Dublin Bus is holding discussions with Dublin City Council on the introduction of a bus priority signalling system similar to those on Luas trams. Tim O'Brien reports.
Plans to install the priority system on the city's buses have been discussed for some time according to the council, but it was felt the cost per vehicle was prohibitive, a spokesman for the council told The Irish Times.
Dublin Bus complained formally to the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) last Tuesday after a series of Luas trams were given priority over all traffic, including public transport, at the St Stephen's Green junction. The resultant queues stretched back as far as Cork Street in Dublin's Liberties, with buses running up to 30 minutes late. The bus company later said it simply wanted to ensure the traffic flowed well for all providers of public transport. Dublin City Council traffic controllers, Luas staff and Dublin Bus have been in discussions in an attempt to sort the problem out.
Speaking after one such meeting, the senior controller, Mr Brendan O'Brien, told The Irish Times that discussions were also ongoing with Dublin Bus about introducing a similar system in cabs.
The system works by alerting traffic controllers when a vehicle is approaching a traffic light. A vehicle can be designated low, medium or high priority depending on the time of day and its pre-agreed status in traffic hierarchy.
However, if the vehicle finds its priority setting is causing it to run late it can request a higher priority which results in less waiting time at lights. The first identification of a tram approaching a traffic light is automatic and triggered by the tram passing a certain point.
The second signal is sent as a request from the driver, who hits a button on his console.
What happened on Tuesday was that drivers hit their buttons too frequently, breaking an agreed protocol.
Normally, the traffic controllers could decide not to accede to the request but during Tuesday's testing period there was a "glitch" which prevented the traffic controllers from downgrading the Luas drivers' requests.
According to Mr O'Brien the discussions with Dublin Bus had resumed recently with new enthusiasm.