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Updated 8.45am
THE NATIONAL TRANSPORT Authority (NTA) will announce the preferred bidder for 10% of bus services in Dublin this morning.
The 23 routes do not serve the city centre, and instead connect different suburbs in the greater Dublin area.
The process has been ongoing for quite some time, with the NTA first announcing that certain routes would be put out to tender in 2012.
Routes currently operated by Dublin Bus that are included are the 17 (Rialto – Blackrock), 18 (Palmerstown – Sandymount), and the 45a (Dún Laoghaire – Ballywaltrim).
While a commercial business will operate the routes, the NTA will retain the revenue earned while paying the company a fee.
Unions were originally opposed to the plan, with the NBRU and Siptu expressing concerns during the original consultation process.
At the time, Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe told unions that the 10% of routes out to tender would not amount to privatisation.
Donohoe said that Dublin Bus was not being privatised and “will not be over the lifetime of this government”.
He said that the purpose of the tendering was “to secure a better service for bus users at the same cost”.
Dublin Bus consistently has by far the highest number of passenger journeys in the country, with 128 million last year – around triple the journeys on both Bus Éireann and Irish Rail.
The routes that are on the table are:
17 Rialto to Blackrock
17a Blanchardstown Centre to Kilbarrack
18 Palmerstown (Old Lucan Road) to Sandymount
33a Swords to Balbriggan
33b Swords to Portrane
45a Dún Laoghaire (Rail Station) to Ballywaltrim
59 Dún Laoghaire to Mackintosh Park
63 Dún Laoghaire to Kilternan
75 The Square Tallaght to Dun Laoghaire
76 Chapelizod to Tallaght (The Square)
76a Blanchardstown Centre to Tallaght (The Square)
102 Sutton Station to Dublin Airport
104 Clontarf Road (Conquer Hill) to Santry (Shanard Road)
111 Loughlinstown Park to Dún Laoghaire
114 Ticknock to Blackrock Station
161 Dundrum Luas Station to Rockbrook
184 Bray Dart Station to Newtownmountkennedy
185 Bray Dart station to Enniskerry
220 Ballymun to Ladyswell Road
236 Blanchardstown Centre to Damastown
238 Tyrrelstown to Ladyswell Road
239 Blanchardstown Centre to Liffey Valley Shopping Centre
270 Blanchardstown Centre to Dunboyne
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I get the 76 a lot (IT Tallaght to Ballyfermot) and I’m delighted to hear that news. A lot of buses don’t appear or just have late drivers. Transdev publish their very impressive stats for all to see.
@Darren Bates: more racing to the bottom. Low paid staff to cut costs. More families in the breadline. This action by the government doesn’t bring strength to society it hurts society but hey you’ll get a few cents of your fare. Nice. I get this is a toxic EU dictate.
@Danny foley: Dublin Bus divers are over paid and have some ridiculous allowances. They got a pay rise for opening middle doors on the busses while many busses don’t have them now.
All for workers rights but we are talking about a situation where the unions have bullied the government for unreasonable compensation.
@Darren Bates: Transdev publish impressive stats because they run on their own rail. Buses can get stuck in traffic or ironically caught up in luas works.
@Danny foley: Consider moving outside the EU.
@Danny foley: time to break up dublin bus and privatise.
@Kal Ipers: where you got that from about a pay rise for opening middle doors is absolute tripe .. as an ex driver I can gaurantee dats 100% bs
@Claire: You forgot to mention Idiot drivers running red lights and crashing into the tram
@Darren Bates: transdev won’t get it.
@P C: Time to privatise Dublin Bus? Are you having a laugh? Privatisation in public transport has usually not worked well. Either you grant a private operator a monopoly or allow competition on routes. The former solves nothing and the latter results In a focus on profitable routes. Public transport is inherently unprofitable world wide. The usual result of privatisation is a requirement to put the route out to tender every few years. Operators compete on price and the variable price is labour. So wages are pushed to the bottom and the State ends up subsidising the worker through the social welfare system. It’s complete ideological nonsense. Of course privatisation may have its place in public services but it’s not a panacea.
@Kal Ipers: Please back up the claim that Dublin bus drivers got a pay rise for opening middle doors… I must have missed that one.
@Matt Donovan: exactly..he’s talking thru his hole
@Darren Bates: I hope you are still happy when it goes through.
@Fanny Chmelar: It happened 15+ years ago and was part of an overall increase. Driver complained fare dodgers would get on so insisted on compensation. It most certainly did happen but as it was not the only thing being given so you don’t recall why
@psychiatrist: better to leave the EU in my opinion.
@John Hagin Meade: Off you go, then.
@Kal Ipers: 100% correct
@Fanny Chmelar: go way out of that. I remember when the same happened for getting leap ticket machines. Bus Eireann followed Dublin Bus and refused to allow new ticketing machines to be installed until they were compensated for getting an easier job. Saved me a fortune initially coz they had to allow me on for free as they were unable to scan my card but they eventually got a rise and it’s sickening you trying to say it doesn’t happen. You must be getting lessons from Noirin are ye?
Will they be wheelchair accessible?
