Dublin Bus to expand NiteLink over Christmas

Dublin Bus is to expand the NiteLink service to help ease the public transport shortage during the Christmas period, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, is expected to tell the Dail today.

The expanded service will feature more buses and more routes than last year and will travel into and around suburban estates, rather than terminate on main roads. A Dublin Bus spokesman said the service would operate seven nights a week and would leave the city centre every 20 minutes. In another change to previous years the buses will be stopping to pick up passengers en route.

The NiteLink service will begin at 12.30 a.m., with the last buses leaving the city centre at 4.30 a.m. Among the new routes are links to Ashbourne in Co Meath, a route to Tallaght and a route via Sandyford to Stillorgan.

The service will begin on November 30th and continue until January 6th, with the exception of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve. Advertisements will be placed in daily newspapers over the coming weeks giving details of the service. The announcement follows a report in The Irish Times yesterday showing that many young people were left with no option but to walk home from the city centre to the suburbs in the early hours because of a shortage of taxis. This has raised concerns for their safety.

Public transport is likely to be discussed by the Cabinet this morning when Ministers discuss a Fine Gael private member's motion criticising the "dismal efforts" of the Government in implementing a reliable public transport system. The Fine Gael spokeswoman on traffic, Ms Olivia Mitchell, said the "apparent inability of the Government to run a taxi service must raises questions about its competence".