There has been no transparency
Financial services worker James Doyle from Malahide has campaigned to save the 142 peak service route which is being scrapped and won’t be replaced, along with the 42, which is being re-routed. He says he will have to make serious decisions about where he lives and works if the proposals go through. ‘Around 6,000 people living in estates between Swords, Malahide and Portmarnock will be affected by the proposals. The 142 runs five times during peak morning hours and back in the evening. It’s a very well-used service and is perfect route for me as it gets me from Seabury in Malahide to the IFSC in half an hour. The re-routing means it will no longer go into many of the estates. For thousands of people, it’s their only access to public transport and if it goes, there’ll be no direct bus to the city centre at all.
Under the proposals, my only choice will be to take a feeder bus — which will run every 25 minutes — to the village to take either a bus to town or the Dart. I don’t see how a low frequency feeder bus service will be able to accommodate everyone and as far as I know, the feeder buses will be single decker. How can they cater for everyone getting on and off double-decker buses? The alternative is a 25- minute walk to the village which isn’t realistic for commuters.
I’ve spoken to the NTA and basically they want people to use the Dart instead of the bus but without actually investing in extra Darts. So there will be a huge knock-on effect for Dart users. I will have to make serious decisions based on whether I can get to work from where I live. Do I change job for an easier commute?
A lot of things aren’t very clear at the moment — what will the fare structure be? Someone is bound to lose out cost-wise. Also, the NTA will have to negotiate with the National Bus Union but we’ve no idea how any of this will work.In any successful business model, the customer is number one. Not with Bus Connects — they know there’ll be a significant human impact but it seems to be secondary. There are so many gaps in the proposals. there has been no transparency and little public consultation. It isn’t that people don’t want better transport, they just don’t trust the NTA to deliver it.’