OPINION: Jerry Kiersey, chairman of the Transport Umbrella Group, takes a broadside at how we deal with transport issues.
Over the past 30 years I have tried to advance myself in the world of road transport, through a learning process that is still going on. My goal has been to uncover best practice, coming from various stages of ignorance.
I have always found the Dutch to be among the leaders in this field, if not the ultimate leader. Led by their government, all those involved in road transport in the Netherlands formed the Holland International Distribution Council (HIDC) to achieve best possible transport solution for the country.
Now the Dutch dominate movement into and out of the EU, reaping the economic benefits from the value added on goods as they pass to and from other nations.
The HIDC is the direct opposite of our own Steering Committees of the Dublin Transportation Initiative (DTI) and Dublin Transportation Office (DTO). It seems that the inclusion of anybody from the private sector would be anathema to our public transport experts who have always preferred to speak to mirror images of themselves.
In Ireland the practitioner is the last to be consulted on anything. We are dominated by competing departments with an overlay of bodies such as the DTO, National Roads Authority (NRA), Dublin City Council all doing their own thing and damned if they will allow each other on to their turf. The cost to the nation doesn't matter as long as the opinions of these groups dominate.
I recently took part in the Department of the Marine's report on Transport Logistics for Ireland's Ports, a well-led group with all participants giving time freely in the national interest. Except that is, for the representatives of two government departments whose primary goal seemed to be to protect the optics of their departments.
They argued interminably with the chair over minutes of meetings and what we could and could not say: little or nothing to do with either national interest or best practice.
Again during the Road Haulage Review, the representative of the Department of Public Enterprise (DOPE) wasn't perturbed that there was no law enforcement in the road transport industry but was very concerned that his department might have to provide it and who was going to pay for it. He had to be reminded by a Dutch consultant that we had signed the Treaty of Rome and had no choice in this matter.
The recent Air Cargo Security regime has been interminably discussed since 1997 and, in the space of six months, three different civil servants were responsible for its delivery. It only came in to being because of the events of September 11th.
As a member of the Transport Committee of Dublin Chamber of Commerce (DCC), we suffered ridicule from 1989 onwards for opposing LUAS in favour of a Metro solution. CIE even wheeled out TCD's geology department to tell us that you couldn't put tunnels under Dublin.
Then in September 2000 the management of CIE announced that it never favoured a LUAS system at all. Now we are going to have a level crossing at the Red Cow interchange, the busiest junction in the State.
The most recent example of disorganisation has been over the internal height of the Dublin Port Tunnel. This was decided by Dublin City Council, which on completion will hand the tunnel over to the NRA. The Council set the standard height for the tunnel at 4.65 metres. However, the NRA has set the clearances on our motorways at 5.3 metres, the same as Britain.
Further transport confusion is evidenced by the fact that Mary O'Rourke, in one of her last acts as minister, allocated €15 million to increasing the height of the East Wall Road railway bridge to the aforementioned 5.3 metres. If the idea of Owen Keegan and Frank McDonaldof a bike-only city were to reach fruitition we would have a height restriction of 5 foot 8 inches - a tunnel for bikes only.
This effectively rules out 10 to 15 per cent of trucks capable of using the tunnel from doing so.
Irish Ferries has invested €100 million in the largest and finest Ro Ro vessel ever to sail our waters or indeed anyone else's and, as a result, is driving its competitors to improve their offerings. Its internal loading gauge will allow any goods vehicle that can travel on the motorway network to travel on it. Does Dublin City Council seriously think that Irish Ferries is wrong?
Owen Keegan, director of traffic of Dublin City Council, in response to a comment of mine about the necessity to preserve some space for the flow of goods to and from the port and within the city, stated that we did not have a strong enough lobby for him to take note of our needs.
His vision of Dublin is well summed up by our cartoon. DCC gives us more optical buffoonery with its light-up campaign. How much is this costing? As an operator of HGVs in Dublin, if this money is supposed to be about road safety I would prefer it be spent on repairing potholes or renewing markings.
I RECENTLY inquired why South Dublin Co Council had put in cycle lanes on the Tallaght by-pass - they seem to be hazardous to anyone foolish enough to use them. Yet, as the N81 continues through Jobstown, the only footpath available to anyone unfortunate enough to have to walk from the new housing estates to a bus stop is less than three feet wide and has merged with the road surface.
Surely, as this road carries a huge volume of lorries, would it not have been better if the money had been spent on a path? I was told, EU money was available for cycle lanes but none for footpaths.
I could go on to detail the bus licence issued to Dualway Coaches to run a service from College Green to Park West and Rathcoole on the condition that it doesn't pick up passengers between College Green and the Naas Road. But what makes me even more tired was listening to CIE spokespersons telling us why they need a 15/20 per cent increase in fares and yet will not provide a service to Park West. Of course, thanks to Dublin Bus, the whole city centre has now been turned into a gigantic bus park.
I'm off to bed now to dream perchance of an all-encompassing Department of Transport which will run all transport issues, maybe including ports - and new steering committees which actually have private sector representatives on board.