80 years of CIÉ—a look at its role in Irish transport history

2025 marks another important anniversary in the history of Irish transport, for it is now 80 years since Coras Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) was established, going on to become a household name within Ireland. In this article, we will explore its history, including the factors that led to its formation and its development over the past eight decades.

The precursors to CIÉ

At the time of CIÉ’s establishment in January 1945, land-based transport within the Irish Free State could be broken into four principal categories: rail, road, tram, and canal. The Great Southern Railway ( Great Southern Railways, plural, from January 1925) had been initially established in November 1924 when three of the main railway companies merged, expanding further in 1925 to include almost all railways whose lines didn’t straddle the border into Northern Ireland (with the exception of a few industrial lines). The GSR also had a portfolio of hotels and tour bus operations.

Parallel to this, the Irish Omnibus Company had been formed in 1926 and took over a number of smaller bus operators from across the Irish Free State. They would soon begin to operate bus services for the GSR as a contractor, with the GSR taking shares in the company in the late 1920s, before totally absorbing the company as their omnibus department from January 1934. (1932 had seen the passing of the Road Transport Act, which effectively prevented any private competition). Around this time, the GSR also absorbed several private lorry operators, giving it a road freight business.

There was also an extensive tram network operated in Dublin by the Dublin United Tramways Company (DUTC), which itself dated from an 1880s merger of three independent tramway companies.

In addition, there existed the Grand Canal Company, responsible for the titular canal, linking the Shannon with Dublin via south Leinster (in addition to a branch to the Barrow). There was also the Royal Canal, which was owned by the Great Southern Railway, which in turn had inherited it from the Midland Great Western Railway.

The early years of CIÉ

By 1944, the already cash-strapped GSR was in a poor financial state, with the effects of the ‘Emergency’ period, as World War II was known in Ireland, having taken their toll. Under the Transport Act 1944, the GSR was merged with the DUTC to form Coras Iompair Éireann (the Irish Transport Company), which came into being in January 1945. It was a private entity but with government guarantees. The now famous ‘Flying Snail’ logo was adopted, carried over from the DUTC, and a livery of dark green applied to buses, trams, and railway carriages, though (with a few exceptions) the majority of steam locomotives remained in the austere grey livery inherited from the GSR.

Finances remained less than ideal, with difficult operating conditions persisting into the late 1940s, leading to a number of small branch lines closing to never reopening. The Milne Report was commissioned in 1948, and actually promoted the retention of such branchlines based on the public value, while also recommending against widescale dieselisation. Neither of these takings was ultimately enacted, however. The Royal Canal ceased operation in 1945, becoming but a footnote in CIÉ’s operational history. CIÉ also implemented a scheme to build a central bus station for Dublin, but this too was marred by its financial woes. Construction stalled in the late 1940s.

The Dublin tramway network was closed completely in 1949. That said, there were some developments, with five diesel shunters being constructed in Inchicore in 1947 and a programme established to rapidly replace the inherited GSR (mostly petrol-engined) buses with a Leyland Tiger diesel fleet.

In 1949 CIÉ was also appointed operator of the Aran Island ferry operation, established by the Galway Bay Steamship Company.

The 1950s and 60s: decades of change for Irish transport

In 1950, CIÉ was merged with the Grand Canal Company and became a fully nationalised entity, though commercial traffic on the Grand Canal would cease later in the 1950s. Having become a semi-state, CIÉ continued to modernise its fleets throughout the 1950s.

Busáras opened in 1953 to serve CIÉ's provincial bus services in Dublin.

Construction of the central bus station recommenced in 1951, ultimately opening in 1953 and known as Busáras, though the government would assign the upper offices to other state entities, notably the Department of Social Welfare, which remains in the offices to this day.

With the original GSR bus fleet by now ousted and a start made on replacing the older DUTC fleet, too, with all pre-war buses having been mostly banished from the fleet by the mid-1950s. Further investment was made in double-deckers; in fact, it was only double-deckers that were produced between 1956 and 1961.

A policy of dieselisation was enacted on the rail network, with the company’s first mainline diesel. Sulzer No.1100, emerging from Inchicore in 1950. Diesel railcars would follow from 1953, with full fleets of diesel locomotives arriving from 1955, leading to the almost total elimination of steam traction from frontline services by the end of the decade. A large fleet of new carriages was also constructed in Inchicore in the 1950s, an area which had seen comparatively less investment in the days of the GSR.

Investment was also made in the Aran Island ferry service, with a new vessel, the MV Naomh Éanna, taking over the route in 1958.

A curve ball was thrown in 1958, when, upon the dissolution of the Great Northern Railway Board, all its lines south of the border became part of CIÉ. It inherited roughly half of its rolling stock fleet, in addition to bus services and the Hill of Howth tramway.

