PDs' plan for transport includes taxi deregulation

Deregulation of taxis and the introduction of competition for Dublin Bus are the main features of a transport plan for the capital announced yesterday by the Progressive Democrats.

The proposals include the establishment of a regional transport authority to regulate all aspects of transport in the greater Dublin area, including private-sector tendering for city bus routes.

In return for their co-operation with restructuring, Dublin Bus staff would be given a "free stake" in the company; while in the case of taxis, "appropriate compensation" would be paid. Introducing the plan, Senator Helen Keogh called it "radical, but also realistic" and said it was designed to meet a situation in which traffic delays were "affecting the quality of all our lives".

Asked why the party was publishing policy documents when it was already in Government, she said the PDs were a separate entity and entitled to bring forward their ideas. She rejected a suggestion that the plan was an implied criticism of the Minister for Public Enterprise.

The plan would minimise the building of new roads in Dublin but would upgrade the M50, with three lanes along its length, filter lanes at all major junctions and electronic tolling. The development of the port access tunnel would also be speeded up, being made a public-private partnership project.

The PDs propose adding 26 two-car units to the DART to cater for the Malahide and Greystones extensions and ease peak-time overcrowding. A "fast and reliable" commuter rail service for towns within a 50-mile radius of Dublin would also be established.

The party would deregulate entry to the taxi market, making licences available to all qualified drivers with suitable vehicles. The transport authority would issue plates, as well as regulate fares and standards.

A party councillor, Mr Alan Robinson, acknowledged that compensation would have to be paid to those who had invested as much as £70,000 in plates which would lose their value in a deregulated market.