No more Dublin buses until way forward agreed

Dublin Bus will not receive any new buses until negotiations on the company's future are completed, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said…

Dublin Bus will not receive any new buses until negotiations on the company's future are completed, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said today.

The company is awaiting around 150 buses promised under the National Development Plan (NDP) to service high demand routes.

However, Mr Ahern said the priority was to reform the 75-year-old bus market legislation, which was drawn up when the main vehicles in the city were 'horse and carts' carrying vegetables.

"The outdated legislation needs to be replaced by a modern framework. The Minister (for Transport) is consulting with the stakeholders in this regard," he said.

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He added: "Those discussions are going very well, and there was agreement by all sides that they complete those discussions, then the new buses for this year would be released," he said Dublin Bus purchased more than 500 buses under the NDP but most of these were replacements, with just 174 extra buses.

The company has more than 1,000 buses and carries 500,000 passengers on every working day.

At the opening of a new Dublin bus depot in Harristown, Mr Ahern said that Quality Bus Corridors had boosted bus passenger numbers and would be expanded further.

He praised Dublin Bus for making half its fleet and one third of its routes fully accessible to disabled people.

The Harristown bus depot was built in Fingal at a cost of €48 million to provide extra capacity for the Dublin Bus fleet.

It is the company's first new depot in more than 30 years.

Outside the deport, a group of Dublin Bus drivers mounted an unofficial protest against plans to privatise the company.

"They privatised bus companies in Britain ten years ago and it was a disaster for the workers and the public," said Eoin McCormick, from the Haroldstown bus depot.

"We think it's a PR stunt designed to fool people of Dublin into thinking they've got a new bus depot, which they have. But it's replacing an existing bus depot, Broadstone, which is closing down." Fine Gael Transport spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell said that the Greater Dublin area was in dire need of extra buses.

"You can't argue with the figures no matter how the Taoiseach tries to dress it up. The reality is that the buses that were promised have not been delivered. People are screaming for buses," she said.

PA