John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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1866. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the actions his Department and the NTA are taking to prevent congestion times increasing in 2017 and 2018 on the M50 and on all main city bound routes (details supplied); his plans to bring 2017 and 2018 congestion levels back to 2015 levels; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27987/17]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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​I recognise that there is considerable evidence emerging of increased travel demand across the Dublin region in general, with growing traffic levels on many of the region's roads and streets.With regard to the M50, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), along with other stakeholders are continuing to implement a number of measures on the M50 to manage demand and optimise operational efficiency, including: changes to merge and diverge layouts at junctions; the introduction of permanently signed emergency routes; increased incident access points; increased provision of incident response units; and enhanced interagency co-ordination to improve incident management. TII have also established a project team to manage the design and procurement of a system of mandatory variable speed limits for the M50 and are progressing this project in 2017.

Insofar as congestion issues in Dublin are concerned, the National Transport Authority (NTA) has overall responsibility for the implementation of their published Transport Strategy for the Greater Dublin Area (GDA). Congestion isn't confined to a single corridor in the Dublin Region and it cannot be solved on focusing on just one or two corridors. It needs an approach that addresses the whole region. Last month, the NTA launched BusConnects – a plan to tackle congestion in the GDA by overhauling all aspects of Dublin's bus system including:

- Building a network of "next generation" bus corridors on the busiest bus routes to make journeys faster, predictable and reliable;

- Introducing Bus Rapid Transit, a higher quality of bus routes to make journeys faster, predictable and reliable;

- A complete redesign of the bus network to connect more places and carry more people;

- A state of the art ticketing system and cashless payment system;

- A revamped fare system to provide a simpler fare structure;

- Implementing new bus branding;

- Rolling out new bus stops; and

- Transitioning to new bus fleet using low emission vehicle technologies;

Delivering BusConnects will take a number of years, but the advantage of a bus-based solution is that implementation can start quickly and can ramp up depending on the level of funding available each year. With sufficient investment, and subject to planning approvals, the benefits of BusConnects can start coming on stream from 2019. My Department will continue to work closely with the NTA on the BusConnects project and on intensifying efforts to combat congestion across Dublin in the short to medium term.