The Dublin Commuter Coalition are incredibly concerned about the reduction in expected public transport services over the Christmas period due to the delay of Phase 6a of BusConnects, and the temporary loss of all cross-city DART services.
We are calling on the NTA to honour their commitment to reallocate the Phase 6a resources and provide additional bus services over the Christmas and new year period to cover the loss of DART Services from Grand Canal Dock to Connolly. There are also no DART or rail services planned for St. Stephens Day which is likely to be one of the biggest shopping days of the year, meaning many commuters will need to rely on an inadequate provision of bus services instead.
Track renewal works being carried out by Irish rail will mean that there will be no DART services between Grand Canal Dock and Connolly from the 27th December 2024 to Sunday 5th January 2025 (inclusive), with the exception of January 2nd and 3rd, when the DART will serve Pearse Street station. Therefore It is absolutely essential that the South Side spine routes; 46a/145/7 and C Spine routes: C1/C2/C3 run on an increased service to accommodate the displaced commuters from the DART.
The festive period are some of the biggest weeks of the year for retailers, publicans and the night time economy and we must support them by providing the appropriate safe transportation options to meet demand.
The NTA and Dublin bus have announced that there will be some additional nitelink and 24 hours services but there needs to be additional services to address the lost capacity from the Rail line closure between Connolly and Grand Canal.
Jason Cullen; Chairperson of the Dublin Commuter Coalition said:
“It is extremely frustrating that commuters are yet again left with inadequate public transport services over the busy Christmas period, especially when so many people will have made plans expecting Phase 6a to be in place to get them home.
Commuters on the South of the City will be particularly impacted over Christmas, as they will have no DART access to the City Centre. Phase 6a was supposed to provide the 24 hour E-spine service from Bray and Dun Laoghaire, two communities that will now be forced to rely on expensive Taxi’s for their late night journeys.
It is essential that the NTA honour their commitment to the Commuters of Dublin, by relocating the resources from Phase 6a and increase the frequency of the following services: 46a, 46e, 63, 63a, 84, 84a, 84x, 143, 144, 145, 155, 184 and 185.”
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