'No plans' for Dublin Bus or Irish Rail cuts

BUS ÉIREANN yesterday reaffirmed its commitment to making “service changes” this year, but the two other CIÉ companies, Iarnród Éireann and Dublin Bus, insisted they had no plans to introduce cuts.

Bus Éireann said it was awaiting the outcome of a union ballot on Labour Court recommendations on reductions in services.

“We had a 10 per cent fall in numbers in 2009 and are facing significant financial losses,” said a company spokesman, who added that “we will have to implement service changes shortly”.

The company was conducting a review of routes with “poor levels of customer support”.

A spokeswoman for Dublin Bus said the situation there was different. Service cuts had been implemented in 2009 she said, and while “the company is undertaking a network review, which may change the face of the network, there is nothing in it about cuts”.

Iarnród Éireann spokesman Barry Kenny also said the company had completed “service alterations” last year and added that “we have no plans at this stage to reduce services”.

Mr Kenny said Iarnród Éireann was in a different position to the bus companies “in that we can reduce the number of carriages, so we can make savings while still maintaining services and frequency”.

Mr Kenny said last month the number of Dart services was reduced from 163 trains a day to 156. One train a day from Dublin to Cork was taken out of the timetable. But he said additional trains were put on the Waterford, Galway and Westport lines. Mr Kenny said cost efficiencies were being made elsewhere in the company.

Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey made a cut of €27 million in the overall budget for CIÉ this year. The Minister said he would not be prepared to sanction an increase in fares, indicating the shortfall should be made up in efficiencies identified by the State transport companies.

The number of passenger journeys on the three companies’ services was 209.3 million last year, down from 235 million in 2008.