Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I represent an area on the periphery of the network. Leixlip, Celbridge and Maynooth between them have a population of in excess of 50,000, which will have sizeable new communities as new estates are under construction and there are much more to come. We are in what is described as the commuter belt. We want to keep people in the commuter belt out of their cars and provide them with opportunities to get on public transport, whether bus or rail. We would all be on the same page on that. That would be there and also on the fringe of Dublin. They must have a service that meets their needs.

I have had a very strong and direct involvement with public transport activism over a long time. This included conducting a very major survey in the Leixlip area during the 1980s. That was a one in three origin and destination survey which was undertaken with CIÉ. I had a strong record in campaigning for the doubling of the Maynooth line. I am very pro-public transport and I want public transport that works. However, there are things about this that I cannot see working. I am encouraging people to make submissions. I see a loss of services and new services being provided, but not necessarily to locations that people will find attractive or will want. I am receiving considerable concern and some anger.

There have been changes to the plan since last year, for example, the 67 is now the C4 was originally to be routed through Leixlip village. I can understand why there would have been a clamour against that because it would add to journey times. There was a decision on that and in this plan it is routed down the Celbridge Road and in through Lucan. That is the logical response to an understandable concern. However, I have counted the number of buses currently available on the 66X, 67X, 66A, 66B, 66E and 67, and I cannot see how there is not a loss of direct service in the proposals. I ask again that the NTA go back and count that. For example, in the off peak time, five buses an hour go through Leixlip village. What is being provided under this plan is two buses an hour. The problem people will encounter is that if they do not have a terminus bus and there is a bus that comes from further away, say from Maynooth, they will not see an increase in the number of buses and the bus will arrive full. People have a real fear that the bus will arrive full and they will have to wait half an hour for the next bus. These people will stop using the bus and get back into their cars. The loss of some of those buses at terminus is a real issue. The experience is that services were never provided to us without our lobbying for them. If this opportunity is not used to get those changes, then they are unlikely to happen.

Another issue that arises throughout the C corridor is the definition of peak time. Will the NTA address this specifically? If the peak time were to be expanded, this would have implications in that the buses that now come in by Merrion Square now will go to Ringsend. This is being raised as an issue as this is not in proximity to where people wish to go, unlike the current route which is heavily used. There is also a capacity issue on the outward journey in the evening, which applies to the 25 route as much as the 66 and 67 routes. Will the number of buses be addressed? The plan we have been presented with does not read as though it will. Let us assume the peak is from 5 p.m. Someone who gets on a bus to go to Palmerstown on the C route might get on one of the C buses that goes to Maynooth. That bus will empty half way, yet there will be people who have been left at stops. This is a real fear people have.

Having spoken to colleagues, the same kinds of issues are being raised in relation to Wicklow, around Bray and the 145, and in other areas on the fringe. Is it a trade-off for greater capacity closer to the city centre?

The proposed W8 orbital route is certainly an improvement and will be well supported. That is likely to be used as a feeder between Celbridge and Maynooth, for example, as much as an origin and destination with Tallaght, for instance.

The NTA opening statement referred to a 22% increase in services. Some of those will be routes such as the 258, the 259, the bus from Adamstown, the 251 and the 252. While there will be some use of those, some replace existing terminus services. Those new routes are not necessarily going where people want to go. There is one route that I cannot for the life of me figure out who will use it. I can see a scenario where it is not used then and a service will be lost because there was a conclusion that no one wanted to use it. The loss of that route would be understandable, but that would be on top of the loss of a direct route.