Partial victory for Northside in bus row

Local residents and political representatives secured a victory this week in their battle to improve bus services.

In the December 3 edition of Northside People, the lead story explored how residents from Ballymun and Finglas, along with local TDs and councillors, expressed frustration with bus services in the area.

On December 4, the National Transport Authority announced revisions of the 23 and 24 bus routes, with the NTA saying the changes came about as a result of “reliability issues and feedback from passengers and local representatives.”

The NTA said, “we value feedback from customers and local representatives, and these changes demonstrate our ongoing commitment to enhancing services in direct response to that input.”

The NTA acknowledged that the F Spine and the 23 and 24 routes have had “persistent” issues with reliability, with the NTA saying that traffic congestion and changes to city centre traffic plans were the main cause of the issues.

Driver shortages at Dublin Bus were also cited as a cause of the poor bus services on the Northside.

“While driver recruitment and timetable adjustments are expected to improve performance after Christmas, congestion remains the key issue,” they said.

At present, the 23 and 24 route operates via Bridge Street, High Street and Christchurch, areas which the NTA cited as having “heavy and unpredictable traffic and limited priority for buses.”

They explained that as a result of erratic and unpredictable traffic issues in the city centre, it has a knock-on effect for commuters in Ballymun and Finglas.

To alleviate the issues, the NTA has proposed changing the routes along the Quays, crossing the Liffey at O’Connell Bridge or Rosie Hackett Bridge, continuing around Trinity and continuing to the current terminus at Merrion Square.

The NTA said that the new route change would come into effect in the first quarter of 2026.

Local elected reps welcomed the partial victory, but said that issues still persist.

On Thursday (December 4), local elected representatives met with the NTA in Smithfield to communicate their issues with the system and passed on feedback from constituents.

Local Fianna Fáil TD Paul McAuliffe, who attended the meeting with Fianna Fáil councillor Keith Connolly, said, “there is some good news here, but we also need to keep the pressure on the NTA and Dublin Bus.”

McAuliffe dubbed the rollout of the BusConnects programme “disastrous” and was glad to see elected representatives from both government and opposition parties work together to apply pressure to the NTA.

Per McAuliffe, the NTA admitted there was a “huge problem” with the buses at present and was actively working towards solving the issue.

He explained that the changes to the routes will remain “under review” and that the NTA was at the mercy of changes to city centre traffic plans.

Speaking in the Dáil in November, McAuliffe said fixing bus services was “basic stuff” and that constituents were late to work and missing connections because of the poor bus services in the area.

“At the very least, if Dublin Bus and the NTA are going to implement new services, the frequency should be appropriate to the demand. There should not be an extensive number of people at bus stops. There should not be limited space on a bus early in the route, and there should not be missing buses. A very basic provision of services is needed,” he said in the Dáil.

Councillor Connolly said that the meeting was “only the start” of solving the issues in the area, and that “more work needs to be done” to give his Ballymun/Finglas constituents a functioning public transport service.

Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne said that the changes were welcome, but do not go far enough.

The Dublin-North West TD said that Finglas and Glasnevin have “very high dependency and usage of public bus services as there are no other forms of public transport, such as the Luas or DART.”

Indeed, there was no mention of funding for the Finglas Luas line in the Department of Transport’s spending plan last week, meaning that while a Luas line to Finglas is in the works, there is no firm commitment from the government in terms of funding.

This, to Hearne, underpins why bus services in the area should be improved.

Per Hearne, the local elected reps were told that there has been a 5% increase in general traffic congestion levels in Dublin over the last year, along with a 5% increase in the average travel times.

As pandemic-era work-from-home rules are gradually being eroded and a full return to the office has been mandated by major Dublin employers, it has correlated with a return to the pre-pandemic traffic issues which plagued Dublin, with little to no work done to improve Dublin’s transport infrastructure in the interim.

Hearne said that a protest by Glasnevin Bus Action Group will take place outside the Dáil on Tuesday, December 16, and a similar protest will take place in Finglas Village on the morning of December 15. 

“Making public transport work for communities and the public is a key policy priority for the Social Democrats,” he said.

People Before Profit councillor Conor Reddy said the changes to the bus services are “the direct result of organised community pressure.”

“Over the last few months I led a petition campaign, hosted a public meeting in the Shamrock Lodge and collected several hundred passenger complaints which we handed to the NTA at a protest only a couple of weeks ago. The message is simple. When the community stands up, things move. When we stop, things stall. We are fighting for a basic, reliable bus service and we won’t be letting up now.”

Reddy expressed disappointment that the 19 route will not be able to terminate at Merrion Square, a key demand of local residents.

The 19 route formerly terminated at Merrion Square before continuing on to the Northside, a move which became an issue in last year’s general election in both Dublin Central and Dublin North-West. Despite Wadelai Hillcrest District Residents Association securing a commitment to keep the Merrion Square terminus, the meeting on December 4 failed to get it restored.

“The failure to honour this commitment remains unacceptable and will continue to be challenged,” Reddy said.

The campaign for a reliable, frequent and connected public transport system for Finglas and Glasnevin is far from over,” he added.