To follow is an update sent to Public Representatives on 21st July 2025.
The National Transport Authority (NTA) has submitted a planning application to Fingal County Council in respect of the NTA’s proposed Ballycoolin Bus Depot development. This proposed new bus depot, which is intended to be home to a fleet of zero-emission battery-electric buses, will be situated on a currently unoccupied parcel of land immediately south of Ballycoolin Road (L3080) in the townland of Cappoge between Rosemount Business Park (north) and Premier Business Park (east) and which is part of the wider northwest Dublin Business Park area.
Passenger demand for Public Service Obligation (PSO) bus services in the Dublin Metropolitan Area (DMA) has grown strongly in recent years and is now significantly in excess of pre-COVID (2019) figures, with this growth expected to continue. The NTA’s BusConnects Dublin programme, beginning with the Network Redesign (NRD) element of the programme, will build on this success as it is a transformative programme of investment in the PSO bus network within the DMA that is aimed at providing better bus services to more people.
In order to support the service improvements under BusConnects Dublin NRD, and to cater for the expected growth in demand, the DMA bus fleet has undergone significant expansion in recent years and further buses will need to be added to the fleet in the coming years. This expansion, together with the need to transition the PSO urban bus fleet servicing the DMA to a zero-emission fleet in response to the Government’s Climate Action Plan and the requirement to significantly reduce Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions, will soon exhaust the capacity of existing bus depots, thereby generating a need for additional bus depot capacity.
Furthermore, as the Northwest Fingal/Blanchardstown area is currently quite distant from existing bus depots (leading to operational inefficiencies including long periods of dead running), and the bus network in this area is also being significantly enhanced under BusConnects Dublin NRD, the detailed analysis of potential new depot locations across the DMA undertaken by the NTA identified considerable merit in pursuing a new bus depot in the Ballycoolin area.
The proposed development consists of an electric bus depot with ancillary buildings and supporting infrastructure, bus and staff parking and access, landscaping, boundary treatment and all necessary site and enabling works within the bus depot. It will provide parking bays for around 176 battery-electric buses, while the proposed buildings will include facilities for the storage and maintenance of buses, washing and cleaning of buses, inspection of buses, staff administration and operations, charging of vehicles and a substation with associated electrical equipment, all within a secure, fenced compound.
The zoning of the site for the proposed new bus depot is Objective GE – General Employment, which is to provide opportunities for general enterprise and employment, and it is anticipated that the proposed new bus depot would support in the region of 500 roles across drivers, maintenance, engineering, operations and administrative staff.