Driver shortage may stall BusConnects College Green re-routing

The National Transport Authority (NTA) has cast doubt on plans to accelerate the removal of buses from Dublin’s College Green.

Dublin City Council intends to seek a design team for the long-awaited civic plaza at College Green and Dame Street in the coming weeks, in advance of a fresh application to An Bord Pleanála next year, with work expected to begin in 2024.

However, an earlier reduction of traffic from College Green, from next year, has been sought by Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan as one of 35 “pathfinder” sustainable mobility projects.

Cars have already effectively been removed from the area through the “bus gate”, which restricts traffic from 7am to 7pm on weekdays through College Green to public transport only. Council chief executive Owen Keegan told councillors the short-term reduction of traffic in College Green would be achieved by “capturing” the benefits of the BusConnects project which would reroute buses from the area.

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“We intend to appropriate more of the road space and allocate it over to public space and pedestrian space,” he said.

The BusConnects routes, which would divert buses from College Green and Dame Street, are due to be introduced on a phased basis from mid-2023 to mid-2024.

Following Mr Keegan’s briefing, councillors approved a motion from the Green Party’s Claire Byrne to ask the NTA to expedite the elements of BusConnects that relate to College Green.

In reply, NTA deputy chief executive Hugh Creegan said the NTA was facing “significant challenges” due to a shortage of bus drivers.

‘Major difficulties’

“All bus operators are having major difficulties in recruiting sufficient drivers at present and this is impacting both the operation of the existing bus routes and the introduction of new routes,” he wrote.

The NTA would work closely with the council to advance the College Green elements at the “earliest feasible date”, Mr Creegan said, “but can only do this in a planned, managed manner and subject to the availability of sufficient driver resources.”

‘I understand the problems with the recruitment of bus drivers, but what I found most disappointing is the lack of urgency to progress the design aspects’

Cllr Byrne said she was “very disappointed” with the NTA’s response.

“I understand the problems with the recruitment of bus drivers, but what I found most disappointing is the lack of urgency to progress the design aspects,” she said. “Bus drivers are not road engineers. The design aspects need to be dealt with to make sure everything is ready to go, and then worry about the bus drivers at a later stage,” she said.

“The NTA needs to step up, they should be doing everything they can to look at their current priority list and move this high up the list. I will be asking that we write to them again and ask for more clarity on their plans to accelerate this – Dublin City Council has been very clear on its timelines, the NTA has not.”

Fine Gael councillor James Geoghegan said there would be no point in having an interim scheme unless the rerouting of buses began in the first quarter of next year.

“Without the network redesign being in place in College Green very, very quickly, the interim scheme is pie in the sky; we might as well just wait for the full plaza scheme,” he said. “However, the lack of commitment from the NTA doesn’t bode well for the full scheme.”