Government’s Dublin transport plans must be made clear – O’Brien

Fianna Fáil Spokesperson for Dublin, Darragh O’Brien TD has called for the Government to make clear its transport plans for the Capital following the appointment of Deputy Shane Ross to the position of Minister for Transport and the publication of the programme for government.

“The new programme for government is full of vague intentions and aspirational language about what the government would like to do. In the section of the document which deals with Transport there is a lack of detail and concrete commitments as to what the government will actually do.

“I welcome the continued promise to fund Metro North, complete the Luas Cross City and to increase the provision of wheelchair accessibility in the taxi fleet; but these had already been announced previously. The reality is that there were other large scale infrastructural public transport projects planned for Dublin that were scrapped by the previous Fine Gael-Labour coalition. Projects such as the DART interconnector need to be given consideration again.

“Capacity is a major issue in the city and is getting worse. The Dublin Bus fleet is already struggling at peak times. Minister Ross needs to devise a plan to increase the capacity, frequency and reliability of the Dublin Bus fleet.

“Much progress has been made increasing the numbers of cyclists in Dublin in recent years. The Dublin Bikes scheme has been a great success, but it should be extended to suburbs outside of the city centre, and into other local authority areas like Fingal and South Dublin CoCo.

“Over the weekend it was worrying to hear Minister Ross pitch himself in the role of commentator, rather than as the person responsible for the nation’s public transport infrastructure and strategy.  Dublin needs a proactive attitude to public transport provision and not to embark on a hands-off, laissez-faire approach” concluded Deputy O’Brien.
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