Call for competition on city bus routes

Opening Dublin’s bus system to competing operators could lead to a huge leap in the number of people using public transport, it was claimed today.

Fine Gael Transport Spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell said allowing new companies to enter the market would provide more buses and more routes for a greater number of passengers in the city.

Ms Mitchell called for competitive tendering for operators and a bus regulator to ensure standards are met.

“Fine Gael believes that a competitive market with effective regulation to secure standards and quality of service offers the best model for the provision of public bus transport services in Dublin,” she said.

“The regulator would define the service levels required, the routes, the quality, the frequency, the comfort levels, the price, and then the competitive tendering system would produce the operator who would deliver this service at the most competitive price over a five-year period.”

Under the ‘A Better Route’ plans unveiled by Fine Gael, the operators would tender for the public service subsidy – although in some profitable situations the companies would pay for exclusive rights to run services.

“Experience elsewhere indicates that this model attracts additional passengers to the point where the need for public subsidy is greatly reduced,” she said.

Ms Mitchell pointed to London, where a similar approach in the early 1990s saw passenger journeys increase by 54% in a decade and public subsidies drop by 45%.

In Dublin, such a policy could lead to a 75 million rise in passenger journeys, up from 150 million in 2004, she said.

“This type of change would radically transform the bus market in Dublin and mark a huge shift in use of public transport.

“We have waited for years now for the Government to follow through on the myriad of promises they have made to open up this market in the interest of the travelling public.”

Ms Mitchell criticised spending millions on quality bus corridors (QBCs) when there weren’t enough buses to serve them, and failures to link up routes effectively with the Luas.

The public deserved better and Fine Gael’s proposals were a very practical and reasonable approach to the issue, she claimed.

“If implemented they would achieve the objective – namely more buses, more routes and more passengers,” she said.