Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not think any of us mentioned 24-hour buses. We need far more of them. I know it is difficult to find drivers but there are routes in Dublin that are 24-hour and they are very beneficial in terms of people being able to work, particularly young people working in the night-time economy not having to spend huge amounts of their hard-earned income on taxis home. The Minister is as close to the Luas as I am - possibly closer. It sucks in people. It is about the reliability and the frequency. Nobody worries about the Luas timetable. They just walk to the Luas and know that it will be there within three, four, five or six minutes regardless of the time of day. We need to have consistent and reliable buses. We talked about ghost buses here previously - buses appearing and disappearing on screens. This may have improved somewhat. I always found the Dublin Bus app to be the best of the three apps and it is the one being scrapped next week so I hope the TFI app, which I have not used very much, will be all right. It is more about reliability. If I have to get to work or an appointment, I know the bus will turn up because it always turns up and gets me there at a certain time, I will use the bus but if I am not sure whether it is going to turn up, I know I have to be somewhere and it is very important that I get there, I will probably use the car because albeit with congestion, I will go early and will allow extra time.

We need to have better and more frequent services. Like the Luas, this will draw people in. I do not mind walking for ten minutes to the Luas stop because I know it is a reliable service. On the other hand, my bus, the number 11, operates on very congested roads and goes through narrow city streets. It is not the fault of Dublin Bus but journey time reliability is very unpredictable. What might take ten minutes one day can take 20 minutes the next day. The route journey time could be an hour and a half as opposed to one hour or 45 minutes, depending on levels of congestion. This is the reason many people still decide to use their cars. They know that if they have to be stuck in traffic all day, at least they are stuck in the comfort of their own car listening to their own choice of radio station.

There is still much more to be done. However, I also acknowledge that much good work has been done already. For example, I remember when the idea of the Stillorgan quality bus corridor, QBC, was being considered in 1999. The idea of taking road space from cars was viewed with incredulity. People simply did not believe it would or could happen. Now people are using that same service and are delighted to be doing so. There is a role for QBCs and there is still a role for parts of the eastern bypass as a transport link. Incentivising people, particularly those in schools, to start using their bikes as much as possible would hugely reduce congestion around schools. We see the difference between when schools are on and off. The amount of traffic generated by schools is considerable.