THE DEPARTMENT of Transport has ordered one of the country’s biggest private bus operators to cease operating a non-stop service between Dublin and Galway because it is unlicensed.
However, Citylink is refusing to stop operating the service, which started earlier this month. The company argues that the service is properly licensed as it is a variation of an existing service on the Dublin-Galway route which is slower because it stops in towns along the way.
The department has asked the Garda to consider prosecuting Citylink over the new service, The Irish Timesunderstands. A meeting this week between department officials and the company failed to resolve the issue.
A department spokeswoman said Citylink was licensed to operate between Galway and Dublin airport but was also operating services that did not comply with the conditions of this licence, in terms of stops en route.
“The department has been in contact with Citylink and instructed them to cease the running of any unlicensed services with immediate effect.”
Citylink’s existing licence came up for renewal before the end of the year, she added.
The department’s intervention follows a complaint by rival coach operators GoBus (trading as Evobus Ltd), which obtained a licence from the department for a non-stop service between Dublin and Galway last August after almost three years of waiting.
The row has provoked a price war on the route, with fares as low as €1 for some online bookings on Citylink coaches.
GoBus boss Jim Burke claims Citylink, which is owned by global transport company Comfort Del Gro, with headquarters in Singapore, is using unfair tactics to drive his family-owned firm out of business.
“Despite several official complaints to the department and the Garda Síochána, this company is continuing to operate and is decimating our business. Over 30 jobs are at risk by the unfair nature of this onslaught against us. We have invested nearly €1.5 million to date and are facing ruin if this company is allowed to carry on.
“Fair competition is healthy and good for the consumer. Unfair competition, in order to wipe out competitors, is bad news for the consumers in the long run, with the return of higher fares and often appalling service when the competition disappears.”
Citylink spokesman Mark Bushell said that while there were grey areas in the law, the company believed its service was operating legally. Another operator, which he declined to name, had operated for up to five months without a licence. Twenty jobs had been created with the new service, he added.
Mr Bushell dismissed GoBus’s characterisation of the dispute as a David versus Goliath struggle.
“We’re not in the business of crushing other companies. In fact, we co-exist with many rival bus companies on other routes.”