MORE THAN 100 people protested against changes and cutbacks to Dublin Bus services outside the group’s headquarters on O’Connell Street on Saturday afternoon.
“Old people will be stranded,” said Dubliner Lilian Carroll, a senior citizen from Artane.
“They’re proposing one bus every hour . . . by the time it would reach our stop it would be full.”
She added: “It’s ridiculous. They want cars out of the city but they’re not encouraging that by cutting the buses.”
Dublin Bus is undertaking a major restructuring of its services, involving the elimination of some routes and the rerouting of others, as part of its Network Direct project.
Campaigners against the changes have said the cuts will cause unnecessary hardship for the elderly and the less well-off, many of whom depend on the services for getting around.
Joan Clinton from Rialto was among the demonstrators outside Dublin Bus headquarters. She uses the 19 bus route on a regular basis to go into town and to Glasnevin Cemetery.
“What’s great about the 19 is that it takes you directly to Glasnevin Cemetery. Now I’ll have to break the journey by getting two buses and paying double the price as it’s the same fare again for the second bus,” she said.
Campaigners from Dún Laoghaire, Inchicore, Donnycarney, Dundrum, Ballyfermot, Ringsend and Clondalkin voiced their anger, chanting “no ifs, no buts, no to Dublin Bus cuts”.
At one stage the group entered Dublin Bus headquarters, telling worker John Phelan: “You know how to contact us. You have our details. We want Dublin Bus to listen to sense and stop cuts.”
Dublin Bus insists the changes are not intended to cause hardship but to improve and enhance services, and are being implemented in consultation with the public.
However, Mark Lawler, associate professor of oncogenetics at Trinity College Dublin, said a petition of almost 7,500 signatures to preserve the 19 bus route was handed in to Dublin Bus.
“The Save the 19 campaign have indicated on a number of occasions their willingness to discuss with Dublin Bus and the National Transport Authority potential options that will still allow Dublin Bus to move their Network Direct agenda forward, but not in a way that will disadvantage the most vulnerable members of our community – the old, the sick and the young,” he said.
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said people were becoming prisoners in their own homes as a result of the cutbacks.
He said the route changes were an attack on the old, the less well- off and the vulnerable. “They’re taking out routes that go into estates and to outlying areas . . . Dublin Bus are trying to dress this up as streamlining the service but we think this is preparation for privatisation.”
Anne Ryan from Ringsend said: “With the loss of two post offices in Ringsend, a huge number of OAPs use the bus to get into town to go to the post office and get their pensions”.
She added that buses were also becoming the only option for people who did drive because of rising petrol costs, road tax and car insurance.
Another protester, Caroline Duggan from Bray, said: “The Government keep saying they’ve no money but there’s plenty of money being pumped into the banks.
“It’s doesn’t make sense putting money into the banks and cutting public services.”