Privatising Dublin Bus

Sir, - Presumably, Eric Dempsey (December 1st) was out of the country when Mary O'Rourke announced her intention to privatise…

Sir, - Presumably, Eric Dempsey (December 1st) was out of the country when Mary O'Rourke announced her intention to privatise the "tyranny" that is Dublin Bus.

He will, accordingly, be pleasantly surprised when his own service improves over the next few years as the newly franchised private operators withdraw services from less profitable routes to concentrate their fleets on the big-money roads (unless, of course, he happens to live on one of those unprofitable routes).

If the newly privatised companies can also prevail on the Minister to go over to the British system of charging pensioners to travel, that should make all the more room on the buses for Mr Dempsey (unless, of course, he happens to be a pensioner).

Finally, the ridiculous practice in which Dublin Bus has recently engaged of buying only buses with wheelchair access must be ended immediately. Since these beasts are artificially bigger and, consequently, more expensive than ordinary buses, their presence on the roads is creating unreasonable expectations that private operators will continue to buy them after privatisation (unreasonable, that is, unless you happen to be in a wheelchair).

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However, Mr Dempsey should not worry too much. With the "tyranny" of Dublin Bus about to be ended by the "invisible hand" of the market, these problems should solve themselves. - Yours, etc.,

David Smith, Artane, Dublin 5.