A NEW NATIONAL transport agency is to be established this year tasked with managing congestion and regulating bus, Luas and rail services.
According to the Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey, this agency will be able to co-ordinate traffic management in a way that existing agencies cannot. “In Dublin you have the city council, the CIÉ companies, the RPA, this department and other local authorities. They are all pulling against each other, operating different statistics or models,” he said.
Legislation providing for a Dublin Transport Authority (DTA) was passed last year, but the Minister now says he wants to expand this agency into a national transport regulator.
This agency “will subsume the DTA, the taxi regulator and the Dublin Transport Office so you will have all of the national transport functions in one place”, Mr Dempsey said.
Such an agency is considered essential, given the scale of proposed transport projects, such as the Metro and Luas expansion schemes, which are likely to result in severe restrictions in access for private cars into Dublin city centre. Mr Dempsey said the current process is just “too disjointed” for transport projects of this scale.
He admits another reason a new agency is required is failure of the Department of Transport to adequately co-ordinate transport policy due to a lack of expertise and a history of political interference.
“We [the Department] have all the powers that we want but we haven’t the expertise and we haven’t the resources,” he said.
“Dublin Bus would tell you that a lot of the reason there are inefficiencies in their network is that every time they try to change a route or take a bus off a route they are lifted out of it by the political system.
“Departments and ministerial offices tend to be more susceptible to political influence in the broadest sense and to the pressures. I am sure that down through the years politicians of all hues would have interfered with the running of CIÉ or bus routes.” An independent agency should be able to take a “more objective view” when making policy decisions, he said.
One decision-making tool the new agency will have is a Department-commissioned report into bus services from consultants Deloitte. A draft of this study has found inefficiencies in the Dublin Bus network, including duplication on certain routes. Other problems include unfinished quality bus corridors and multiple buses sharing arterial routes out of the city, adding to traffic congestion.
While these inefficiencies remain, extra buses are unlikely to result in a rise in passenger numbers, the report notes. While the number of buses has increased in recent years, passenger numbers fell by 5 per cent in 2008.
Deloitte also identified a number of “pinch points” or areas of congestion. The Minister has told councils and transport officials he wants these removed by the end of 2010.
Most of the 43 congestion points are in the city centre and a ban on private vehicles from roads around Trinity College is expected to remove about a quarter of them.
The new authority has been given teeth for its dealings with public transport companies because it will disperse funding to the CIÉ group and RPA.
Crucially, it will have the power to intervene when it believes a company is underperforming, including taking a direct management role if it believes the operator is unable or unwilling to operate as directed.
“The authority can say ‘you are making a mess of this, we are taking over the running of it’. [The authority] can either run it themselves or get someone else to do it.”
With the exception of the chief executive, who is to be appointed through a public appointments process, all other members of the authority will be ministerial appointees. Mr Dempsey says all authority members must have professional expertise in planning and transport policy.
One criticism of the DTA during Oireachtas debates on its legislation that rankled with the Minister was its description as a “HSE on wheels”. He refutes this and points out that the chief executive of the authority will appear before the Oireachtas committees while the Department’s secretary general will be accountable to the Public Accounts Committee for all spending. “That is the fundamental difference to the HSE – there is political accountability.”
Central to the Minister’s view of public transport is that it cannot be run on an exclusively commercial basis. “There are services in parts of the country that no sane person would go into commercially but the political system needs to be able to say it is good social policy and we will pay [an operator] for that.”
The new authority’s position will be further strengthened by the reform of the Bus Licensing Act 1932. Mr Dempsey notes this legislation was designed to “protect the railways. Here we are operating over 60 years later with it”.
New bus licencing legislation should allow the authority to deal with issues such as the liquidation of a private bus company serving Lucan in Co Dublin and Celbridge in Co Kildare in the middle of 2008 amid allegations Dublin Bus had saturated the routes with its buses, making them uneconomical for the private operator.
Under new legislation, the system of awarding licences, the imposition of penalties and enforcement will all change.
“At the moment, the only companies that can get a State subvention for a public service obligation are the CIÉ group. . . That has to change,” he said. At the moment, Dublin Bus gets a subvention equal to approximately €100,000 per bus.
The search for a chief executive will start early this year and the Authority is to be formally established by mid-2009. Up to 50 staff from agencies will transfer to the new authority, with Mr Dempsey saying the final size of the organisation could rise to around 100 staff.
It has a budget of around €5 million for 2009, but final running costs will not be clear until it is fully staffed. While the Department of Finance has examined the proliferation of semi-State agencies, Mr Dempsey said there has been nothing but support for the new Authority, and that it is seen within Government as crucial.
While the Minister no doubt hopes the authority will improve strategic planning and the efficiency of transport providers, from a consumer point of view, its success will be determined by how it deals with intractable problems such as traffic congestion and connecting chronically disjointed public transport systems.
Principal functions
Prepare long-term (15 to 20 year) transportation strategy for Greater Dublin Area
Adopt medium-term traffic management plan
Promote integrated public transport network, implement integrated ticketing, fares and information schemes, regulate fares and encourage increased public transport use
Ensure transport agencies act in a way that is consistent with the Authority’s strategy
Allocate Exchequer funds to transport agencies
Carry out remedial works where it considers it more expeditious, effective or economical to do so