€2bn revamp of Dublin's bus services 'deplorable', TD claims
Authority Democrats Leah Horrendous,' Catherine The Social Murphy Co Ie 'my With Told Is Experience Farrell/rollingnews Transport National Picture: File Leader Busconnects
The implementation of the €2bn BusConnects revamp of Dublin's bus services has been “deplorable” in some areas, the Public Accounts Committee was told on Thursday morning.
The committee was hearing from the National Transport Authority, the body responsible for implementation of the project.
BusConnects, a project which is planned for expansion in other major cities, including Cork, will see the entire bus network in Dublin and its environs revamped into eight ‘spines’ and 16 core bus corridors.
NTA chief executive Anne Graham told the committee two phases of the BusConnects network were completed in 2021, with a further three set for rollout in 2022.
The two completed phases, the C and H spines, were sharply criticised at the meeting by Catherine Murphy, the Social Democrats co-leader. Her constituency of Leixlip in Kildare is served by the C spine.
“My experience with BusConnects is horrendous,” she said.
“You say that two phases have been delivered successfully, they haven’t been. One certainly hasn’t been successfully delivered and I can testify because my constituency is in one of them.”
“Success is not empty buses. Success is not people buying cars because there is no bus transport. The complaint I get most frequently is ‘why are you running empty buses'?,” Ms Murphy said.
BusConnects Dublin, the largest overhaul of the capital’s bus services in a generation, has seen expenditure of €149.1m to date – split between route design and fleet investment.
The project is currently awaiting a Government decision on its preliminary business case, the NTA said, which, if granted, will see planning applications made for the system’s 16 core bus corridors.
Addressing Ms Graham, Ms Murphy said she was “hugely disappointed” there hasn’t been an opportunity for the public to directly engage regarding BusConnects.
“There is no point in me engaging with you because I don’t get a response. I have found the whole process highly frustrating. I think you’d better get the H and C spine right before you roll the other ones out,” she said.
Ms Graham said she was “very disappointed” to hear the criticism. “It is difficult in terms of measuring success in Covid because we know that only 50% of passengers are travelling at the moment,” she said.
She added that the empty buses Ms Murphy had noted “could be because of restrictions”.
“Please don’t give me that,” Ms Murphy said.
“It is difficult to test a system when operating in abnormal conditions,” the NTA chief replied. “We will change in response to demand.”
I can’t let that stand on the record because that is not the experience,” Ms Murphy replied. “I don’t want this to be localised, or parochial, this is about getting a service that works,” she said, adding that while some parts of the C spine may work, others are “deplorable”.
Separately, the committee heard the timelines for the delivery of the €3bn MetroLink airport rail connection need to be “flexible” as they “may have to change depending on external factors”.
The project has come in for criticism after the NTA’s transport strategy published late last year appeared to suggest it would not be delivered before 2030.
In terms of the €88m spent on this version of MetroLink in the past three years, deputy NTA chief executive Hugh Cregan said such expenditure was “what you would expect for a project this size”.
Regarding the development of a Luas-like service for Cork City, Mr Cregan said a public consultation on an emerging preferred route would be held “in a number of months for Luas Cork”.