Madam, – Amid news of Gaza, Anglo Irish and Obama, it has been easy to overlook the demise of the Green Party as any sort of a force on environmental issues.
I refer to the recent announcement by first, Dublin Bus and then, Bus Éireann that they are cutting services, withdrawing buses from our streets and roads and laying off workers. Coupled with the announcement in 2008 that the Metro North line is going to be downgraded so that it will carry a form of underground tram rather than real trains (heavy rail) it is now clear that the Greens' policies on public transport are in tatters.
What other country is reducing public transport in this time and taking steps that encourage more and more commuters to take to their cars and avoid an already underdeveloped and underfunded public transport system? As we all know, Ireland lags far behind other countries in provision of public transport and the resultant increase in car usage is a major cause of the growth in production of greenhouse gases. While the Greens might talk endlessly about doing something about that, they have proved in Government that it was just all hot air. – Yours, etc,
COLM STEPHENS,
People Before Profit,
St Patrick's Terrace,
Dublin 3.
Madam, – Your Editorial (January 21st) called "the shedding of 600 jobs and the removal of 270 buses from the public transport system" an indictment of CIÉ. Also in the same Editorial you quote Green Party spokesman on transport Ciarán Cuffe accusing CIÉ management of "taking the easy option" on the same issue.
Both statements are missing the point. Public transport, the success of which is important both to our competitiveness as an economy and to our ability to reduce our carbon footprint by taking more private cars off the road, is a mess. The reason it is a mess is that recent governments, and especially the ministers who were responsible, have been incompetent in this area.
In urban areas the purchase of more buses, together with the creation of more quality bus corridors and park and ride facilities, would enable much more people to use public transport and keep cars out of urban centres. This is an inexpensive, quick and relatively easy policy to implement. Instead, in the midst of economic difficulties we have proposals to dig up large areas of the city of Dublin to construct a highly expensive metro. In addition, instead of encouraging people to use public transport, we reduce bus numbers, charge users of public transport for parking and increase fares. Your Editorial tells us that the Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, "insists" that these issues are the responsibility of management and unions of CIÉ. That is a cop-out by a Minister who himself is elected by the rest of us to be responsible. – Yours, etc,
A LEAVY,
Sutton,
Dublin 13.