Private car ‘biggest barrier’ to more reliable Dublin Bus

The Chief Executive of Dublin Bus has warned that the private car is the “biggest barrier to faster and more reliable bus services”.

In his opening statement to the Oireachtas Transport Committee, Billy Hann told members that “it can take up to 29 minutes to travel just 10km in Dublin”.

“Ask yourself is it right that a line of cars with an average of one occupant per vehicle delays a bus with 85 people on it,” he said.

TDs and senators were told that it is becoming more difficult to provide a consistently punctual service due to large variances in daily traffic congestion in Dublin city, with fewer cars on the road on a Monday and Friday, due to changed working patterns as a result of remote working.

Mr Hann called for the new traffic plan from the National Transport Authority and Dublin City Council to be fully implemented, which seeks to reduce the number of private cars travelling through the city centre.

“We need to break the dominance of the private car,” he told members.

Mr Hann said that creating more space for buses, to move faster through the city, was not a “utopia” but a strategy that could be achieved.

Separately, Dublin Bus also told the Transport Committee that it is engaging with the Department of Transport to establish a stakeholder forum to discuss anti-social behaviour on the public transport network.

Bus Éireann representatives also expressed concern about the impact of congestion on bus timetables.

Bus Éireann CEO Stephen Kent said it is proving “extremely difficult” to meet punctuality targets on at least 50% of its public service obligation routes.

“Lack of enforcement of bus priority and of illegal bus stop use is also a negative input”, he said.

At present, just 2% of the kilometres travelled by Bus Éireann vehicles in Co Cork are in bus lanes, the committee heard.