ThreeformerDublinBusroutes tobeoperatedbyUKcompany
G0-AHEAD WINS TENDER FOR 184, 185 AND 45A FOR NEXT FIVE YEARS
THREE local bus routes are to be operated by UK bus company Go-Ahead over the next five years.
The 184 travelling between Bray and Newtownmountkennedy, the 185 to Enniskerry and 45A to Dun Laoghaire are among 24 routes to be taken over by the company.
The National Transport Authority (NTA) announced last week that Go-Ahead was the winner of the tender competition. The NTA has indicated that key service requirements such as fare and frequency will be incorporated in the contracts binding the new operator. Their announcement confirms that it is the NTA and not Go-Ahead who will determine fares and frequency over the next five years.
Cllr Tom Fortune said the NTA should come before the public accounts committee ‘ to fully explain all the implications surrounding this and who signs off on a decision like this’.
Deputy John Brady said that the announcement signals a serious move to the privatisation of the public transport service.
‘I am eager to learn from the NTA what made Go-Ahead more preferable than Dublin Bus, who are already operating a decent service in both Wicklow and Dublin,’ said Deputy Brady.
Deputy Pat Casey also expressed disappointment.
‘I was hoping that at the very least that an Irish company would have been successful in bidding for these very important public transport routes,’ he said. ‘I am in favour of competition but I do feel that Irish transport providers should be regarded as providing the very best in terms of cost effectiveness, reliability, and standard of service. I am very disappointed with this decision and I will be hoping that this is not the beginning of a process to outsource our public transport needs to foreign companies.’
However, Fianna Fáil activist James Doyle said the awarding of the contract is based on meeting the need of local commuters and is not about privatisation.
‘ The National Transport Authority took a detailed look at all orbital bus routes serving the greater Dublin area,’ said Mr Doyle. ‘ They do this on a five-year basis so that the service meets the developing needs of the local population. That’s what is important here, not scaremongering about privatisation. The buses remain in public ownership as do the terms of operating them.’
He said that the contract between the NTA and the operator is crucial. ‘I’ve written to the NTA on several occasions and asked to see the proposed contracts so I could check them for myself,’ said Mr Doyle.
Go-Ahead provides 25 per cent of London bus services and seven per cent of regional bus services in Britain. It is expected to begin operating some of the 24 routes by the end of November 2018 and all routes by February 2019.
Dublin Bus also applied for the franchise and was the only other company to make a formal bid. The company said it was disappointed with the result of the tender process.
Four other entrants dropped out of the process because of the condition that the successful company had to provide a depot. Contracts have yet to be signed but Go-Ahead will have 12 months to provide a depot.
NTA Chief Executive Anne Graham said that cost savings are envisaged and that there will be increased frequency of services as well as a 35 per cent increase in kilometres covered.
‘We believe that a new operator in the market will bring a fresh dimension to the way that services are offered. Introducing new providers encourages everybody to focus on their customers’ needs and it encourages innovation and improvements to service quality,’ she said.
She said that there will be no redundancies in Dublin Bus associated with the result of this tender competition.
That National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) General Secretary Dermot O’Leary said that it was ‘disappointing that Dublin Bus were unsuccessful in the so-called tendering process’.
He said that the NBRU will focus their attention ‘on ensuring that our affected members on the privatised routes will not be forced to move from their current workplace, we will also move to recruit those new entrants that will work for the private operator to ensure that they will be properly represented and work with them towards achieving similar terms and conditions as those workers we represent in the state-owned companies.’