2026-01-14

Late buses, ghost buses, cancelled buses, buses that go past you because they are packed at peak hours and areas that have been completely abandoned: BusConnects is a shambles. Drivers are stressed to bits with the present box system. They are being harassed and disciplined because they cannot meet ridiculous timetables, with unrealistic routes and timetable requirements. It is an absolute shambles for commuters trying to use the bus system to get to work, for older people, disabled people and students, and for bus drivers who are harassed to bits. All of that is compounded by the privatisation of the system and apps that tell different information. If you go on the Transport for Ireland app, it tells you one thing, bustimes.org tells you something else and reality tells you something else again. It is absolute chaos. The National Transport Authority, NTA, explains ghost buses as being a result of longer routes and cross-city routes. We told it that when BusConnects was first designed. Some of the worst examples I am getting are in my own area. These are the east spine routes, which used to be the 46A and other routes. My colleague, Councillor Conor Reddy from Finglas, says it is the same with the F spine, which affects Finglas, Tallaght and so on. In the first week of the F spine in his area, he got 350 emails with complaints about buses not turning up and so on. The question is what we are going to do about it. I have not got time to go into it, but Go-Ahead is performing even worse than Dublin Bus. The whole thing is an absolute shambles. Does the Government recognise the problem? What is it going to do about it?

I feel that every couple of weeks for the last number of years, I have been getting up here giving out about ghost buses, buses that are put out of order or are packed and people cannot get on them, buses that are cancelled, people waiting forever and people not being able to rely on basic public transport services in this country. There is no recognition by the Government of the fundamental issues. There are staffing shortages, which is an underlying issue, but there are also other issues. It is very clear that privatisation is a disastrous experiment for which workers and commuters are paying the price, if we look at the figures for the lack of punctuality and fines for Go-Ahead. Go-Ahead has 22% of the fines for buses in Dublin but only provides 12% of the services. That is on the one hand. On the other hand are new spine routes that simply do not make sense. I will give some anecdotes from Dublin South-West to go with that overall picture. Up until the F spine, the routes that we got most complaints about all the time were the S6 and the S8 and the lower frequency routes of the W6 and W2. What is the common feature of all of those? They are all Go-Ahead routes. The S6 has so many problems that it has its own Instagram account, I hate the S6, used by students who are going from Tallaght or Blackrock to UCD to highlight all the problems with it. I will give an example from the W6 from Tallaght to Maynooth where, last Thursday, a constituent and 15 other people, to be exact, were waiting at The Square bus terminus for over half an hour for the next bus, not leaving the stop in case it showed up, which it did not, in freezing cold 2°C weather. On the F spine, people are telling me again and again that their journeys into town have been increased by half an hour. We have this new high-frequency route, but because the route is going to places that do not make sense and are not made for a whole number of buses to be going to, the routes have slowed down significantly. That is the NTA's fault, not Dublin Bus's fault.

I thank the Deputies. I am taking the matter for the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, who apologises that he cannot be here. As both of them know quite well, the Minister has responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport, but neither the Minister nor his officials are involved in the day-to-day operations of the public transport service. That rests with the NTA, which both Deputies articulated. I will not insult them by telling them that. I appreciate and acknowledge the remarks they both made in the context of the experience of commuters and the travelling public. It highlights the importance of the need for BusConnects to be completed. I assure both of them that the Government is committed to providing all citizens with reliable and realistic sustainable mobility options. Public transport plays a key role in delivery of this goal. As I said, it is unacceptable that members of the travelling public, as both Deputies articulated, have experienced no buses, ghost buses or late buses. The reply given to them outlines a variety of reasons for bus cancellations, which will be available on the record of the House. The issue of staff availability is an issue that is ongoing. It is not just about Dublin; it is in Cork as well. The most frequent reason for bus cancellations on routes is related to traffic congestion and traffic delays. The key point I will make to all is that it is not about lack of investment by the Government. The Government is committed to public transport, which has been seen in the budgetary allocation. I appreciate that this is discommoding for members of the travelling public. It is unacceptable that buses have to be cancelled. It has an impact on passengers. That is unacceptable. The frequent occurrence of this is in part because of the high volume of traffic. There are a variety of reasons, but it is important to recognise that the NTA has a responsibility in this matter. Phase 7 of BusConnects, the F spine, is a good example of the responsiveness of the NTA to the challenging environment in Dublin. The most extensive phase of BusConnects to date, phase 7, was launched on 19 October. While that involved the removal of some services, new services and changes have been introduced, including the 24-hour spines F1, F2, 80 and F3, which aim to enhance connectivity across the capital and support Dublin's growing night-time economy. New local and radial services, such as the 23, 24, 73, 82 and L89 services, now serve areas including Ballymun, Finglas, Charlestown, Walkinstown and Liffey Valley. Following feedback from passengers and local representatives, alignment changes were made to a number of these routes and the NTA is reviewing further amendments to the routes to tackle challenges to reliability. With regard to ghost buses, when a service is cancelled the operator is required to cancel the service on the system that monitors bus locations and feeds the real-time information system. While that generally does happen, there have been some occurrences where the relevant operator personnel did not input the cancellation in a timely manner. The NTA continues to monitor this issue and to stress to operators the need for timely inputs of cancellations where they occur. Deputy Boyd Barrett spoke about the issue of apps. Tomorrow, in Question Time in the Dáil, there will be a number of questions on the apps. It is unacceptable for people to have to rely on different forms of information where there is an app available that should have, in real time, the pertinent, relevant information. I will bring the Deputies' points about the S6 route back to the Department. I am not familiar with the route because it is not in my locality but I will certainly look at the Instagram account and feed it back to the NTA. It is unacceptable for someone to wait in subzero temperatures for half an hour for a bus to Maynooth and for it not to show up. I take the points the Deputies raised on behalf of people who want to use public transport. We must give them certainty and a guarantee that public transport will work for them.

