Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 18 July 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

BusConnects: SIPTU and NRBU

12:00 pm

Photo of Joan CollinsJoan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is probably the biggest public transport proposal we have seen in the city in decades. I am concerned that is has been presented as a fait accompli. Jarrett Walker has already said that anything more than a 15% change to this plan would render it unworkable. They are trying to contain the potential changes.

That the plan tries to push so many people onto the seven spines rings alarm bells with me. In September we will have to push the whole question of the legislation around the public service obligation, PSO, and what it means. If a person, for example, wanted to use the 123 bus to get to St. James's Hospital from Walkinstown, and if the route changes and goes in a different direction of Suir Road Bridge, the person is then forced into one of these proposed spines. This prepares the ground for a very lucrative route for a private company in 2019 or 2020. I am very suspicious of the trajectory of the NTA and what it pushes, no matter what it says. This is the way of the world now and what it wants. Big business wants access to our public services. This is what I am wary about but I feel the plan is a fait accompli.

We will get into the public consultation aspect of this and there will be public meetings informing people about what is going on. If an older lady from Galtymore Road cannot access a bus until she goes out onto the Crumlin Road to get a bus on one of the spines, it will cause huge problems for people with issues around disability access and for people with younger children. These issues were raised nearly five years ago also and we managed to keep those inner estate routes in the estates to a certain degree. We must raise these points again. It raises a suspicion in my mind around how genuine is the consultation process.

I live beside the Blackhorse Luas stop. It is packed in the mornings and one needs to cram to get onto the Luas. If there are any difficulties or stoppages on the Luas line it always stops at the Blackhorse stop and all the passengers must get off the Luas to go to the bus stop on the nearby Tyrconnell Road. One can see up to 200 people getting off the Luas and trying to wait for a bus. They must wait for a 63 bus, which comes every hour. The proposed plan would be a disaster from that perspective.

I question the genuineness of the consultation, whether or not it is a fait accompli and if the NTA is going to just railroad the plan through. We had this experience with the 19a route in Inchicore. The NTA wanted to change this route and get rid of it. We launched a big campaign in the community and a lot of people got involved with petitions. The concession we got was an extra three 68 buses in the mornings to cater for the schoolchildren going to Synge Street and now those extra buses have been taken out of the estate. There are huge questions around this.

We have done a lot of our own work in the area and have linked in with the unions, that is, the NBRU and SIPTU, as well as with drivers in this regard. This consultation has to go beyond September. It has to go into October and there must be serious negotiations and discussion with Age Action, with the student unions and other groups that have an interest in getting from A to B and to and, for example, from UCD on the 17 and 18 routes. The plan is a fundamental game changer for Dublin Bus but it has taken "public" out of public transport. It moves the public transport away from the hearts of the communities. I understand that Ireland subvents the least amount of money to public transport of any country in Europe. It needs investment, absolutely, but this is a sneaky way to try it. The plan is, as Deputy Catherine Murphy has described it, a Trojan Horse.

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