Her train from Carlow at 7.05am brings her to Heuston Station for 8.15am, followed by a mad dash via a Luas<\/a> and bus<\/a> to make it to Drumcondra<\/a> for 9am.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Luas at Heuston is scandalous,\u201d Hickey said. \u201cIt\u2019s by far the worst part. I find myself waiting for the third or fourth tram to arrive before I can get on, the others are all too full.<\/p>\n \u201cThen, people on the Luas are annoyed, they\u2019re trying to push on, and then they end up getting mad at each other,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n The last leg of her journey is the bus. \u201cYou just never know when they\u2019re coming \u2013 it\u2019ll say two minutes for about 10 or 15, then suddenly a random bus shows up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Hickey was one of more than 70 Irish Times readers who responded to a call-out for people to share their experiences of overcrowding on public transport at a time of record demand for services.<\/p>\n Responses ranged from commuters being unable to reach their seat on a train because the carriage was too full, to 30km journeys lasting up to two hours on a bus due to congestion. <\/p>\n [\u00a0Commuters to face increased fares on buses and trainsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n Even those who work for public transport bodies voiced their discontent at the services provided.<\/p>\n One Dublin Bus driver spoke of his frustration at being unable to rely on the bus to get to work. His employer \u201ccannot even supply adequate public transport for the people that run\u201d it, he said. <\/p>\n He asked that his name not be published out of concern that it may jeopardise his employment with the company, which undertakes its services under contract with the National Transport Authority. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s crazy,\u201d he said, that a designated staff-only bus service \u201cdoesn\u2019t run early or late enough to cover all the shifts for various routes supplied by the garage\u201d he is primarily stationed in. \u201cIt means some people are forced to drive or cycle,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make any sense that they\u2019ve decided to run these earlier routes, but the staff service just isn\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n The driver, who only began his job recently, said he understands people\u2019s annoyance at so-called \u201cghost buses\u201d \u2013 services that appear in real-time updates on the Transport for Ireland app or live timetables at bus stops but not in reality. <\/p>\n He explained that overcrowding on earlier routes often considerably slows the service down throughout the morning, meaning operational managers will have to cancel later routes he is scheduled to drive as he is sometimes still completing the earlier one.<\/p>\n Jason Campbell, a 52-year-old from Skerries<\/a> in north county Dublin, said his train into the city centre most mornings is \u201cabsolutely chaotic\u201d and \u201ccompletely overwhelming\u201d at times because of passengers being \u201cpacked like sardines\u201d into the carriage. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been markedly worse since colleges have started back,\u201d he added, with \u201ca significant increase\u201d in people unable to board the train at stops closer to the terminus. <\/p>\n \u201cApart from it being unpleasant, it is actually unsafe,\u201d Campbell said, with \u201ccommuter trains having no air conditioning\u201d and some people \u201cwilting away, close to collapsing\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to sound like a whinger,\u201d he said, \u201cbut this is only going to get worse\u201d given large housing developments in the area and public transport services not planned to increase alongside the population. <\/p>\n Mark Walsh, a civil servant from Co Kilkenny<\/a>, travels to the capital twice a week to work from the office. \u201cThe train is so crowded,\u201d he said, owing to only six carriages in use, \u201cand you might see very elderly passengers who haven\u2019t pre-booked a seat\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019d worry for them,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n And on the other end of things, \u201cI see more and more students taking the very early trains,\u201d he said, \u201cprobably because student accommodation is so scarce as well\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve started to see carriages full of people standing\u201d for the 90-minute journey, \u201cit\u2019s starting to look more like a Luas\u201d, Walsh said.<\/p>\n [\u00a0\u2018It\u2019s just stressful\u2019: Workers facing two and three hour commutes into DublinOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n Yasmin Mello commutes by rail from Park West station in west Dublin to Drumcondra and describes her morning journey as \u201cabsolutely horrible\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cThe 7.55am train is consistently extremely overcrowded, with passengers regularly struggling to board and being forced to squeeze into already packed carriages. Sometimes people are left behind because there simply is not enough space. <\/p>\n \u201cPeople should not have to start their working day worried about whether they will even be able to board their train,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt raises a genuine question about whether train sizes and capacity are being allocated according to passenger demand.<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of solutions, I believe Irish Rail<\/a> needs to prioritise longer trains during morning and evening rush hours, ensure services operate at full capacity wherever possible, and review the scheduling and allocation of trains based on actual passenger numbers.\u201d <\/p>\n![\"Sinéad](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/XWQKVOG6MRFWBJ2BTXLBBRXTD4.jpeg\")
Sin\u00e9ad Hickey, a 25-year-old architect who commutes five days a week from her home in Carlow to her office in Dublin. <\/p>\n![\"Dublin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/5TPS2KOQQFGNNN4AXVWR3SF7UA.JPG\")
Dublin buses facing congestion in the city. Photograph: Bryan O\u2019Brien\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n![\"Mark](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/V345UMTENBES5GBE3QTF26TFNI.jpeg\")
Mark Walsh, a 42-year-old civil servant who commutes twice a week from Co Kilkenny to Dublin city centre. <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/3LNOJM2535CHLEZXUILGA73Q2E.JPG\")
A busy Heuston Station in Dublin. Photograph Nick Bradshaw\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n