I do not even have time to go through the number of issues I have but I will try to get some of them out. With BusConnects, many areas were abandoned, particularly working-class areas with older populations. Finglas east no longer has any connection to the north inner city whatsoever. Ballinteer no longer has any connection to Dún Laoghaire. These are older populations. Why does the Minister of State think people then get into cars, which increases congestion? The 46A and the 145 services, which are now the E spine routes, going past UCD, no longer have any connection with Heuston Station, where many of the students come to the universities from. It is crazy. We said this. Buses on many of the spines crossing the city are guaranteed to get caught up in congestion. We said in advance that these things would not work. Privatisation makes it all even worse because Go-Ahead does not give the same decent pay and conditions to people, so it cannot hold onto mechanics and bus drivers. As a result, it does not even have the people to operate buses on the route. It is a shambles and the Government has to do something about it, not just say it is terrible.

It is Government policy to slice and dice and privatise our routes in Dublin. By every metric of reliability, punctuality and penalties incurred, Go-Ahead is much worse than Dublin Bus. Why then is the Government persisting with privatising routes and giving them to Go-Ahead? Why are they not returned to Dublin Bus? Will the Government call a halt to the plans to privatise even more routes to Go-Ahead, including routes 56A, 65 and 77A, in light of all of the evidence shown that Go-Ahead provides a much worse service? It is interesting that in the answer, the F spine is given as a good example. I got an email a few days ago that takes on board all the changes. It states that the F1 bus: takes nearly 2 hours from O'Connell Street to the Square, and that journey was taken in Saturday afternoon traffic. The amalgamations made for this route were frankly ridiculous, and the bus travels through several small estates lacking in necessary traffic infrastructure to properly facilitate a bus route. These residents have lost their previously efficient 49, 54A and other routes and the new F1 is not a suitable replacement. I could go on and on with similar stories.

Deputy Murphy might forward that to me because it is important that we bring feedback to the NTA. I assure the Deputies that the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, and I, and the Department, fully recognise that transport connectivity is hugely important for people who live, work and study. Deputy Boyd Barrett mentioned the link to Heuston Station. It beggars belief that there is no link from Heuston Station to the colleges he referred to. From a Government point of view, public transport connectivity is key to revitalising our villages, towns and urban centres. By expanding the public transport network and increasing service levels, as outlined in policies like Connecting Ireland and BusConnects, we are aiming to achieve more balanced regional development and greater connectivity for all public transport users. BusConnects has already achieved significant success in transforming Dublin's public transport network, notwithstanding the challenges the Deputies have articulated. Recently, research carried out for the NTA by Ipsos B&A showed that four in five customers have expressed satisfaction with the services of BusConnects and 45% believe the bus service has improved. I know we have a journey to travel. The NTA and Department will continue to collaborate with operators and customers to enhance the punctuality and reliability of services throughout the network redesign. I thank the Deputies for raising these matters. I will be happy to take the points they have made. I have taken note of the issues they have raised because it is about the travelling public.

Can we send information on to the Minister of State?

Please do. I encourage the Deputy to do so. If we do not take the experiences of the travelling public on board, then we cannot learn. There are mistakes and gaps. I would be the first to say that. I see it in my city of Cork. I am not living in an ivory tower. I use the bus in Cork. I recognise this when I meet people. Going back to the Deputies' fundamental point, it is crazy, in a world with the technology we have, that an app cannot have correct real-time information for members of the travelling public. That drives people daft. It increases the volume of emails to the Deputies and the levels of anger and frustration. I will bring this back to the Department.