Dáil debates
Wednesday, 27 September 2023
Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate
Public Transport
9:20 am
Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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I bring to the Minister of State’s attention issues that occur regularly in my constituency regarding the provision of public transport. I am lucky to represent one of the youngest and fastest growing parts of this island. The needs of the communities I represent are many and varied but the one thing that comes back time and again is dissatisfaction with the quality and frequency of public transport. I have already corresponded directly with the Minister for Transport regarding the famous north County Dublin disappearing buses. Yet, the Government chose to award the contract again to Go-Ahead when it seems to be the primary offender in my area.
What is that like and what is the impact of these disappearing buses? It has happened to me many times as well. The bus is up on the display. You stand there and wait, and then the bus disappears off the display and you have no idea when the bus will come. What it does, and the reason I am raising this, is that it undermines the confidence people can have in public transport. What do they do when they cannot rely on the bus? They take their car. They get let down by the bus time and again, with no choice then but to join all of the traffic heading down the M1 in the morning, contributing to carbon emissions and doing things they do not want to have to do but are left with no choice. Many mornings, parents are forced to drive their kids to school because the bus does not turn up. Again, these are young students who are losing confidence with the public transport system. This, of course, adds to the number of cars on the road but it also means everybody is running late for the day. If it were an infrequent occurrence, I would not be raising it. However, it is a daily occurrence. It is not acceptable for my area to be left behind in this way.
Projects such as the DART+ and the Metro are announced and then, for some reason, we get put to the back. DART+ was announced, but it will go to another part of Dublin, even though it is more than ten years now since the bridges were raised on the northern line to accommodate the DART. We get put behind other parts of Dublin when the need is acute.
I use the example of Lusk, a town in my area with a growing population. The Lusk action group wrote recently to the National Transport Authority, NTA, to highlight its concerns and frustration at the poor state of public transport in our area. The population of Lusk town has more than trebled in recent years, from 2,456 in 2002 to 8,806 in 2022. With it, we have seen a massive growth in the demand for accessible, reliable public transport. Here is the letter they wrote to the NTA, which states:
...frequent bypassing of waiting passengers, often with empty buses, most commonly occurring in Rush on Monday and Friday for the 16:07 33X, coinciding with kids coming out of St. Joseph’s Secondary School. This leaves the pupils from St. Joseph's waiting an hour and 15 minutes for the next bus.
With the 33X, feedback suggests that up to 15 people are left standing at the bus stop every morning, which is unsafe and uncomfortable for passengers. The 801 and the 826 have been cancelled on a number of occasions. The knock-on impact for workers waiting on those buses is of course they are late for work. I have spoken to people who are on the final written warning in their workplace simply because they are late all the time. It is not their fault. They have to rely on the bus. The start time of the Sunday bus service does not suit workers who work in the airport, which many of my constituents do. Again, they are forced to get into their cars. There are issues with the 14 and the 47. The 33A from Lusk to Swords is cancelled most Fridays. I get emails about it. That bus service does not seem to run at all and yet there is a real demand for it.
9:30 am
Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy O'Reilly for the question. I will take this response on behalf of the Minister for Transport. Public transport is also pertinent in my own consistency of Dublin Rathdown. I understand the points the Deputy is making on the quality and the frequency of public transport, the disappearing buses - the Deputy mentioned Lusk as well - and having accessible and reliable public transport. I will certainly bring that to the attention of the Minister. I will outline some of the comments that he has given me in response to the Deputy's query.
The national sustainable mobility policy and its five-year action plan, which was published last year, provide strong policy support to the continued expansion and enhancement of public transport services. The Minister for Transport is delighted to say that this strong policy support has been backed up by increased levels of Exchequer funding, which is supporting the roll-out of initiatives such as those the Deputy has mentioned: MetroLink, BusConnects Dublin and DART+. MetroLink will be a fully segregated and mostly underground new rail line from the Swords area to Charlemont in the south of Dublin city centre. It is a key project under the national development plan.
A significant milestone in the progression of the MetroLink project was cleared in July 2022 when the Minister secured decision gate 1 approval under the public spending code from the Cabinet for the project. This decision enabled the project to move to a planning application stage and in September last year, Transport Infrastructure Ireland submitted a railway order application to An Bord Pleanála.
Under the national development plan, BusConnects programmes will be substantially delivered in all of Ireland’s five cities by the end of the decade. BusConnects Dublin will provide more sustainable, accessible and reliable transport options, resulting in a higher quality service. By revitalising public transport and providing safe active travel routes, the project represents a necessary modal shift away from private transport. I am aware that the Deputy has concerns in relation to that, as she has mentioned.
