New transport Bill announced

A new Public Transport Bill to end the 77-year-old "outmoded and inadequate regime" for licensing public transport routes has been announced by Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey.

The Bill transfers route licensing from the Department of Transport to the proposed National Transport Authority (NTA). It also sets targets for bus service operators in receipt of State aid, aimed at measuring efficiency and the transparency of management decisions.

This Bill will also provide that the Commission for Taxi Regulation will be subsumed into the NTA.

Under the terms of the Bill Dublin Bus will, at least for now, get to keep all its existing routes. Competition will only be introduced on new routes or as licenses for existing routes come up for renewal.

For the first time non-State companies will be able to bid for routes which carry a State subvention, as in future all such routes will be put out to tender.

However the Coach Tourism and Transport Council (CTTC) which represents private bus and coach owners described the entire Dublin Bus operation as a "subvented service". A spokesman said the Bill appeared to leave all existing Dublin Bus routes with the company, "which is hardly a level playing field".

"CTTC currently has more than three times the number of buses in Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann combined, we only want to get in and do the job at no cost to the taxpayer" he said.

The new Bill was welcomed by Dublin Chamber which said "it puts bus passenger's needs at the centre of bus route licensing,

The Bill which transforms the Dublin Transport Authority into the National Transport Authority was particularly important as "buses are the workhorses of the transport network in Dublin," said Gina Quin, Dublin Chamber chief executive.

"This will continue to be the case until the full Transport 21 programme has been delivered - including Metro North, the Dart Underground and Luas extensions. This Bill is a piece of good news for Dublin commuters, as it prioritises the needs of the bus passenger when issuing licences for bus routes," she said.