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

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. Introduction Public transportation for Dublin plays an important role in achieving a sustainable, efficient, attractive tourist destination. Ireland had approximately 8 million overJournal of Public Transportation, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2011 70 seas visitors in 2007 (CSO, 2008). Over half of all trips were for holiday purposes. Earnings from these visitors were $6,479m in 2007. Dublin was the most popular region for holiday makers in 2007, with 61 percent of visitors spending at least one night in the region (CSO 2008). The importance of providing adequate, high quality and attractive transport to newcomers in any city is obvious. It supports the growth of a competitive and sustainable tourism industry, enhancing its contribution to national economic and social goals. According to the Irish Department of Transport, a good public transport network introduces Dublin as an attractive holiday destination, providing tourists with access to all of Dublin’s amenities and recreational facilities. In addition, public transportation provides people with mobility and access to employment, community resources, medical care, and recreational opportunities. While many newcomers use public transport in Dublin, there are many who do not use it to its full potential. There are several reasons for this. The conventional factors are time and money (Wardman and Waters 2001). However, there are many more factors. The complex question of how and when newcomers use, or do not use, public transport has not been identified in its entirety. Thompson et al. (2007) states that tourist satisfaction with public transport has been neglected by transport service providers. The authors (2007) also found that the cost of public transport in Manchester is the main barrier to overseas visitors’ use. The most important attributes of public transport satisfaction, such as punctuality and speed, are rated lower on the basis or performance than less important attributes such as cleanliness of vehicles. In the case of overseas visitors’ attitudes toward public transport in Greater Manchester, ticket cost was found to have the greatest gap between importance and performance. Dziekan (2008) found that knowledge of a new transport system depends on experiences of other cities or hometowns. If one had previously learned how the public transport system in a metropolitan area operates, learning a new (similar structured) system was much easier. When visiting a new city, tourists are overloaded with new information, and their ability to retain new information on public transport systems may be limited. According to Miller (1956), individuals can store seven plus or minus two items in working memory. Anderson (1995) states that four or five items can be stored in the visual image memory. Therefore, it is imperative to ensure that visitors are presented with an attractive, easy-to-use, and highly visible public transport system. The results presented in Dziekan (2008) support