> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.dublininquirer.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Frustrated with the service from Dublin Bus, one man took them to the Small Claims Court - URL: https://www.dublininquirer.com/frustrated-with-the-service-from-dublin-bus-one-man-took-them-to-the-small-claims-court/ - Published: 2026-10-16T00:25:05.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-16T00:26:09.000Z - Description: "Please note, I am only looking for the restitution of €2.75 – the fare cost." - Author: Lois Kapila - Tags: Transport, buses, City Desk It's taken almost two years for Conor Ryan to get to this point. Two weeks ago, after he had filed a dispute with the Small Claims Court, a judge ruled that Dublin Bus does have to refund him the price of the ticket that he paid one wet night in November 2024 for a journey on the 16 bus that was cut short, the passengers ejected midway. "Please note, I am only looking for the restitution of €2.75 – the fare cost," he wrote on his claim. Nobody from Dublin Bus came along to the hearing, says Ryan. But the company had replied to his written filing by saying that it wasn't liable because National Transport Authority (NTA) policy, which it follows, is to not refund Leap Visitor Cards. Ryan didn't use a Leap Visitor Card, he says. Dublin Bus now has a window to say whether it will settle the claim, or appeal. Ryan is waiting to see, he says. He had only turned to the Small Claims Court as a last resort, he says, frustrated with repeated let-downs in services by Dublin Bus and having gotten nowhere with his emails and letters – whether to the company itself, to the NTA, to the Department of Transport, or to the Ombudsman. The complaints process has proven farcical, said Ryan, on the phone last week. "I've come to the conclusion that this whole thing is a bit of a pretence, this complaints service." At stake, financially, is the cost of a bus ticket. It's a small sum, for sure. But "I took this case on a point of principle", said Ryan. Dublin Bus hasn't yet responded to queries sent on Thursday morning asking, among other things, whether it does plan to appeal, and how often it has refunded passengers who were put out of buses and unable to complete their journeys. ## The complaints process Ryan had been travelling back home on the 16 bus, from the city centre southwards towards Ballinteer, when the driver pulled over in Harold's Cross. "There was an intoxicated passenger," said Ryan. He and other passengers had to get off, he said. He was 30 minutes on foot from where he lives, but waiting for a follow-on service would have been futile. The bus after had been taken out of service with a maintenance issue, he said – backed up by an email response the following month from Dublin Bus. There was no replacement bus for the trip. "I walked home in the lashing rain," said Ryan. He filed a complaint with the company. How many have done likewise in similar situations isn't clear. Since the end of 2024, passengers with complaints about public transport can send them through the Transport for Ireland "Consolidated Contact Centre", which was rolled out by the NTA. Through 2025, that system was being bedded in, [says the](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28814880-nta-pso-performance-annual-report-2025-v10/?ref=dublininquirer.com) NTA's annual performance report for that year. That has meant "working collaboratively with the transport operators to ensure data quality and that complaints were readily available for review to improve service levels", it says. The report doesn't include data for how many complaints it had, what kinds, and for which services and routes. The findings were recorded internally, and discussed with operators, the report said, but "during this transition period, they will not be presented in this report". Ryan did hear back through the contact centre. Yes, the service had been curtailed because of an intoxicated customer, and yes, the following bus had been cancelled because of maintenance, said the response in December 2024\. But "unfortunately, we are not in a position to offer a refund for these kind of issues", it said. Later attempts were rebuffed as well. ## What about the NTA? The contract between the NTA and operators of public transport, including Dublin Bus, [does include how](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28815030-dbda-schedules-master-execution-version-website-1/?mode=document&q=8.13&ref=dublininquirer.com#document/p60) the bus operator is supposed to assess refund requests. "In the event that a customer has purchased a ticket or pays with travel credit on their Leap Card, and is then unable to make their journey due to a Services interruption, the Operator shall refund the cost of the journey to the customer," the contract says. That's subject to a few conditions about how the customer contacted the operator, and whether they could prove they weren't able to complete their journey, or at least not without paying again. Still, Dublin Bus said it wouldn't give him a refund, and Ryan had no luck going around it and to the NTA