However, worsening losses led to the commissioning of the Beddy Report in 1958, which in turn led to a restructuring plan that was enacted by Todd Andrews, who was appointed chairman in 1958. This led to several high-profile line closures, such as the Harcourt Street line, the Waterford & Tramore line, and those networks servicing West Cork and West Clare. New bus routes were established to replace these services.

However, it was not all doom and gloom, with further investment in new diesel locomotives and carriages coming and the first of CIÉ GM’s locomotives arriving from the USA in 1960. Named trains were introduced on key mainline routes, with hostesses onboard. A series of Leyland Atlantean buses commenced production at the company’s Spa Road workshops in 1966. In the 1963 the CIÉ Tours division established a New York office.

CIÉ hostesses pose with a new GM 141 class locomotive in the early 1960s.

A new logo, known as the ‘Broken Wheel’, was created in 1964 and remains the group’s symbol (with some modernisation) to this day. Liveries would see a change too, with Dublin city buses adopting a blue and cream livery, while the now iconic ‘black and tan’ livery started to be rolled out on locomotives and carriages. Meanwhile the once iconic horse drawn cart began to be replaced by tractor units. Containerisation started to be rolled out on road and rail freight services.

The late 1960s also saw much investment in Rosslare Harbour, including the installation of a Ro/Ro facility for cars.

Unfortunately, losses continued into the late 1960s, leading to the commissioning of the McKinsey Report in 1970.

The 1970s and 1980s brings further change to Irish transport

The McKinsey report ultimately emerged in 1971, and while it rejected the notion of outright closure of the rail network, it did call for further rationalistation and modernisation. While investment was made in Intercity rolling stock, it also led to the closure of a number of underused stations and the last few traditional branchlines, such as those to Ardee and Loughrea, which vanished from the network in 1975.

On the road transport side, the 1970s proved to be turbulent. Van Hool McArdle took over bus building operations at CIÉ’s Spa Road works from 1973, but would cease trading in 1978. This ultimately led to CIÉ forming a partnership with Bombardier Ireland Limited, jointly owned by Bombardier and GAC, and from 1983 becoming wholly owned by GAC Ireland. A bus manufacturing facility was established in Shannon, operating between 1980 and 1986, outputting hundreds of vehicles over the years for both city and provincial bus services. Road freight would see a decline in this period, with deregulation ultimately making it less competitive for CIÉ to run.

An extensive Dublin Transportation Plan was mooted in the 1970s, which would have seen the establishment of metro lines and the electrification of the existing suburban rail network. Ultimately, only the first phase of this would come to pass, being, of course, the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) system from Howth to Bray, which commenced operations in July 1984. A new fleet of mainline mkIII carriages was assembled at Inchicore using bodyshells supplied by British Rail Engineering Limited, following in from an order of mkII carriages in 1972. This would see the last of the 1950s-built wooden carriages phased out.

A monumental development in Irish transport history, the DART service commenced operation under CIÉ in 1984.

The Reorganisation of Córas Iompair Éireann

In February 1987, three subsidiary companies were created under the Transport (Reorganisation of Córas Iompair Éireann) Act, 1986. These were:

• Bus Átha Cliath/Dublin Bus, responsible for operating city bus services in Dublin

• Bus Éireann is responsible for provincial bus services and city bus services in Cork, Limerick, and Galway.

• Iarnród Éireann/Irish Rail, responsible for all rail services within the Republic of Ireland in addition to jointly working on cross-border services with Northern Ireland Railways. IÉ is also responsible for the operation of Rosslare Harbour, later to become known as Rosslare Europort.

The holding company would remain responsible for CIÉ Tours, and, for a time, their hotel division. The latter would be transferred to Aer Rianta in 1990. The CIÉ group also remains responsible for its extensive property portfolio.

The individual 1990s would continue to undergo change and transformation during the 1990s and 2000s, with ongoing fleet modernisation and infrastructure upgrades in the case of the rail network.

Further change would come in the form of reforms to the bus licensing system and the establishment of the Dublin Transport Authority (later to become the National Transport Authority), and the late 2010s would see some bus routes transferred to private operators as part of a competitive tendering process. However, both Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann continue to retain a large presence in the Irish transport market, while on the rail side, Iarnród Éireann has seen growth like never before, with a number of lines reopened and a greater service frequency established over the past 20 years.

There has been a lot of change to the Irish transport landscape over the past 80 years, but CIÉ remains an ever-present player through its subsidiaries. With increasing awareness as to the need for public transport to play its part in the country’s sustainable development, no doubt CIÉ will continue to play a key role in Ireland life into the future.