare. The other is Nitelink, a weekend-only service running on Friday and Saturday nights. Twelve lines start from the city centre out to the suburbs, numbered 7n, 29n, 31n, 33n, 42n, 46n, 49n, 69n, 70n, 77n, 84n and 88n. Departure points are D'Olier Street, Westmoreland Street and Aston Quay, all three just a few steps from O'Connell Bridge. Nitelink has its own fare, 2.40 euros for adults with the Leap Card and 1.20 euros for young adults and students, 3.10 euros cash. Important for visitors, the 90-minute fare does not apply on Nitelink, so a transfer isn't included. For tourists that's usually beside the point, since Nitelink lines head outward rather than running within the city centre.

Buying tickets. The standard TFI Leap Card is available nationwide at over 2,000 locations, including all post offices and the PostPoint shops in supermarkets and kiosks. Top-ups are also possible there, as well as at station ticket machines, online, and automatically via Auto Top-Up. For short-term visitors, the Leap Visitor Card is the better option, since it's a flat-rate pass and needs no credit. It's available right on arrival at the airport, at WHSmith and the T1 convenience store in Terminal 1, and at SPAR in Terminal 2. In the city it's sold by, among others, the Dublin Bus office, several Spar branches, the GPO on O'Connell Street, Trinity College and the train stations. Cards ordered online arrive by post, which is only worthwhile with enough lead time. On the bus you can also board without a card and pay the driver in cash. That doesn't work on the Luas, where tickets are only sold at the machine at the stop, none are sold on board. An unused Visitor Card expires twelve months after purchase, the chosen validity period only starts on first use.

App and payment. Dublin has several TFI apps, and the one with the most obvious name is, of all things, useless for the city. The TFI Go App sells tickets for Bus Éireann, TFI Local Link and some private operators, but explicitly not for Dublin Bus, Luas or DART. For Dublin, the TFI Leap Top-Up App is the one that counts. It tops up the physical Leap Card via NFC, you simply hold the card to the back of the phone. It works on NFC-capable Android devices and from the iPhone 7 onwards. The app shows the balance, the last five transactions and how far along you are toward the daily cap. The card itself stays physical though, there's no pure phone ticket for bus and Luas. Only the bus driver accepts cash, the Luas needs a card or the machine.

Which ticket. Dublin doesn't sell a classic day ticket, instead it caps the price. With the TFI Leap Card an adult pays 2 euros for the TFI 90 Minute Fare. That covers all further trips by bus, Luas, DART and suburban rail within 90 minutes of the first tap, with no second charge taken. The short-distance fare costs 1.50 euros. There's no transfer with cash, where 2.60 euros is charged for the longer trip. The daily cap is 6 euros, exactly three 90-minute fares, the weekly cap from Monday to Sunday is 24 euros, exactly four daily caps. Young adults aged 19 to 25 and students pay half, children aged 5 to 18 pay 0.65 euros per trip with a 1.95 euro daily cap, children under 5 travel free. Alongside that there's the Leap Visitor Card as a flat rate, 8 euros for 24 hours, 18 euros for 72 hours and 24 euros for 168 hours, each counted from first use. The comparison is mathematically clear. The 72-hour card at 18 euros equals exactly three daily caps of 6 euros each, the 168-hour card at 24 euros equals exactly the weekly cap. The Visitor Card is valid for Dublin Bus, Go-Ahead city lines, Luas as well as DART and Commuter Rail in Zone 1, but not for Bus Éireann and not for hop-on-hop-off tours. Nitelink is excluded from the 90-minute fare.

Fare zones. The cap and the 90-minute fare only apply in Zone 1, the city zone. Anyone travelling to Skerries, Greystones or Naas is in Zone 2. Lines 33, 33a, 33x, 65, 65a, L1, L2, L3, X1 and X2 leave Zone 1.

Tip. The red and green Luas lines do not meet everywhere; walking between them is normal.

Links

• Transport for Ireland, Dublin bus fares
• Transport for Ireland, Luas fares
• Transport for Ireland, TFI 90 Minute Fare
• Transport for Ireland, Luas operating hours and frequency
• Transport for Ireland, night buses and Nitelink in Dublin
• Transport for Ireland, all network maps
• TFI Leap Card, Leap Visitor Card
• Dublin Airport, bus lines and bus zones
• Aircoach, timetable for route 700 airport to city
• Dublin Express, airport to Dublin city
• Iarnród Éireann, Dublin Connolly station
• Network map

Getting there

Main station

Location. One of two long-distance stations; the other is Heuston for the west and south.

Long-distance trains. Dublin Connolly brings together three types of service under one roof. On the Intercity network, trains run to Belfast Central in the north, to Sligo in the northwest and to Rosslare Europort in the southeast, the ferry port towards Wales and France. The Commuter service serves Dundalk on the northern line as well as Maynooth, Longford and M3 Parkway to the west. The DART also stops here, the coastal line between Howth or Malahide in the north and Greystones in the south, on the lower level of the platforms. Ticket machines at the station take Leap, and there are ATMs, WiFi, accessible toilets including a Changing Places room, several cafés and lockable bike parking. Anyone arriving by Luas gets off at Connolly, the terminus of the Red Line, right at the station.

Opening hours. The station is open around the clock. The ticket counter operates Monday to Saturday from 7am to 7pm and is closed on Sundays. The enclosed waiting room is open daily from 6:30am to 9pm.

Airports

Local quirks

• Temple Bar is for visitors. The area is expensive and loud. The better pubs are a few streets over.
• The airport sorts by zone number, not by company. In front of both terminals there are numbered bus zones, and each operator has its own. Dublin Express stops in Zone 1 at Terminal 1 and Zone 21 at Terminal 2, Aircoach in Zone 2 and Zone 20, TFI lines in zones 11, 13 and 15. Anyone only looking for the company name will walk right past the correct stop. The airport provides separate zone maps as PDFs for both terminals.
• For the bus only tap on boarding, for Luas and DART tap off too. On the bus you tap the Leap Card on the reader when boarding and explicitly do not tap when getting off. On the Luas and DART both are required, otherwise the fare won't be correct. On the Luas, validation also happens on the platform before the tram arrives. Anyone found without valid validation gets a Standard Fare Notice for 100 euros. No tickets are sold on the trams themselves.

Good to know

Currency

EUR €

Emergency number

112

Plug type

G

Time zone

Europe/Dublin

Driving

left

Speed limits. built-up areas 50 km/h, outside towns 100 km/h (National Roads, N), 80 km/h (Regional Roads, R), 60 km/h (Local Roads, L), motorway 120 km/h

Drive on the left. The Republic measures in km/h, Northern Ireland in mph, and the border is unmarked. Since February 7, 2025, local roads with an L number are limited to just 60 km/h. National roads with an N number still allow 100 km/h, even where they look narrow and winding.

Tipping. Ten percent in restaurants, nothing in pubs. If you order at the bar, you do not tip.

Tolls. A few toll roads, mainly around Dublin. The M50 ring has no barriers but reads your plate; the charge must be paid online by the next day.