[Article]Labour promises cheaper bus fares

[Gary]

Anyone read this? Just launched today. Mostly on Bus Services but bit at the end about other transport issues from interconnector to cycle lanes.

http://www.labour.ie/download/pdf/ge...ving_nov06.pdf

As with all political campaigns a pinch salt is required!

[PaulM]

Originally Posted by breakingnews.ie

All adult bus fares in Dublin will cost €1 if Labour gets into Government, it was claimed today.

The party will only charge children 50 cent as part of its ’Get Dublin Moving: Ending The Gridlock’ policy document unveiled today.

Labour will also put six park-and-ride facilities around the M50 and fully complete the city’s 11 Quality Bus Corridors.

Promising to add 500 buses to the Dublin Bus fleet, transport spokesperson Roisin Shortall said: “There has been no increase in the Dublin Bus fleet from 2001 to late 2005.

“One year into Transport 21, only 20 extra buses operate on our streets. We still have the problem of Quality Bus Corridors (QBCs) without adequate bus services, and bus services without adequate QBCs,” she said.

The party also says it will replace the Travel Pass Scheme with a new value “freedom card” which will offer cheaper fares and greater integration for all commuters.

“The only short-medium term solution to the traffic chaos in the greater Dublin area is to provide commuters with the option of reliable public transport, and the only way to do this is through improved bus services,” said Ms Shortall.

“The bus is going to continue to be the workhorse of the public transport system for many years to come and will continue to be a crucial element of it, even if and when all the rail and tram proposals in Transport 21 come on stream,” she added.

Ms Shortall criticised the Government for having no strategy for dealing with the congestion crisis facing commuters daily.

She said she was on her way into Dublin city centre during the first day of Operation Freeflow when she saw three cars parked on clearways.

This is the best thing I have heard in relation to public transport, possilby ever.

I moved this to the media section.

It is a very good proposal, I would be for it. How are Labour on keeping promises (I'm only young ).

[Maynooth_Line]

Unfortunately it would take a major effort to do this. If the government was to give Dublin Bus 500 new buses all the private operators would be going mad and they'd take the case to the European courts and everything would get delayed for ages.

Also, if Dublin Bus was to lower their fares to €1 for all single trips, the private operators would again cry fowl and argue to the European courts that the state is subsiding a state company and they can't compete in the market.

If only things were that easy....

[Nigel Fitzgricer]

I am glad to see that Rosin Shorthall finally realises that the Interconnector is important. So I give credit there. There are some good things in this report alright. The one Euro flat bus fare is a great idea through.

However the following paragraph from the document is enough to put me off voting for Labour. This is a classic:

There are lessons to be
learned from the experience with LUAS.

When commuters are given the option of a transport system which they can
depend on, which is fast, and which has reliable journey times, they will make
the switch. Many of the characteristics of LUAS can be replicated across the
Greater Dublin Area if a strategic approach is adopted to bus services.

The fact that Dublin Bus lost 6 million passengers a year to Luas precisely because it is NOT a Dublin Bus service seems to be lost of them. Or maybe it isn't, and is far too painfull for them to deal with.

More buses yes, but not as part of some CIE unions vendetta against the Luas.

Bertie and McDowell are still getting my vote. I am shallow and superficial enough to have been won over by Transport 21. Even with its faults.

[Oisin88]

I like this part:

She said she was on her way into Dublin city centre during the first day of Operation Freeflow when she saw three cars parked on clearways.

because, you could finish the sentence with:

which was down from the usual 3 cars parked in every clearway.

[ACustomer]

The day after La Shorthall announces her big idea about encouraging us to use public transport, her Union buddies threaten a strike about the amount of time they need for consultation on the new DTA.

When will the penny drop with Bertie, Shorthall and the other idiots who are in thrall to the likes of the NBRU and SIPTU?

[Donal Quinn]

this obsession with extra busses is maddening

i mean can theese people just look at the city centre in rush hour and tell me where these new busses are going to fit!!

i don't think that DB is all that far off having enough capacity - it's just that the buses are stuck in private traffic!

does that make sense?