Madam, - Thank goodness for Fintan O'Toole, whose article on public transport in your edition of July 1st was a rock of common sense. For make no mistake, deregulation will be an unmitigated disaster
For proof, one has only to look at the previous Wednesday's paper, June 25th, where a Mr Declan O'Farrell, of Metroline, a private bus company, was interviewed. Metroline runs the Aerdart services between Howth Junction and Dublin Airport. It also provides a connection from Galway to Dublin Airport, and has recently started another route between that city and Shannon Airport. A common thread is running through here - did you spot it yet?
Let's take a look at the other private operators. Last Passive, better known as Aircoach, operates various routes between the city centre and Dublin Airport. The final private player in the field, Dualway, concentrates on hugely profitable city tour franchises in Dublin, Galway and Kilkenny.
Yes, all of the private operators are in the business of either collecting or delivering tourists from or to the various state airports, or bringing them on overpriced heritage trails. Any services which do not show a fat profit are axed, as happened recently with both Aircoach and Dualway.
I know it's difficult to understand when you are waiting, in the rain, for your ordinary bus to arrive to bring you home after a day's hard slog at the office, to realise that Dublin Bus is, in fact, a service-oriented industry, as opposed to a profit-driven one, as in the examples above. But it's true; and, as Mr O'Toole stated, there is a discernable relationship between the timetable and the arrival of a bus, given the constraints of modern traffic. The Dublin Bus timetable is emphatically not, as some people have suggested, the greatest Irish work of fiction since Maeve Binchy!
So, what will happen if Seamus Brennan presses ahead with his ill-advised plans to privatise public transport? Obviously, it remains to be seen if the Irish experiment will be much different from the Thatcherite disaster that happened across the water, but the scenario, I suspect, will be similar. Dublin Bus, having lost its subsidy, would have to become more profit-oriented, and it is a virtual certainty that under-used routes, or far-flung places or disadvantaged areas, will no longer continue at their present frequency, if at all. One thing is indisputable: if they do continue, fares will not remain static - not by a long chalk. And will the private operators step in to provide an "ordinary" service wherever needed? Judging by the examples given above, I would say, using present-day vernacular, that there are two chances of this happening.
I will close by quoting the remark of a friend of mine, who now lives in London, upon hearing that the private operator, Connex (who, incidentally, recently lost its British train franchise through perceived incompetence) was going to run the Luas system here in Dublin. "Well, I can say one good thing about Connex - even if you're dead late for your train, you'll still catch it." Mr Brennan, please take note! - Yours, etc.,
D.K. HENDERSON, Castle Avenue, Dublin 3.