Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

It is good to see the witnesses again and I thank them for coming in. I will get straight into it because I have a number of issues to cover that relate primarily to the commuter experience. Perhaps in his first response, Mr. Creegan might give me a sense of how the NTA puts the commuter experience at the centre of what it does. I represent a large Dublin constituency.

The electrification of the bus fleet has been mentioned. One thing that strikes me is that we do not hear much discussion or communication about the electrification of the bus fleet and the impact that has in terms addressing our emissions. Mr. Creegan might speak in a moment about how exactly that communication challenge of informing the public about the opportunities that are presented by the electric bus fleet is being addressed.

BusConnects is obviously something that Mr. Creegan covered in his introductory outlining of the NTA. I would like to hear from him about the plans to expand the L route. It is one of the unsung champions of the BusConnects roll-out, certainly in Dublin, and has opened up and unlocked a lot more capacity in the bus network. I would like to hear about the plans to expand that.

Like Deputy Currie, I represent a constituency in the western part of Dublin where, for many parts of the area, bus transport is the only mode of public transport people have available to them. Capacity on those routes is a constant issue, be it in terms of capacity at weekends to react to large events in the city centre or large events such as a concerts or large cultural events and extra capacity is provided at weekends, or during the day at peak times. If a long route, like a C-spine route, is in operation, that route fills up every quickly before it leaves the local area where it begins. The engagement I have had with providers is that they are not able to properly adapt to those changes in a fast enough way. That could be in terms of operating a route that has a staggered start. For example, if I think of somewhere like the C1 or C2 in Lucan and Adamstown, where part of that C1 or C2 route might start at a later part of the route, be it three or four km into it, to give additional capacity to people at the other end of Lucan and give them the opportunity to get onto a bus. In many cases as it stands at the moment, buses that are full go by stops in that part of Lucan. This is emulated all over Dublin Mid-West.

I would like to hear a bit from Mr. Creegan first about the benefits of the electric bus fleet, the roll-out of the local routes and how the NTA is proactively engaging with providers to address capacity issues at weekends in response to large, one-off events. I would also like to hear about staggered starts to bus routes.