More PD/FF Bickering over the busses

[colmoc]

First blood will be drawn in the row over buses

THE first major flashpoint between the new PD leader Michael McDowell and Fianna Fail is set to come over reform of the bus market.
The long-running bus saga presents an ideal chance for the Progressive Democrats' new leader to assert his authority.
The PDs want to see substantial privatisation and competition on bus routes but Fianna Fail is less enthusiastic about this approach.
Transport Minister Martin Cullen is due to bring proposals for the provision of extra buses and the reform of the market in the coming weeks.
But these plans will be a watering down of a previous Government policy.
When Seamus Brennan was Transport Minister, he brought forward proposals to open up 25pc of routes to competition and this plan was agreed to by both FF and the PDs. But since Mr Cullen took over, these proposed reforms have not gone any further.
The compromise is expected to be the introduction of an independent regulator for the market.
Yesterday, Mr McDowell reiterated the PDs' commitment to its promise on reforms of the bus market.
"The Progressive Democrats strongly support the clear statement in the Programme for Government that there will be reform of the road transport service. We are determined that State-owned enterprises and private enterprise will have a role to play in delivering that vital service to the Irish people," he said.
"These matters will come before Government and I have no doubt it remains the Government's commitment to deliver on what's in the Programme for Government."
Priority
The reform of the bus market was a key priority in the PDs manifesto in the 2002 general election and it was also included in the Programme for Government with Fianna Fail.
Mary Harney threatened to pull her party out of Government with Fianna Fail two and a half years ago if the coalition failed to liberalise bus routes.
Fionnan Sheahan and Gene McKenna

www.unison.ie

[Colm Donoghue]

Why don't the PD's try get Cork's bus system reformed.
By all accounts (stories here/boards.ie/Relations in Cork/Living there for half a year) the service is desperately bad.
PD's aren't gonna loose any seats by stiring it up there.

Maybe ALeK is closer to the point than I thought and there is shennanigans with the pd's

(edited to spell closer properly)

[al2637]

Why not just set up the DTA ASAP and have it subcontract the running of bus services to the various companies????

Wouldn't this keep everyone happy? (apart from DB)

[alek smart]

One of the less apparent results from embracing the PD Public Transport policy will be a VERY substantial increase in fare levels.

This increase will be swift (a la Electricity/Gas) and will contribute immediately to a serious shift in our Inflation baseline.

As an example we can take the London Model,which appears to be finding much favour amongst PD`ite political people at the moment.
Transport for London (TfL) has just announced its 2007 tarriff structure and boy are the pigeons flocking home to roost.
On Bus Cash Fare up from £1.50 to £2.00.
Travelcards up by Retail Price Index + 2% ( A new Wheeze This)
Oystercard offpeak cash bus fare up from 80p to £1.00 (A REAL surprise here)

NB: NOTE FIGURES IN STERLING !!

http://www.london.gov.uk/view_press_...releaseid=9169

Even Londons top Transport Tsar (A real one too) TfL`s Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy has continually warned other cities AGAINST attempting to emulate London`s success UNLESS they were prepared to fully fund any such system.

Let there be NO doubt but that in This Republic our administrators are NOT prepared to come anywhere near funding such innovation.

Now lets see....when IS that oul election...?

[al2637]

In fairness, the only Oyster fare to go up was the off-peak bus fare.

Peter Hendy was on the news last night explaining the increase was to encourage people to use Oyster (not something I totally agtee with).

Cash Tube fares are rising 33% from £3 to £4 :-o. The Oyster fare is not increasing.

I don't see why exactly fares would need to go up here tho... If the government subvention didn't decrease surley the worst that could happen would be for DB to bid for all existing services at the existing amount? Best case scenario would be other operators being able to offer cheaper services and thus saving DTA money!

Seems simple to me, or have I got something very wrong?

[MrX]

The reality of the Cork Bus "Service" is that it basically doesn't function as a public transport system at all. It's so inadequate that areas like Carriagaline, have some of the highest levels of car-based commuting in Western Europe.

Douglas to the City Centre took me 2 hours this morning due to endless traffic, it's getting progressively far worse as the Rochestown area gets more heavily developed.

That's 2 hours to cover about 4 KM btw!!

None of Rochestown is served by regular bus services, despite its proximity to the city centre and its population. It's still treated as a "country route" as it was in 1950.

I would without any hesitation say that Cork has the worst public transport I have ever experienced in any city. It's just dire.

It's also been so bad for so long that I don't think people even notice anymore.