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

BusConnects programmes will be substantially delivered in all five of Ireland’s cities by the end of the decade. BusConnects Dublin is the most advanced of the five programmes. The programme preliminary business case and the detailed project brief for next generation ticketing were approved by Government in March 2022. This approval gave decision gate 1 approval to the programme in principle under the public spending code, decision gate 1 approval to the core bus corridors project to facilitate the submission of planning applications by the National Transport Authority, NTA, and decision gate 2 approval to next generation ticketing, facilitating the commencement of competitive dialogue. The process is starting.

To date, the NTA has submitted planning applications to An Bord Pleanála in respect of six of the core bus corridor schemes and expects to submit applications for all remaining schemes by the end of the second quarter of 2023.

In terms of the bus routes, including for the Bluebell and Inchicore areas, the BusConnects network redesign for the entire Dublin network is being rolled out over 11 phases. Roll-out of these services began in 2021 and currently the NTA expects it to be completed by early 2025. The network redesign was the subject of three public consultation processes between 2017 and 2019. The final version of the network redesign was published in September 2020, with a view to providing a coherent bus service for the Dublin region.

With regard to the specific area of Bluebell, it is currently served by the Luas red line, by the high-frequency 13 bus route and by hourly bus services 68 and 69. As the Deputy said, bus route 13 will be replaced by the D-spine service to and from Grangecastle and Clondalkin, which will go close to but not through Bluebell. Bluebell will retain excellent accessibility on the Luas red line. Low-frequency buses, the 68 and 69 via Bluebell, will be replaced with hourly bus 58 between Dublin Port, the city centre and Rathcoole. Inchicore is served by G-spine routes G1 and G2, providing a combined frequency of eight buses per hour in each direction.

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