Dublin Bus denies unauthorised services

Dublin Bus has denied allegations it ran services that were not authorised by the Government, saying it was satisfied it was "fully compliant with the Department of Transport service authorisations".

Reports on RTÉ this morning claimed that the Department of Transport conducted research that found that the State-owned bus company had increased its services on morning routes from Lucan and Celbridge, which did not comply with its timetables.

A Freedom of Information request uncovered communications between the Department and Dublin Bus, in which the department said the firm was operating unauthorised services.

However, Dublin Bus has rejected the allegations.

"Service levels on the [Lucan Quality Bus] corridor increased in the period between 1995 and 1997, at the time of the introduction of the QBC in 1996, when the daily volume of bus trips increased by 51 per cent. Since then there has been no significant development in terms of frequency or capacity on Dublin Bus routes to Lucan or Celbridge," it said in a statement.

The company said it added three morning departures on the 25x route from Adamstown, which operates through Lucan to the city centre in September 2006, but said it was done with the authorisation of the Department of Transport.

"However, the DoT stated that three auxiliary services from Lucan should be withdrawn in order to maintain the same number of buses operating from the Lucan/Adamstown area," it said.

Dublin Bus said the allegation that it doubled its services on the route is "totally untrue", and said it operated a total of 217 inbound and 193 outbound departures on the Lucan corridor each week day, which it claims were all fully authorised.

Private bus operator Circle Line began running services on the Celbridge and Lucan routes to the city centre in 2002. It went into liquidation in June, with the loss of 20 jobs and taking 22 vehicles off the road.

Operator Paul Morton has claimed Dublin Bus engaged in unfair competition and "flooded" the routes with buses. He said a number of complaints were made to the Department of Transport about extra buses on the routes, which were investigated and found to be true, but that nothing was done about it.

"They were allowed to do this. If your boss tells you you are not to do soemthing and you keep doing it, who is in the wrong?" he said. He claimed that 90 per cent of the vehicles that Dublin Bus operated on the routes were empty, "but they were making sure mine were empty too".

The Department of Transport said the new Dublin Transport Authority Bill, published just before the Dáil summer recess, will address some of the issues raised by RTÉ.

"The next step in the reform process will be the replacement of the current 1932 Public Transport Regulation bill. The replacement of this bill is the top legislative priority for the Minister for Transport. This new bill is currently being drafted and it will address the issues raised by Morning Irelandthis morning," it said in a statement.

Fine Gael's transport spokesman, Fergus O'Dowd, accused the Government and Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey of losing "all control" over Dublin Bus operations. He called for a Competition Authority investigation into the company's activities and suggested that the subsidy paid to Dublin Bus should be immediately reviewed.

"This year Dublin Bus received approximately €80 million in taxpayers' money to help it run its services. This money was never intended to help Dublin Bus push out competitors," he said.

"At the end of the day there are less buses on the road because of the actions of Dublin Bus. This will only harm commuters and add to the chronic public transport problems in Dublin.”