Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 30 November 2023
12. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Transport if he is satisfied with the roll-out of phase 5b of BusConnects; what improvements can be made to the service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52850/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraBusConnects Dublin is a transformative programme of investment in the existing bus system providing better bus services to more people. It is the biggest ever investment in our bus system in the history of the State and all those who advocate for better public transport should be advocates of BusConnects.
The Deputy’s question relates to Phase 5B of the new network roll-out which was introduced just four days ago.
Phase 5b involves a significant overall in service levels on the Southern Orbitals which makes it one of the biggest changes under the Network Redesign to date. The new routes offer significantly enhanced frequency with some services running every 10 minutes. The new routes have been designed to be generally more direct than the routes that are being replaced. In doing this, they open up new direct links throughout southern and western Dublin.
However, I acknowledge that in some cases customers may now have to interchange between two routes to get to their destination. However, given that the new services are more frequent the waiting time at the interchange point will generally be low and the overall journey time in most of these cases will be similar to today. This Government has made interchange easier through funding not just improved service frequency but also through funding the TFI 90 fare.
Given Phase 5B has only just launched I think it is too soon to make an informed judgement one way or the other, but I expect that the NTA to report on its implementation in the coming months and identified issues can be obviously be examined as part of that.
But these service improvements are just one part of BusConnects Dublin, next year we’ll see the NTA award the contract for the Next Generation Ticketing project and most significantly of all I expect to see real progress in terms of delivering the Core Bus Corridors.
