Ms Anne Graham:

I thank the committee for the invitation to attend. I am joined today by my colleague, Mr. Hugh Creegan, deputy chief executive officer, and will be joined shortly by Mr. Tim Gaston, director of public transport services. I understand that the committee wishes to focus in this meeting upon the Dublin area bus network redesign proposals, which is part of the overall BusConnects Dublin programme. Last month we published our network redesign proposals which we believe will deliver a better bus system for the people of Dublin, for the city itself and for the region. Our proposed new network will be simpler to understand and use, will offer greater connectivity to more people and will provide for a substantial overall increase in bus services.

The existing bus system in the Dublin area has evolved on a route-by-route basis over many years and, indeed, many decades. We have reached the point where a complete and total review of the bus system is needed to position it to meet the growing transport needs of the Dublin region. To undertake this review, we engaged Jarrett Walker & Associates from Portland, Oregon in the United States of America to assist us. Jarrett Walker & Associates specialise in the redesign of public transport systems in urban areas and have worked in cities around the world, replacing traditional bus networks with revised networks that work better for more people. It is important to note that the objective of our review was to redesign the bus system to make it more useful to more people and to enable more people to go to more places than they can currently by bus. The report is a detailed and comprehensive document that draws on the local knowledge and expertise of planners and officials in Dublin Bus, local authorities and the NTA as much as it draws on the international experience of Jarrett Walker and his colleagues.

The first step in the redesign process was to review the existing network. This identified several issues, including complexity, overlapping routes, too many buses in the city centre and a poor orbital service. With regard to complexity, the sheer number of routes and branches is a barrier to understanding the network and discourages many trips for which the bus service could be useful. Many overlapping routes with differing frequencies prevent buses from being evenly spaced to minimise waiting. Along with very low frequency on some routes, this means many people wait longer than necessary. There are too many buses in the city centre. Many streets carry very high volumes of buses which produces major delay due to buses blocking each other. On the poor orbital service aspect there are too many services running directly into and out of the city centre, but poor service for travel between many other destinations away from the city centre.

On the point about complexity, it is worth looking at the map that we have included in our written submission that shows the existing city centre bus routings. It is beyond argument to say that it is virtually incomprehensible to most people; yet it is the best map available to describe the city centre bus network. This means that people become familiar with their one or two bus routes for fixed journeys and avoid using the network for anything else. In the case of visitors, most migrate to the Luas and DART system, which is much easier to understand and use, and avoid the bus system because of its incomprehensibility. We want to change that and provide a better system that is easier to understand and navigate and, most important, will get more people to more places sooner.

In June 2017, we published the Dublin area bus network redesign choices report which set out information on the existing bus system and proposed a number of strategies that could be considered in the redesign of the bus network. We sought public feedback on the simplification of the radial bus services to form high frequent spines, as they are called, the reallocation of some radial services to create frequent orbital services, and the use of interchange to allow connections between different bus services and between bus, DART and Luas.

A public survey was made available online and in paper format. More than 12,000 people responded to the survey, approximately 1% of Dublin’s population, which was an unprecedented level of response.

The level of support shown for the proposed strategies was extremely high. Some 80% agreed or strongly agreed that it is worth asking people to interchange in order to create a network that helps more people reach more destinations sooner. Some 89% supported the idea of consolidating routes into spines and 85% supported the reallocation of some radial services to create frequent orbital services. From this feedback, we proceeded to develop a detailed plan based on those strategies.

I will now address the network proposals and the key elements of the redesigned bus network. It is proposed to convert a complex network of overlapping routes into the city centre into seven high frequency “spines” designated A to G, with buses coming every four to eight minutes all day and even more frequently at peak hours. Moreover, a new network of high frequency orbital routes will be created. These will intersect with the main spines to form a web-like grid of routes where buses are always coming soon. As well as providing for easy movement between the spines and the orbital routes, the orbital routes will allow much more movement between different areas of the city without the need to travel into the city centre.

A further proposal calls for the implementation of a much larger overall network of frequent routes where the next bus is always coming soon, within 15 minutes or less, and with easy interchange wherever frequent lines cross. It is also proposed to introduce a new 90-minute fare that covers any combination of bus, DART or Luas trips beginning within 90 minutes so that no additional payment is needed to change buses or change onto DART or Luas. The journey can be longer than 90 minutes; the fare just requires the last leg to start within 90 minutes. Overall, the proposed new network will provide a 27% increase in bus services. Just as important, when we calculate the increase in accessibility, the average person in Dublin will be able to get to 20% more useful places within 30 minutes than they can under the existing network. The figure of 20% is the average across the region, with many people seeing higher increases. Under the revised network nearly 1 million Dublin area residents will be within 400 m of a bus service coming every 15 minutes or more frequently all day, an increase of 250,000 people.

Overall, we believe that the proposed network proposals are vastly beneficial for the Dublin region, but there are trade-offs. While most people will not need to change buses, some people will. In some cases, people who currently have a direct service may have to change buses to get to their destination. However, because these two buses will operate on routes with a much higher frequency of service, in most cases people will be able to get to their destination in a shorter overall time.

A public consultation process on these proposals has commenced and will run until 28 September. All of the network redesign information has been published on the BusConnects website. An online and printed survey is now available, allowing people to give their views and comments on the bus network redesign proposals. The online survey is at www.busconnects.ie.We will shortly be announcing a series of information sessions across the region where people will be able to come to have details explained and queries answered.

These proposals constitute a major undertaking to redesign our bus system to better cater for today’s needs and to be positioned to accommodate the region’s future needs.By its nature there have to be trade-offs in such a massive redesign task, and not everybody can be better off under the new network. However, the vast majority of people across the region will gain from these proposals, which will provide a network that will enable more people to get to more places sooner. That concludes my introductory statement. I trust that I can answer any queries that arise.