Testing of bus lane delayed as commuters stay away

A lorry that broke down outside Donnybrook Garda station and a car that broke down in a bus lane delayed buses on the Stillorgan "quality bus corridor" (QBC) yesterday morning.

While traffic into Dublin was heavier than on previous days, the number of commuters using the Stillorgan Road was not sufficient to test the viability of the QBC, Dublin Bus, Dublin Corporation and the AA agreed yesterday.

Mr Conor Faughnan of the AA said it gave his organisation no pleasure to point to portents of doom, but he claimed the added disruption to private car traffic on the Stillorgan Road yesterday was on target to cause severe delays when late holiday-makers return to work and school.

Mr Joe Collins of Dublin Bus agreed that yesterday was no real test for the bus service.

"Numbers counted at the start of the corridor yesterday morning between 7.03 a.m. and 9.37 a.m. were 1,567, that is about 30 people per bus, and remember, that was only at the start of the corridor, we picked up people all along the way. So things were moving well and we had spare capacity," he said.

He said any lengthening of journey times was small and due to the higher numbers of passengers. Of the 10 extra buses available for deployment on the corridor, three were in service yesterday. The rest are in reserve for the heavy period later this month.

"There is no point in deploying all the buses and having empty ones in the way. The corridor is a small space and motorists might not let buses pull out to pass each other," he said.

"Overall, we have been on time consistently since the QBC was introduced and we are looking forward to the busy time."

Mr Owen Keegan of Dublin Corporation said figures for the additional displacement of private cars due to the bus corridor would not be released for a few days.

Mr Keegan said the rush-hour buses were running well in a general "freeflow situation" to St Stephen's Green. and while He acknowledged that the additional bus lanes had slowed the traffic but he was "confident that overall the lanes will perform very well".

He said it was "still very early and judging results today against testing in mid-August when there is almost freeflow everywhere is unrealistic. It would be better to look at figures for mid-September last year and compare it to mid-September this year."

A spokesman for the Dublin Transport Office said it had only "anecdotal" evidence of its own staff - some of whom drove to work yesterday to test the disruption to motorists.

"And this was pretty good with one getting in to the city centre in 27 minutes. So the displacement wasn't too bad and of course the QBC is working well," he commented.