Capital Crime: Dublin Bus Cutbacks

The news that Dublin Bus is to cut jobs, services, and the number of buses it runs is staggering in the context of any serious attempt at a coherent public transport policy.

The company itself is badly caught between a commercial mandate and a public service remit that even in good times is hard to reconcile. This week's news that there are to be substantial cutbacks, and what what Dublin Bus terms "adjustments" to services shows the company exercising that commercial imperative.

The attitude of the Government parties to this is also interesting. Needless to say, it's nothing to do with Fianna Fail. The Minister for Transport says it's a matter entirely for the company. They've been given their budget, and they have to live with it. The Greens want radical reform of Dublin Bus. So it mustn't be anything to do with them either. The Programme for Government calls for "Reforming bus licensing to facilitate the optimum provision of services by providing a level playing field for all market participants." But that doesn't form any part of the reform that Ciaran Cuffe lays out. He even has a swipe at the local authorities for not providing enough bus priority measures. To be clear about this, millions have being spent and are being spent on bus lanes. Now there are fewer buses to run on them. Bus lanes are unpopular with residents, and unpopular with motorists. In Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, the most useful thing on put on them are "Bus Lane not in Use" signs, which while delivering an extra lane of traffic (courtesy of the DTO), also goes some way to protect the integrity of those bus lanes that actually have a decent service. If the QBC programme and bus priority measures are to be advanced, it must be with the promise of more and better services, not fewer and worse.

To turn to the opposition parties, Fine Gael, sees this as an opportunity for the workers who are losing their jobs. Pascal Donohoe advises that if the government opened the market to private operators, then alternative employment prospects would be make available. I'm sure the Dublin Bus workers would receive Pascal very well at their branch meeting and would see the worth in what he offers -- and he might continue to persuade the Aer Lingus unions that working for Ryanair is also an opportunity. But at least the Fine Gael option has some coherence to it. It at least offers a way of providing a transport service.

Speaking of Ryanair, it is Labour's Tommy Broughan who is calling for the discount airline policy to be applied to Dublin Bus -- cut fares to increase passengers. Labour also points out that we have one of the lowest subsidies for public transport in Europe, and that it is the poorest who are most likely to be hit by these measures, which is all true.

Between Labour (properly subsidised Dublin Bus) and Fine Gael (regulated private provision) two opposing visions of how public transport should be provided are laid out. That's fine -- but the debate should have been had and action taken a decade ago.

The depth of this debacle does not seem to be appreciated by anyone. We do not have a public transport policy for the capital city any more. The Programme for Government is laden down with big-ticket projects -- Luas extensions and metro -- but the simplest workaday solution for most commuters for the next few years remains the humble bus, and at a time when we should surely be at least maintaining standards in public transport, we're now about to reduce them. It is also certain that many of those big-ticket projects will also be cut.

It is worth reminding the parties in government that this is not just a public transport issue. Government policy on development in the metropolitan area is also predicated on higher densities along public transport corridors. We are now destined to repeat the mistakes of the past where an ad hoc approach is taken to public transport provision and development is not properly integrated with infrastructure. You may well laugh (hollowly, I hope) at the mention of "development", but this pause in economic actitivity will sooner or later come to an end. Now is not the time for myopic vision, but for a more strategic vision of how the capital city will be best able to develop sustainably and take advantage of the (increasingly distant) economic upturn.