Permanent project revision
Revision 2026-09-25-baseline · effective 2026-09-25
Current revision. This is the snapshot used by the live entity page.
Created the first structured Evidence Passport with 17 claims and 13 source dossiers.
sha256:aec806f8c72d148e909e5ee58bb711135700d0c388b2dd8351941ad2a86816db
add /evidencePassport — Added claim-level evidence mapping and source dossiers.add /revisionHistory — Established a permanent, hash-addressed baseline revision.The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.
clm-0d16eea05f859b17
quantitative
went public on 26 September 2011, when the National Transport Authority, with technical help from Dublin City Council, put live arrival times for all 5,000 Dublin Bus stops on a website, an iPhone app and a text service
clm-cdbf9ad54789009e
quantitative
while 500 electronic signs were being installed at stops
clm-7e3faf1fe1b308f5
descriptive
Each bus reports its GPS position to automatic vehicle location (AVL) software, which matches it against the day's schedule to predict arrivals
clm-9f09572ae821ba55
quantitative
The NTA publishes its timetables as GTFS under a CC BY 4.0 licence
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quantitative
since August 2020 the live predictions as a GTFS-Realtime feed that needs a registered key
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quantitative
the 2023 upgrade added Luas and Iarnród Éireann services and live bus positions
clm-b7cf788b36d56205
quantitative
The same data drives the TFI Live app and, by the NTA's count, more than 800 on-street displays
clm-c63304433c4165a5
descriptive
when a bus is cancelled but the operator does not tell the system in time, the signs and apps keep counting down to a bus that never comes — the NTA's own explanation of Dublin's 'ghost buses'
clm-c0a33a2e270e64c8
quantitative
Passenger complaints run from 2022 into September 2026
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quantitative
the crowd-reporting site noshowbus.ie logged more than 2,600 reports between 1 January and 5 August 2025
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quantitative
Dublin Bus put its real-time accuracy, audited by the NTA, at around 96% in 2024
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quantitative
at 'a record high of 98 per cent' in early 2025
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quantitative
a €68.5 million contract, awarded to Trapeze in December 2023, to merge five separate AVL systems into one
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quantitative
Promised for late 2025 to late 2026, it was still awaited in September 2026, when Dublin Bus said the app would improve 'when we get the new automatic vehicle location system in place'
clm-0a4b4930989881df
descriptive
without that message TFI Live cannot show the service as cancelled and falls back on the timetable
clm-2a656a86c7fcfdb8
descriptive
a bus that never left the garage is invisible until the operator cancels it
clm-267e6a4b03c28607
descriptive
every app draws its real-time data from the NTA, so unofficial apps inherit the same ghosts
This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.
Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.
sha256:aec806f8c72d148e909e5ee58bb711135700d0c388b2dd8351941ad2a86816db
src-1dd823333bd28ecdThe National Transport Authority's release for the launch on 26 September 2011: live arrival times for all 5,000 Dublin Bus stops by website, text and iPhone app, an initiative of the NTA 'delivered with the technical assistance of Dublin City Council', alongside 500 on-street electronic signs being installed across the Greater Dublin Area, over 270 of them in place. Dublin Bus's chief executive states the fleet is 'now equipped with a system which allows staff to identify the location of each bus'.
src-ae4e228af16fba38Dublin City Council's smart-city programme explains how the system works — Automatic Vehicle Location data fed to a central RTPI server and on to the displays at stops — says the data was available to developers through an API on the Dublinked portal, and that RTPI 'started as a project for Dublin Bus in 2008 developed by Dublin City Council in collaboration with IBM'.
src-7b63691dd77ffd16NTA notice of 5 August 2020: a GTFS-Realtime API for Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and Go-Ahead Ireland has been launched 'in line with the NTA's commitment to providing open data', replacing the older RTPI REST API, which was to shut permanently on 30 September 2020. Registration on the NTA developer portal is required.
src-1b2e925e75652c72NTA notice of 8 March 2023: the real-time API is replaced by an upgraded set integrated with a new Travel Information platform; the new GTFS-R feed extends real-time updates to Luas and Iarnród Éireann services and adds a Vehicle Location API with bus positions.
src-c9aa1696bbb7dee8The NTA's download page for GTFS timetables, stop data and a list of real-time operators: 'This data is licensed under CC BY 4.0 and is attributed to the National Transport Authority.' Access to the GTFS-Realtime API is by registration on the NTA developer portal. A continuously updated page.
src-d5f632daf2a9ae12NTA announcement of 20 December 2023: a contract to Trapeze to implement a national Automatic Vehicle Location solution for all public service buses, consolidating 'several existing bus AVL systems into one central system', feeding the TFI Live app, 'our 800+ On-Street Displays' and real-time exports to third-party apps. The release does not state the contract value.
src-dfea3dd5663c8df9Report of 27 July 2022 on passengers waiting for buses shown on signs and apps that never came. Explains, via app developer Stephen McBride, that GPS data is matched to the schedule by AVL software and that without a GPS fix the system shows the scheduled time, so cancelled services have to be removed by the operator. Dublin Bus said its app, website and on-street signs do not show cancellations; a Dublin Bus spokesperson said all bus apps get their real-time data from the NTA; NTA data showed Dublin Bus services not run rising from about 1 to about 2 per cent over 2021.
src-8da8fc2620b70872Report of 25 September 2024: the NTA awarded a €68.5 million contract to Trapeze Group UK in December 2023 for a new AVL system, with roll-out to start in late 2025 and finish in late 2026 'if all goes well'. Quotes a July 2024 parliamentary answer by the transport minister that apps like TFI Live 'cannot display a service as cancelled if it has not received the appropriate cancellation message from the operator'.
src-b5a0216ee87dd587Report of 6 August 2025: an analysis of more than 2,600 reports to noshowbus.ie, a site collecting reports of ghost and cancelled buses since October 2024, for 1 January to 5 August 2025. The NTA explains ghost buses as operators not cancelling a service in time for the RTPI system to pick it up, describes replacing antennae on about 200 buses, and says the new AVL system will replace 'the five disparate systems currently in use'.
src-6c79395c5fca3c24Interview report of 16 August 2024: Dublin Bus chief executive Billy Hann says the technology is 'over 15 years old', the antennas on the buses 'aren't as sensitive as they need to be', and the real-time system is 'independently audited by the National Transport Authority' with an accuracy rate of around 96%.
src-b353db36115e7f12Report of 6 February 2025 on complaints about 'ghost' or 'disappearing' buses on the on-street screens and the TFI app. A Dublin Bus spokeswoman says its real-time passenger information accuracy has been 'at a record high of 98 per cent' since the beginning of 2025.
src-dc396746d32e7b60Report of 11 September 2026: a Glasnevin parent describes buses that appear due within a minute or two on the signs and app and then vanish, several times in the first week of the school term.
src-d7e63745cb8471dfReport of 11 September 2026, relaying Newstalk: Dublin Bus director Gwen Morgan says TFI Live is not a Dublin Bus app and that it 'will be improved when we get the new automatic vehicle location system in place'; the NTA's new system is described as still to come into operation.