An Examination of the Quality and Ease of Use of Public Transport in Dublin from a Newcomer’s Perspective

Abstract

This paper examines the opinions of newcomers and visitors to the public transportation system in Dublin. The motivations for this research were twofold. First, tourism is very important to the Irish economy and, as such, it is important that visitors to Dublin can use the public transport system. Second, by asking visitors what the think of the public transport system available in comparison to the system they use in their home country, their responses can help planners learn about the areas for improvement in the current system in Dublin. The paper reports the findings of a survey conducted in Dublin asking respondents how they perceived the public transport system compared to the system they use in their home country. The results of this show that visitors or newcomers to a city are less concerned with the traditional aspects of public transport service quality and, instead, are more concerned with information and reliability.