CIE claims gridlock costing company £40m

The CIE group has said traffic gridlock is now costing the State's bus company £40m.

The CIE group has said traffic gridlock is now costing the State's bus companies £40m.

The figures are contained in the company's annual report, which shows a surplus of £18.3m last year, up from £17.1m in 1999.

CIE chairman John Lynch said the company's economic prosperity is being threatened by a widening infrastructural deficit, giving rise to severe bottlenecks.

Traffic jams have resulted in the need for the purchase of an extra 300 buses and garage facilities costing £105m to compensate for the increased peak journey times.

Overall, the company's consultants estimated that conjestion is costing the Irish economy £1bn a year.

The report also found that over 300 million passengers used CIE bus and rail services in 2000.

This was despite last year's industrial strikes by train drivers, which cost the company £15m in lost revenue.