Dublin Bus Cuts

People waiting for the bus on Aungier Street

The Dublin Bus Network Direct project came into effect this month with many passengers bemoaning the state body’s “restructuring plan”.

Dublin Bus are attempting to streamline its services with this project, slashing the number of buses for some routes by up to a third.  One of the biggest changes in Dublin Bus’s timetable is the removal of the Number 10 bus which serviced the Phoenix Park to UCD route in and around every 5 to 10 minutes. For the same kind of journey, commuters will now be forced to take either the 46A or the 39A.

This is not the first time passengers across the city have been inconvenienced. At the start of 2009 over 120 buses were taken off the roads due to a 31 million euro cutback within CIE. This meant that over 1000 journeys that were supposed to take place that month never occurred. Dublin Bus’s answer to the even more savage cuts of this year was that “some routes will be combined to simplify the network and to allow for more frequent services on these combined routes.”

However, things could have been a whole lot worse for residents in the city centre who have seen many services retained although slightly trimmed down in terms of service. This is in stark contrast to passengers from North Wicklow who now must take at least two buses if they wish to travel from places such as Kilcoole or Newcastle to the
city centre.

Dublin Bus is now also in the process of increasing the price of prepaid smart cards. This is shaving the already thin savings that commuters make by purchasing their weekly tickets.

In April of this year Dublin Bus made the announcement that the removal of a further 90 buses “would not have any impact” on the customers.  Amy Walsh, from Bray, disagrees. “I live in the northern part of Bray so it (the cutbacks) really put me out. Sometimes I’d have to take 4 buses a day to get in and out of college. They (Dublin Bus) don’t
realise the stress they’re putting on me in my final year.”