Madam, – Patrick Falvey of Edinburgh (March 27th) wishes that we had electronic visual signs to indicate bus arrival times.
We already have that facility for Dart services. It meticulously displays a countdown to the train’s arrival time until it reaches “2 Minutes”. Then it stays there, while we wait and wait, until . . . well, until the train arrives. In Ireland, we have learned to be careful what we wish for. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – It was disheartening to read Fintan O’Toole’s article (March 24th) peddling the old argument that buses would be a more effective investment than a proper urban rail system. Perhaps he should examine the statistics.
It has been 10 years since the latest generation of bus lanes was introduced. There were many promises made at the time including integrated ticketing, electronic displays, park and ride facilities and “smart” card systems. None of these has materialised. Of far more significance was the promise that it would result in people leaving the car and using the bus.
The justification for taking road space from the 64 per cent who commute by car and giving it to the 16 per cent who commute by bus was that it would result in a significant shift in the balance of private versus public transport. It was a reasonable argument – unfortunately it never happened. Whereas rail commuting increased slightly as a percentage of commuting, bus usage decreased. Bus lanes have simply failed.
It is hardly surprising that rail transport has been more successful. In other major European cities, the workhorse of public transport is the metropolitan rail system, which is the most efficient way of transporting large numbers of people quickly and reliably into and out of high density areas. Of course a bus system is a necessary secondary adjunct of such a system; but we have put the emphasis the wrong way round, and attempted to make the bus the primary provider of public transport.
The Dart has gone through major upgrades to cope with increased demand (despite its twin handicaps of having half its catchment area in the sea, and being run by Iarnrod Éireann). The Luas has been a phenomenal success. The car parks along Luas and Dart lines are full well before 9am, showing that motorists will enthusiastically leave their cars in the suburbs when a reliable alternative is provided.
Yes, a quality metropolitan rail system takes money, and many years to implement, but we won’t make significant progress on congestion until that is recognised. It is pointless just to implement congestion charges without providing this alternative, as this will only increase taxation.
Dublin Bus has already shown us the folly of giving it more buses, as it deploys them on routes where there are competitors as opposed to putting them where they are needed.
We need to forget the rhetoric, and concentrate on the evidence. We need to build more of what works, and what people will use, and stop wasting money on what has been shown to have failed.
Above all, we need to lose the notion that we can build a quality public transportation system by painting white lines on the road. – Yours, etc,