directly. In one email in June this year, the NTA told him "The NTA does not investigate ticketing/fare/refund/compensation related matters." "These types of matter are completely between yourself and the operator," the email said. "To put it simply, we do not have the power to enforce a refund or compel an operator to provide one." They pointed him towards the Office of the Ombudsman. But the Ombudsman told him that this fell outside of their remit, said Ryan. The NTA does oversee operators' compliance with public service obligation contracts, including requirements around customer service and performance, an NTA spokesperson said Thursday. "NTA monitors operator performance, through its ongoing contract management and oversight arrangements, engaging with operators where issues are identified," they said. "These arrangements, including the monitoring of customer service and complaints handling, are reviewed on an ongoing basis to ensure they remain effective and proportionate." As part of his attempt to show up his experience of Dublin Bus' complaints process, Ryan also reached out to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport. He told them the issue he faced, with the NTA citing it was outside their remit to direct Dublin Bus to refund passengers. The committee clerk has said that TDs plan to raise it when the NTA is next before them, says Ryan. ## How many people affected? In January, Ryan put in a request under the Freedom of Information Act to the NTA. How many passengers have had to disembark a Dublin Bus vehicle due to anti-social behaviour? he asked. How many have had to disembark due to breakdown? And how often are there ghost buses? The NTA doesn't have data on that, its response to Ryan said. It does collect data on why scheduled services don't run, though – some of the categories for which would cover curtailed routes for which passengers had to get off, as well as those that just never ran. A snapshot from the last quarter of 2024 [shows that](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dTg-%5FZKEqzUNargOoHY7D88qDiPUYyB5/edit?ref=dublininquirer.com&gid=1217767849#gid=1217767849) because of "on road bus breakdown", on-board emergencies, various categories of anti-social behaviour, and unspecified "third party" incidents, there were 71,173 "lost kilometres" of service. But that doesn't show whether any follow-on bus, or other public transport options, were available where people were left. Or how many passengers were affected. And there are, of course, other kinds of situations when being let down by Dublin Bus costs Dubliners, particularly through "ghost buses" that appear on the schedule and app yet never arrive. It can mean last-minute taxis to work eating into minimum-wage pay, missed medical appointments, according to reports by people who've been ghosted to our tracker [noshowbus.ie](https://noshowbus.ie/?ref=dublininquirer.com). If passengers haven't tagged on, those wouldn't fall under the refund policy as it stands. And there's logic to that, says Robert Hough, who set up the website [BusPulse](https://buspulse.ie/?ref=dublininquirer.com) a couple of months ago, after his own frustrations with journey planning and the S6 route, run by GoAhead. If you're on a bus and you're kicked off halfway, it's fair enough to say you should get a refund of your ticket or Leap Card, Hough said. "But if you're going to refund for taxis or other modes of transport, that would be difficult." He casts his mind back to the start of 2024, when unreliability seemed to peak and GoAhead representatives were saying that it was short of mechanics. "There was a huge amount of cancellations and no-shows then, the amount of money you'd have to pay would be huge," says Hough. [The S6 is bus route most often reported to no-show bus tracker for ghosting passengers - Dublin InquirerOf 740 reports of ghost buses since the tracker was launched on 16 November, 48 were about the S6.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9f/78/9f782dda-9dc9-44d1-b817-fe80588bdc76/content/images/icon/Favicon-2-c20f9a6d-687c-4b8c-bd15-9c1e5af32e2f.jpg)Dublin InQuirerSam Tranum![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9f/78/9f782dda-9dc9-44d1-b817-fe80588bdc76/content/images/thumbnail/file-photo-of-a-bus-stop-4fd09823-9a2c-458a-9a64-b2a21ee02dee.jpg)](https://www.dublininquirer.com/the-s6-is-bus-route-most-often-reported-to-no-show-bus-tracker-for-ghosting-passengers/) Solving the issues is complex too, he said. "It's more important to improve the service, than looking for ways to compensate or make up for poor service." Although, says Hough, maybe some of the millions the NTA takes back in fines when the bus operators don't meet the reliability and punctuality thresholds in their contracts could be redirected to affected customers. Ryan, meanwhile, says he wonders if the refusal to refund him for his curtailed journey after his initial complaints is because many others are out there with legitimate claims. "So if Dublin Bus had to start refunding people, it could put them in a bit of financial difficulty. I think this is what is behind it ultimately," he said.