Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for being here to discuss this. It is a massive issue in Dublin. I represent Dublin Mid-West, which has two BusConnects routes, the C and the G spines. We welcome the 24-hour aspect of it. The €2 90-minute integrated fare is really good for us because we have the Luas and train servicing our constituency too. The youth travel card has been particularly popular, especially with students. I know many student representatives are here today.

The proof is in the pudding when you look at the increase in passenger numbers, particularly considering that many people still work from home or are on a hybrid model. That is good news for commuters and those on the roads because they cannot use public transport but most importantly, it is good news for the environment. I thank the witnesses' organisations' staff for making that happen.

I will flag five bus routes with Ms Graham of the NTA. It is okay if she cannot respond to it today. These five routes need to be revisited. The C spine underserves Dodsborough and Hillcrest. The P29 does not start early enough. The 151 does not service Adamstown. The 68X, which was from Newcastle, was cancelled without notice to commuters and is a very valued service that no longer exists. The W6 was expected to be introduced this year but has been delayed. I spoke to the witnesses about this at previous committee meetings. It has been delayed repeatedly. It is now to be changed into two routes, namely, the W61 and the W62, to serve different elements of the routes because of a bridge. The Hazelhatch Bridge, built in 1791, was not factored into the plans. I highlighted that in my submission on BusConnects in 2018 and fairly recently wrote to Ms Graham on an idea put to me by a constituent whereby in the meantime, the W62 should travel to Adamstown train station so as to still connect commuters in Newcastle with a train line.

Capacity and reliability are the number one issues from my constituents. On the C spine, which is a Dublin Bus route, capacity is a major issue. We have full buses, particularly in the early morning, whizzing by and not picking up additional passengers because they do not have the capacity. On busy days at weekends where there is a match or concert, the same thing happens.

Our Go-Ahead routes are the L51, the L52, the 76 through Clondalkin, the 18 from Palmerston and the 175, which runs from Citywest to UCD. These may as well be phantom bus routes. They are not arriving. The experience of commuters is of being late for work, while college students miss lectures, people going to gigs or matches miss those expensive social occasions they plan for and older people stand on the side of the road alone, waiting on a bus that never arrives. The facts are that 5.9% of kilometres on the L51 in the first half of this year were lost kilometres and the figure for the L52 was 7.8%. From what witnesses have said today, I expect those statistics to be worse for the second half of the year. That is not a reliable service.

We spoke about fines earlier. Regarding Go-Ahead, the fine I have is slightly different to the one discussed. I thought it was €850 million but maybe I am looking at a national figure. Dublin Bus was €1.5 million for the first half of the year. Given that Go-Ahead has 30 routes and Dublin Bus has 119, there is a comparable issue there. I appreciate the smaller pool of drivers in Go-Ahead to choose from when people do not turn up or are sick. I am glad to hear the pipeline Mr. Edwards spoke of is much stronger.

Does Dublin Bus plan additional capacity on the routes for big events at weekends? My constituents contact me to say that is not the experience on the ground. Does it have enough resources to provide a fuller C spine service? I appreciate timings are set by the NTA and know Dublin Bus is recruiting at the moment but it feels like buses are not arriving when they should and when they do, they are full. That is a real issue for people getting to work.

I note the strong recruitment pipeline Go-Ahead has coming down the tracks and am glad of that. When will it have the resources and capacity to fulfil its contractual obligations?

From an environmental perspective, I know Dublin Bus has hydrogen buses. How is that going? To both bus operators from a diversity and inclusion perspective, as a bus user I am seeing more women driving buses, which is good. How is the pipeline for recruitment from that perspective going?

I also ask Ms Graham of the NTA to look at those five routes.