Passengers travelling by train from Heuston Station will be able to book a single ticket that will also include the connection to Dublin Airport, thanks to an agreement between the state transport company Iarnród Éireann and National Express Ireland, an independent bus company.

National Express Ireland, which operates services called Dublin Express between Dublin city centre and the airport, has experimented with a joint ticketing system in collaboration with Iarnród Éireann for several months. This collaboration was officially confirmed, and now rail passengers departing from Heuston Station, Dublin, can also add to their ticket round-trip bus connections from the airport. In addition, the two companies are planning to extend this service to Connolly station in the short term, making the airport easily accessible to passengers departing from anywhere in Ireland.

High demand from passengers travelling between Heuston Station and the airport prompted National Express Ireland to seek a joint ticketing agreement with the state-owned railway company a few months ago. In the first nine months of this year, Dublin Express buses carried 143,000 passengers between Heuston and the airport, and this number is expected to increase to about 180,000 by the end of December.

National Express Ireland CEO John Boughton stressed that there is a strong demand for high-quality public transport. It predicted that 33% of airport travellers will use public transport this year, and this percentage will increase in the years to come. This trend, according to Boughton, will help reduce car travel and greenhouse gas emissions.

Jim Meade, CEO of Iarnród Éireann, said the agreement will encourage more people to use the service. He noted that passenger data released today shows that thousands of people are already choosing to use this service, and expects that the number of users will continue to grow.