Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair for the opportunity to come back in again. I want to ask about bus stops and bus shelters. I think we amended the planning laws recently so planning permission is not needed to relocate a bus stop. I want to ask about the process for adding a new stop along a route. I can think of examples in my own constituency where there have been a lot of developments and there will be a spine road and a bus service along it, but the new houses are quite a distance from the nearest bus stop. I want to know what the process is for adding new stops. I suppose it depends on population density. Is there a ratio of population density in regard to spacing between bus stops? In general, what is the process that I, as a public representative, should go through to ask for a new bus stop to be considered?

When adding a new bus stop, what is added on in journey time to service that bus stop? It would probably be different for peak and off-peak, but I know that for rail timetables, the delay to the service caused by a stop will be added in.

Has anybody in the bus companies, the NTA or elsewhere done studies on what people deem to be an acceptable walking distance to a bus stop from their homes? I am sure that would inform where bus stops are located.

Bus shelters are very expensive and every time we ask about shelters, we kind of go round in circles with the local authority, the NTA and so on. Is there a simplified, standard and not high-cost bus shelter that we could roll out quickly across the country? More people are using public transport and we want to make it comfortable for them. They do not have to be big, flashy bus shelters but just something functional. I am particularly thinking about the rural Local Link routes.