Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. BusConnects is a transformative plan to improve and expand bus services in all of our major cities. The programme is initially being rolled out in Dublin, followed by Galway and Cork, and then Limerick and Waterford. Traffic congestion currently costs Dublin city approximately €350 million per annum and this figure is forecast to rise to approximately €2 billion per annum by 2033. It is essential that we tackle that.

It is a key part of the Government’s policy to improve public transport services nationally and to address the impact of climate change. To this end, ambitious targets are included in the National Development Plan 2018–2027, the Transport Strategy for the Greater Dublin Area 2016–2035 and the Climate Action Plan 2019.

BusConnects Dublin includes the network redesign of bus services, the core bus corridors and next generation ticketing. In September 2020, the NTA published the finalised network redesign and the first phase of the new network redesign - the H Spine which is Howth to city centre corridor - was launched at the end of June. The launch went very well, and the feedback has been mostly positive. The customer experience team are continuing to provide support to the public as they familiarise themselves with the new routes. The second phase - the C Spine, which is Lucan to Ringsend via city centre - will be launched by the end of November.

The NTA has also completed a series of public consultations on the 16 core bus corridors proposals in quarter 1, 2020 and quarter 4, 2020.  These corridors will make bus journeys faster and more reliable and reduce journey times by 40% to 50% on each corridor.

With regard to the second part of the Deputy’s question, which was relates to pay and working conditions at Dublin Bus, I would like to begin by explaining that industrial relations issues in Dublin Bus are a matter for the company, its employees and trade union groups. Dublin Bus management engages with its trade unions on an ongoing basis on various matters of common interest. While my Department receives regular updates from Dublin Bus on industrial relations issues, neither I nor my Department have a direct role in and nor do we intervene in such operational matters. 

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