Bus Eireann is up to speed, so why sell out to the profiteers?

I HAVE worked in CIE since 1960, and in all that time it has been a political football. Once again, in the wake of the recent SDG report on public transport, it looks as if Minister Seamus Brennan wants to kick CIE, but one must ask what benefit will this bring to the travelling public?

Will the buses on the 25% of routes in Dublin that he wants franchised out to private operators run on Red Bull and have wings to fly over the gridlocked traffic.

There has been massive under investment in railways, to the detriment of the travelling public. Moreover, the fact that there is no incentive to encourage the transfer of heavy freight to the railways has left Irish towns and cities clogged with articulated trucks.

Despite low levels of public funding, Bus Eireann is now carrying record numbers of passengers, and its Expressway offers hourly services between all the major cities and towns.

Yet the report suggest the complete dismantling of Bus Eireann.

On provincial city services, the report concludes that some vague ‘body’ takes them over. These services have been extended substantially in the last ten years. In Cork there has been huge support for improved services on the 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8 routes, and an incredible response to the new southern orbital 19 route.

Instead of the integrated nationwide service which Bus Eireann provides, Minister Brennan’s proposals would leave a patchwork quilt of companies, all wanting the lucrative routes, but not smaller rural communities. Of what benefit would this be to the public?

On the school transport scheme, the report suggests that the Department of Education run the service.

Two pilot schemes for this were undertaken in the ’80s, and both failed. Moreover, the two reports commissioned by the transport ministers at the time stated that the scheme was being run in a cost effective way by Bus Eireann.

So who benefits from Minister Brennan’s proposals? Clearly, the first beneficiaries would be the large foreign bus companies which would repatriate the profits they would make here. Why, then, should our Transport Minister want to break up a national bus company in favour of foreign companies?

CIE owns large amounts of valuable property. Will this be handed over also to private operators?

Michael Lynch,

Shamrock Ave.,

Douglas,

Cork.