@Martin Sinnott: they’re not changing the fleet (the NTA buys it and rightly owns it), DB fleet 100% accessible when some scrote doesn’t have a buggy in your spot.
@Martin Sinnott: will they accept old age pension users and people with disabilities all day or just certain times????
@Danny foley: passes
@Danny foley: there will be a charge lets not kid anyone the private operator is into make money he is not doing it for fun
@Darren Bates: you must be a cyclist that has a bad history with DB and wants to see the back of them
@Paul Kearns: Will the stewardesses still have the full range of duty-free available?
@Danny foley: The same as Dublin Bus (which by the way is also a vendor that has put in an offer for these routes).
The routes in questions will simply be operated by another company with the timetable dictated by the NTA, the buses be provided by the NTA (while the operator has to provide the maintenance facility for the buses).
This is not a case like the 500 Swords Express routes which use their own buses. These routes are simply going to be operated by another company than Dublin Bus on behalf of the NTA.
Or giving the conditions of the tender, it might very well be Dublin Bus after all as they might have had the better bid than the only other remaining company (transdev).
Same crappy old buses, same fares just easter european drivers provided by a staffing agency to a company rather than DB drivers.
Welcome to change…
@Danny foley: the operator will have nothing to do with fares, that’s all managed by the NTA. They will pay the operator a fee to run the bus, but the NTA will keep all the fare money that the routes make, and decide what passes are/are not taken
@Darren Bates: Looking at some of the private coach wrecks of transport around Dublin and outside I hope this is not a sign of things to come. DB have a very good range of transport It would be a very unfair playing pitch if the private Companies were to be able to use these wrecks.
@Darren Bates: eh some scrote? I’m a married woman who happens to use a buggy for my young baby! Am I a scrote jeez , not my fault they put wheelchair access and buggy bay in same area, if a wheelchair got on and I’d move of course so not everyone is as you described.
@marian doherty: a few people around my way aren’t so courteous. The bus drivers have had to get involved and fold the buggy up himself
@Danny foley: yes they will
@Darren Bates: nice judgement on mothers with their kids! You sound like a scrot!
@Darren Bates: By scrote you mean a mother with a child?
@Yggr of Asgard:
Why Eastern European drivers?
Where does it say that?
A lot of Dublin Bus drivers were not born in Ireland!
What’s the problem as long a the job gets done and correctly!
All DB drivers get same wages regardless of nationality!
This ain’t Brexitland!
@Darren Bates: That’s probably because the mother has a baby and bags and can’t manage to fold the buggy with baby and bags in her arms!
@Alan Scott: Dublin bus don’t buy the busses they operate they are also supplied by the NTA
Donohoe said that Dublin Bus was not being privatised and “will not be over the lifetime of this government”.
That’s reassuring…. a couple of years at best?
So the NTA are going bring in a mgmt company to run the service, Have they not got the staff to run the operation themselves?
I worked for a company like the one mentioned some years ago they were only in the door after winning the contract and wanted our wages cut, And when they eventually lost the contract they tried to get out of paying us redundancy saying we were employed by the company we did the transport & logistics for and not them.
Good
Slowly but surely another public service is on the way to privatisation.
I use the 102 .which is a brilliant service. Hopefully that wont change
@Deirdre Doherty: I use the 75, and it’s a shocking service. Dublin bus seem today be able to “disappear” buses if they are may run late to keep their stats up. They even run the bus on the route, but take it off rtpi which results in pensioners running after this bus every day when they think it won’t appear. They’ve had their chance, hopefully nta will ensure that whoever gets these routes actually runs them.
@Gulliver Foyle: same with the 17a, I try to avoid it at all costs!!!
No matter who provides the service they still have to drive on the same roads as Dublin Bus staff. At peak times this can be almost impossible unless the road has a bus lane. If a driver is stuck in traffic for a period of time by law he has to take a break after a number of hours and the bus has to be taken out of service.
All these bus-routes are probably highest complaints by customers to NTA???Hence today’s development
Little investment by new company-they’ll get?
1. Free buses
2. Free insurance(state)
3. No road tax
4. Recompensed for all losses
5. Priority access to NTA at all times
6. Fuel allowances
7. Tax breaks
Staff will get?
1. Minimum wage
2.No unions
2.Shafted
All profits straight back to head office in uk?
Sterling work by NTA
I use my Dublin Bus Leap Card Mon-Fri on the 76a and 18 route..Will I still be able to use the card?
And the race to the bottom begins.
Efficiency now means contributing to the pension time bomb and a low pay economy.
Under European law no British company shall be allowed to own a company in the EU once Brexit comes into effect. So they will either have to sell it to an Irish company or do some transfer of ownership. So the NTA need to make clear what the position with the contract and ownership is here !
Ryanair faces the same issues and will have to buy back around 10% of it shares from British investors.
I used to use the 76 route. Agree with previous comments of invisible buses. When they came they were then jammed full of passengers by the time it got to my stop. Bought a car. :)
The 239 from lucan to Blanch is a sham…. Lets see if this crowd is any better. They might even give us our sunday service back
Will they have the same livery and uniforms ?
have your say