The programme preliminary business case for BusConnects Dublin and the detailed project brief for next-generation ticketing were approved by the Government in March 2022. The network redesign for the entire Dublin network is being rolled out over 11 phases and currently the National Transport Authority, NTA, expects it to be completed by the end of 2025. This will bring significantly enhanced services to north Dublin. This includes the local buses around Swords, in Skerries and in the surrounding areas. The Dublin area network has been redesigned to provide co-ordinated spine services on the main radial corridors to and from the city centre together with better orbital and local connections. There will be more buses across the day and the 24-7 network is also being expanded.
The main changes in north County Dublin are currently planned for introduction in the early part of 2025, including the A-spine between Dublin city centre and Swords via the airport, a new orbital link via the M50 between Swords and Blanchardstown, and expanded local services. A service from Balbriggan to the airport via Skerries and Swords will be co-ordinated with services from Donabate to Swords and the airport to give regular intervals across the day.
The 90-minute fare, which has been introduced as part of BusConnects, offers free transfers between bus, DART, suburban rail and Luas. Together with the expanded and co-ordinated network, this simplifies journeys involving interchange and increases accessibility. There is also the DART+ programme, which will transform rail services across the greater Dublin area when fully rolled out.
Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State will forgive a little bit of cynicism on my part when she mentions projects like MetroLink. There are people in my constituency who bought houses off the plans from brochures that had a picture of MetroLink on them. They thought their kids might be able to use it to go to school and perhaps college, and maybe at some point their kids might be able to use it to get into town to collect their pension. There is a lot of frustration on behalf of my constituents because when a big project is planned it seems the small stuff does not get done.
The Minister of State mentioned safe active travel but it is not possible to cycle between the big towns in my constituency. I know this because I have done it and it is absolutely terrifying. The last time I cycled to Rush I spent my entire time there worrying about having to cycle back. The roads are just not suitable for cyclists so safe active travel is not an option. Public transport needs to be that option.
Will the Minister of State pass on to the senior Minister - on my behalf - that he needs to look at services such as the 33X? There are services that are oversubscribed and things that are working well but people are losing confidence in them because they cannot get on the bus in the morning. It is not because they do not want to get on the bus. Sometimes the issue is not even that the bus is not there but that it is there and is full. Some of the buses in my area have, bizarrely, been changed from double deck to single deck and are now rammed with people. They are leaving people waiting on the side of the road. Will the Minister of State tell the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, that I would like him to engage with the NTA regarding the letter that was sent on 21 September by the Lusk action group? It is a very measured letter and they are very careful in it to talk about those things that are working. It is a very simple ask. If something is working and is getting people to and from appointments, into school and into work, we are asking simply for more of that. We appreciate that big projects are planned but in the meantime it is the smaller projects that will make a huge difference for people living in Lusk, Skerries, Balbriggan and the surrounding areas. I ask the Minister of State to take that back to the Minister, Deputy Ryan.
Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy and I have noted her concerns, especially around safe active travel which of course is hugely important. We want to incentivise people to be able to cycle as opposed to using their vehicle. I will bring that to the attention of the Minister because obviously one should be in a position to be able to cycle through the constituency when needed. I am not familiar with the 33X but I will bring that to the attention of the Minister and the Ministers of State in the Department also.
The Deputy referred to double and single deck buses. I will also bring that point to the Minister. I will of course ask the Minister to engage with the Lusk action group, which the Deputy has asked for. I also note the Deputy's comments around smaller projects.
For the Deputy's information, there has not been any delay in relation to MetroLink. The focus now is to secure Government decision gate 2 approval to allow that project to proceed to tendering. That is the intention of the Government as I understand it. There were some delays in relation to BusConnects because firstly there was a huge public consultation process. That process required time and the issues raised during it also required time for further design work. I understand this was a very positive process. There were also some delays around Covid-19 impacts and there were also delays around the roll-out of elements of the network redesign due to issues with driver recruitment. Just more recently, work on the construction of the core bus corridors had to be postponed due to delays at An Bord Pleanála. Because of these delays, construction of the Clongriffin core bus corridor, the first scheme expected to go to gateway decision 2 in 2023, has been pushed back to 2024. This is just for the Deputy's own information because I am aware of her concerns around the buses.
I note the Deputy's comments and her contribution today and I will bring it the attention of the Department and the Ministers.