Dempsey promises bus market reform

EARLY PROGRESS in reforming “badly outdated” and “procedurally very slow and cumbersome” regulations governing the bus market in Dublin was promised yesterday by Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey.

At the launch of Airport Flybus, a new service between Tallaght and Dublin airport, Mr Dempsey appealed to the private sector for “a little more patience” with his bid to reform the legislation.

He said “within one year” substantial progress would be made in reforming the 1932 Transport Act, under which, he has previously acknowledged, private operators may expect to wait two years for a decision on a route licence from the Department of Transport.

Airport Flybus is one of a number of new private services to start up in recent years linking Dublin airport to the suburbs.

Speaking to The Irish Times before the launch yesterday, Tony McConn, who developed the Flybus service, said: “Two years is a bit long. If you want to change the route in the meantime, it is no good, you have to start again.”

The president of South Dublin chamber Con McCarthy said there “still seems to be a problem accepting private operators can play a role in public transport solutions”.

The difficulty appeared to exist in the Department of Transport, but also among unions in the State bus companies “who don’t want to see the business open up for everyone’s benefit, including their own”.

Mr McCarthy said that in addition to the lengthy waiting period for a route licence, he believed there was “a difficulty at the Dublin airport end, too, in being allocated slots”.

This suggestion was rejected by Dublin Airport Authority’s mobility manager Ivor Maleady, who said bus access was important to the airport, particularly during the construction of terminal two.

“There is an entrance fee, as with a car you pay for the space, but there are no unnecessary delays,” he said.

Another difficulty for the private operators is the setting up of bus stops – a bus shelter, for example, costs about €4,000 and some require planning permission from the local authority, while all stops require approval from the Department of Transport.

The Coach and Tourism Council of Ireland, which accounts for more vehicles than Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann combined, has also complained to the Oireachtas committee on transport about the regulatory framework regarding access to the Dublin bus market.

It claims it has evidence that the State bus companies dramatically increase services on selected routes when the private sector is given a licence in the area.

Mr Dempsey said legislation for the Dublin Transport Authority would create a “world-class, integrated public transport market”.