The Dublin Transportation Office's action plan to deal with traffic problems in the capital has fallen below targets, despite an expenditure of £134.5 million over the past three years.
According to the Comptroller and Auditor General's annual report, "it is not possible to determine the extent to which the primary objective of the plan has been achieved" because co-ordination of its various elements "have not been well-managed".
The DTO's Short Term Action Plan aimed to achieve a transfer of 37,000 car commuter trips to public transport. Although both Dublin Bus and Iarnr≤d ╔ireann reported increases in passenger numbers it was "difficult to establish" if they had switched from cars.
By the end of last year, only three of the anticipated 12 Quality Bus Corridors had been implemented. Five more opened in the spring and another this autumn, but the final three "are not yet operational" while the overall cost has more than doubled to £32 million.
Of the original target of 270 new buses, 150 were funded by the Department of Public Enterprise at a capital cost of £27.5 million while CI╔ was expected to absorb the cost of scrapping and replacing an additional 120 buses within its own resources.
The capital cost of suburban rail improvements, estimated at £65.5 million, came in broadly on target, according to the report. But industrial relations difficulties within CI╔ delayed the introduction of improved services on the DART and other lines.
The plan, covering the years 1998-2000, also proposed fiscal measures to reduce off-street commuter parking provision in the city centre by 5 per cent per annum, but there had been "no significant developments in this area that would lead to the desired outcome".
There had also been delays in bringing in a penalty points system and camera surveillance of traffic violations, as well as running Operation Freeflow on all year because it would mean deploying 150 extra garda∅.
The report also notes that, of the £30 million in Exchequer funding to create new orbital routes for traffic seeking to bypass the city centre, only £6.6 million has been spent so far - mainly because of planning delays involving Macken Street Bridge.
"The overarching objective of the plan was to correct the imbalance in commuting patterns. However, the DTO did not focus on the effect of the actions in the plan and there were no significant re-evaluations of the inputs to the plan in the course of its implementation".
Though public transport capacity was increased, "the increases fell short of the targets set", according to the CAG's report. There was also "evidence to suggest that elements of the plan weren't soundly based" and that key measures had not been implemented.
In its response to the report, the DTO said the fact that some of the targets had not been achieved within the short timescale was "secondary to the fact that resources were mobilised and focused to address a growing problem" with "more radical thinking".
It suggested that the CAG had placed an over-emphasis on targets, saying their achievement needed to be viewed against the backdrop of economic growth in the past seven years. In any case, 71 per cent of the targets set out in its plan had been achieved by last April.
